When was sts 135

List of proposals selected for flight are posted on this website. Last update of this page: June 8, pm EDT. Student teams with experiments selected for flight can continue to refine their experiments until June 21, but any modification to their list of samples is limited to varying the concentrations, more specifically, lowering of concentrations, and not addition of new sample materials.

June student teams can no longer change concentrations associated with their Experiment Samples. No shipments will be accepted before this time. ITA requires that all Experiment Samples for the student flight experiments arrive at the payload processing facility BY Launch minus 7 days, unless they are time-sensitive samples, e. The request for late loading is submitted by a student team using the Flight Experiment Samples Submission Form.

Representative s of the student team can travel to Kennedy Space Center to watch the integration, and can hand-carry their samples if time-sensitive.

July 8 Date of Launch : flight of Atlantis begins. On Landing Launch plus 12 Days : representatives of the student team have the ability to receive the harvested samples at the Kennedy Space Center. Students can watch the samples being harvested on a monitor in a conference room next to the payload processing area. It is reasonable to expect that all MDA samples will be harvested within 24 hours of the payload being turned over to ITA less than 30 hours after shuttle landing.

Depending on the student science to be performed, it may be possible to harvest in 12 to 18 hours after the payload is turned over to ITA, however, the commercial and scientific communities will have harvest priority.

Raffaello includes components that provide life support, fire detection and suppression, electrical distribution and computers when it is attached to the station. The cylindrical logistics module acts as a pressurized "moving van" for the Space Station, carrying cargo, experiments and supplies for delivery to support the six-person crew on board the station. Each MPLM module is 21 feet 6. There are no system or express racks flying up on this MPLM.

Located behind Raffaello in the space shuttle payload bay is the Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier LMC , a non-deployable cross-bay carrier providing launch and landing transportation.

The LMC is a light-weight shuttle stowage platform that only weighs pounds kg. The launch weight of the LMC is 2, pounds 1, kg and the return weight with the pump module will be 3, pounds 1, kg.

GSFC and ATK have provided the sustaining engineering support for all the LMC missions, including carrier management, refurbishment, analysis, documentation and safety. During descent, the LMC will be carrying an ammonia pump that will be analyzed to determine its cause for failure. Additional modifications had to be made to accommodate the Pump Module Assembly PMA which included removing the aft winch, the wireless video antenna, and all handrails in the aft bulkhead of the space shuttle cargo bay.

This will be first time that a pump module has been carried on an LMC. NASA 's Robotic Refueling Mission RRM is an external International Space Station experiment designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies and techniques needed to robotically refuel and repair satellites in space, especially satellites that were not designed to be serviced. It is expected to reduce risks and lay the foundation for future robotic servicing missions. RRM also marks the first use of Dextre beyond the planned maintenance of the space station for technology research and development.

The ELC will provide command, telemetry and power support for the experiment. Hubert, Quebec. Once the RRM module is securely mounted to the space station's ELC -4 platform, mission controllers will direct the Dextre robot, the space station's Canadian, twin-armed "handyman", to retrieve RRM tools from the module and perform a full set of refueling tasks. Dextre will use the RRM tools to cut and manipulate protective blankets and wires, unscrew caps and access valves, transfer fluid, and leave a new fuel cap in place.

At one stage of the mission, Dextre will use RRM tools to open up a fuel valve, similar to those commonly used on satellites today, and transfer liquid ethanol across a robotically mated interface via a sophisticated robotic fueling hose.

Each task will be performed using the components and activity boards contained within and covering the exterior of the RRM module. The experiment will also demonstrate general space robotic repair and servicing operations.

Completing the demonstration will validate the tool designs complemented with cameras , the fuel pumping system, and robotic task planning, all of which will be used during the design of a potential future refueling spacecraft.

The station has two independent cooling loops. The external loops use an ammonia-based coolant and the internal loops use a water-based coolant. At the heart of the ATCS is the Pump Module, which provides circulation, loop pressurization, and temperature control of the ammonia. The PM pumps the ammonia through the external system to provide cooling. Heat is generated by the electronic boxes throughout the station and eventually rejected into space via the radiators.

The accumulator within the PM works in concert with the Ammonia Tank Assembly ATA accumulators to compensate for expansion and contraction of ammonia caused by the temperature changes and keeps the ammonia in the liquid phase via a fixed charge of pressurized nitrogen gas on the backside of its bellows. On this mission, the PM is being returned for further analysis and investigation of the failure that occurred on July 31, A new PM was installed on August 16, , and has been performing well.

