With Commander Ken Ham and Pilot Tony Antonelli at the controls, space shuttle Atlantis descended to its final planned landing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The STS-132 crew concluded its successful mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle touched down at 1:48 p.m. BST.

The crew began its mission May 14 and arrived at the station May 16.

Using the station’s robotic arm, Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Garrett Reisman added Rassvet, the Russian Mini-Research Module 1, to the station. The new module will host a variety of biotechnology and biological science experiments and fluid physics and educational research.

During three spacewalks Reisman, along with Mission Specialists Mike Good and Steve Bowen, added a backup high-data-rate antenna to the station and a tool platform to Dextre, the robot-like special purpose dexterous manipulator. They removed and replaced six 375-pound batteries on the station’s P6 truss segment.

STS-132 is the 132nd shuttle mission and the 34th mission to visit the space station. The next mission, STS-133, is slated to launch in September.
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Atlantis Docks with Station 16.05.2010

Space shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station today at 3:28 p.m. BST.

After a series of leak checks, the Expedition 23 crew, Commander Oleg Kotov, and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi, T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, welcomed the shuttle crew, Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers, onboard and provided them with a station safety briefing before beginning the first tasks of the joint mission.

Caldwell Dyson and Sellers will use the station’s robotic arm to move the Integrated Cargo Carrier from the payload bay to the station’s mobile transporter. This will enable the carrier and its attached hardware to be prepositioned for use throughout the mission.

Good, Bowen and Reisman will transfer the spacesuits and spacewalk equipment over to the station’s Quest airlock and begin setting up for the first spacewalk. 

Atlantis Lifts off   15.05.2010

Space shuttle Atlantis is embarking on its final planned mission. During the 12-day flight, Atlantis and six astronauts will fly to the International Space Station, leaving behind a Russian Mini Research Module, a set of batteries for the station's truss and dish antenna, along with other replacement parts. Atlantis' 32nd flight is scheduled to last 12 days and include three spacewalks and extensive robotics work.

NASA astronaut Ken Ham commands an all-veteran flight crew: Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Michael Good, Garrett Reisman, Piers Sellers and Steve Bowen.

40,000 people surrounded Kennedy Space Center to watch the last time Atlantis will launch before the fleet is retired at the end of the year.

Launch Changes Announced   10.05.2010

NASA is planning to make some changes to the target launch dates for the last two scheduled space shuttle flights. Scientists with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, program recently decided to change out the current magnet in the particle physics experiment module that will be attached to the International Space Station to a longer lasting one. This will take advantage of NASA's plan to extend station operations until at least 2020.

Because of the magnet change, space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission, which will carry the AMS experiment to the station and was targeted to launch July 29, now is expected to launch no earlier than mid-November 2010. An exact target launch date hasn't yet been determined.

The AMS is designed to help study the formation of the universe and search for evidence of dark matter and antimatter by measuring cosmic rays.

Space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 mission currently remains targeted for its Sept. 16 launch date, but managers will continue to assess its readiness for flight and make changes as appropriate.

Atlantis Arrives at Pad   22.04.2010

The astronauts who will fly space shuttle Atlantis into orbit next month got a rare chance Thursday morning as they rode along with their spacecraft on its slow trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"Riding the crawler last night was absolutely fantastic," Ham said. He said the crawler, powered by destroyer engines, reminded him of a Navy ship even though it moves across gravel instead of rolling waves. "It is incredible to see that battleship on the ground."

Because of time constraints, few crews arrive at Kennedy in time to watch the shuttle rollout, but in this case the rollout had been postponed a few nights because of poor weather at Kennedy. The STS-132 astronauts are at Kennedy for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, a training exercise that offers the crew and launch teams a full-up simulation of launch day.

"I don't think we're getting too many things that are brand new, but we are getting a refresher," Pilot Tony Antonelli said.

Mission Specialist Michael Good, whose call sign is "Bueno," said TCDT gives the crew a chance to appreciate how close liftoff is.

"It brings it home that, hey, you're going into space in a couple weeks," Good said.

The crew will return to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston following Saturday's launch dress rehearsal. The real liftoff is targeted for May 14 at 7:19 p.m. BST.