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| Image above: Space shuttle Atlantis touches down
at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Image credit: NASA/Carla Thomas |
Space Shuttle Atlantis descended to a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force
Base, California, concluding a successful assembly mission to the International
Space Station.
With Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Lee Archambault at the controls,
Atlantis landed at 3:49 p.m. EDT.
The challenges posed during STS-117 are invaluable learning experiences
that will help the agency prepare for future exploration, William Gerstenmaier,
NASA's associate administrator for space operations, explained at a post-landing
press conference.
"My hat's off to the team that really pulled off an awesome mission,"
he said.
The astronauts are set to return to their home base, Johnson Space Center
in Houston, on Saturday.
According to Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach, Atlantis may be returned
to Kennedy Space Center in Florida in six or seven days. At that point,
the orbiter will immediately begin processing for the STS-122 mission,
set to launch late this year.
The STS-117 crew began its mission June 8 and arrived at the station
June 10. They quickly began work to install the Starboard 3 and 4 (S3/S4)
truss structure to the outpost and retracted a set of arrays on the Port
6 (P6) truss. The (S3/S4) contains a new set of solar arrays that increases
station power-generation capabilities. The P6 will be relocated during
a future assembly mission.
Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester, John “Danny” Olivas,
Jim Reilly and Steven Swanson conducted a total of four spacewalks to
activate the S3/S4 and to retract the P6 arrays. During the third spacewalk,
Olivas repaired an out of position thermal blanket on the left orbital
maneuvering system pod.
Landing also marked the end of a record-setting spaceflight by Mission
Specialist Suni Williams, KD5PLB. She broke the record
for the longest spaceflight by a woman early in the morning on June 16.
Williams’ journey began in December with the launch of STS-116.
She lived on the space station for six months before switching places
on the STS-117 crew with Clayton Anderson, KD5PLA, who
is now a flight engineer on the station. When Atlantis landed, she had
accumulated 194 days, 18 hours and 58 minutes during her spaceflight.
STS-117 is the 118th shuttle mission and 21st mission to visit the space
station. The next mission, STS-118, is slated to launch in August.
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