The failed PM will undergo extensive testing and evaluation in Houston. The current theory for the cause of the failure is an electrical issue within the PCVP unit. After the root cause is determined to be either systemic to the PM or specific to this unit, NASA will determine the follow-on actions, if any. The space station has three spare pump modules in orbit. Only four astronauts were assigned to this mission, versus the normal six or seven, because there were no other shuttles available for a rescue following the retirement of Discovery and Endeavour.

If the shuttle was seriously damaged in orbit, the crew would have moved into the International Space Station and returned in Russian Soyuz capsules, one at a time, over the course of a year.

All STS crew members were custom-fitted for a Russian Sokol space suit and molded Soyuz seat liner for this possibility. The reduced crew size also allowed the mission to maximize the payload carried to the ISS. It was the only time that a Shuttle crew of four flew to the ISS. The last shuttle mission to fly with just four crew members occurred 28 years earlier: STS-6 on April 04, aboard Space Shuttle Challenger.

At T seconds, just before Atlantis's computers were supposed to take control of the flight, the launch countdown clock stopped. This was because of a lack of an indication that the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm had retracted and properly latched, a problem that had never occurred during previous launches in the program's history.

Soon the launch team was able to verify the Vent Arm's position with the help of a closed-circuit camera, and the countdown clock resumed. The main objective of the flight day 2 was to inspect Atlantis's thermal protection system, using the shuttle's robotic arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System OBSS to look for any signs of launch damage. After raising out the arm-boom assembly, the crew activated the camera and laser sensor package on the boom to first scan the starboard wing.

The nose cap was surveyed next followed by the port wing. The gathered visual and electronic data were downlinked during numerous Ku band communication opportunities to the ground. With imagery on their hand, experts began to review the data. The heat shield survey started around UTC , was wrapped about five hours later.

He worked to prepare items carried into orbit there for transfer to the space station. Meanwhile, Christopher Ferguson and Sandra Magnus installed the center-line camera in the window of the shuttle's hatch for a view that would help them align Atlantis with the space station.

Atlantis's launch for the STS mission was timed to lead to a link up with the International Space Station about miles km above Earth. A series of engine firings during the first two days of the mission brought the shuttle to a point about 50, feet 15, meters behind the station.

Once there, Atlantis started its final approach. About 2. The shuttle covered the final miles to the station during the next orbit. As Atlantis moved closer to the station, its rendezvous radar system and trajectory control sensor provided the crew with range and closing-rate data. Several small correction burns placed the shuttle about 1, feet Commander Christopher Ferguson , with help from Pilot Douglas Hurley and other crew members, manually flew the shuttle for the remainder of the approach and docking.

Christopher Ferguson stopped Atlantis about feet Timing the next steps to occur with proper lighting, he maneuvered the shuttle through an approximate eight-minute back flip called the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, also known as the R-bar Pitch Maneuver RPM since Atlantis was in line with an imaginary vertical R-bar directly below the station. During this maneuver, station crew members Michael Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa photographed Atlantis's upper and lower surfaces through windows of the Zvezda Service Module.

They used digital cameras equipped with an mm lens to provide up to one-inch 2. The photography was one of several techniques used to inspect the shuttle's thermal protection system for possible damage.

Areas of special interest included the thermal protection tiles, the reinforced carbon-carbon panels along the wing leading edges and the nosecap, landing gear doors and the elevon cove. The photos were downlinked through the station's Ku-band communications system for analysis by imagery experts in Mission Control.

When Atlantis completed its back flip, it was back where it started with its payload bay facing the station. Christopher Ferguson then flew the shuttle through a quarter circle to a position about feet From that point, he began the final approach to docking to the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at the forward end of the Harmony node. The shuttle crew members operated laptop computers that process the navigational data, the laser range systems and Atlantis' docking mechanism.

Using a video camera mounted in the center of the Orbiter Docking System, Christopher Ferguson lined up the docking ports of the two spacecraft. He pause the shuttle 30 feet 9.

Christopher Ferguson kept the docking mechanisms aligned to a tolerance of three inches 7. When Atlantis made contact with the station on July 10, , preliminary latches automatically linked the two spacecraft. The shuttle's steering jets were deactivated to reduce the forces acting at the docking interface. Shock absorber springs in the docking mechanism dampened any relative motion between the shuttle and station. Once motion between the shuttle and the station had stopped, the docking ring was retracted to close a final set of latches between the two vehicles.

This was Atlantis's 19th docking to a Space Station. In reply, "Atlantis arriving", said Ronald Garan after the ceremonial ringing of the station's bell. A series of leak checks were done on both sides of the hatches, before they were opened at UTC.

Shortly afterwards, the shuttle crew floated into the station's Harmony module at UTC. After a brief welcoming ceremony by the station crew of Expedition 28 , Atlantis's astronauts received the standard station safety briefing. The station arm had plucked the OBSS from its stowage position on the shuttle cargo bay sill.