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Atlantis Back on Earth
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by The Associated Press | February 20, 2008 at 05:44 am
928 views | 20 Recommendations | 15 comments
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[q
url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080220/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle;_ylt=ArgoCLTk0i3oo2cPOc6FzUas0NUE"]CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew returned to Earth on Wednesday, wrapping up a 5 million-mile journey highlighted by the successful delivery of a new European lab to the international space station.
The shuttle and its seven astronauts landed at 9:07 a.m. at NASA's spaceport at Kennedy Space Center, where the crew's families and top space program managers gathered to welcome them home.
Commander Stephen Frick safely guided Atlantis down through a sky dotted with thin, wispy clouds and onto the runway.
"We're extremely happy to be home," Frick told Mission Control.
NASA
wanted Atlantis back as soon as possible to clear the way for the Navy to shoot down a dying spy satellite on the verge of smashing into Earth with a load of toxic fuel. The missile could be launched as early as Wednesday night from a warship in the Pacific.
Atlantis circled Earth 202 times during its mission, which began Feb. 7. Nine of those 13 days were spent at the international space station, where the two crews installed the European science lab, Columbus, that was ferried up by the shuttle.
A French astronaut, Leopold Eyharts, remained at the orbiting outpost with an American and a Russian to get Columbus up and running. He replaced NASA astronaut Daniel Tani, who was returning home aboard Atlantis after 120 days in space.[/q]bk
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Brian A Kennedy
Brooklyn, New York, United States
DLTbluefrog
Nashua, New Hampshire, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (15)
at 05:54 on February 20th, 2008
I think this is an important story and would benefit from other NowPublic contributors working on it. I've flagged it as News Wanted and invite others in relevant locations to look for more evidence.
at 06:00 on February 20th, 2008
NowPublic coverage that began Tuesday (yesterday).
I've worked several landings, at KSC and Edwards. Always a beautiful, emotional event. Like many others, I'm still mourning Columbia (my favorite shuttle) and her crew.
All systems nominal, she's just in view at KSC.
at 06:03 on February 20th, 2008
Thanks for update, PEP! Guess it'll be landing in about five minutes... I'm posting a map of its descent right now. Any pics/etc. you want to add?
at 06:04 on February 20th, 2008
Also, NASA's website has a good writeup of the mission Atlantis just finished.
at 06:06 on February 20th, 2008
Winds must have changed this morning. They're using 1-5 instead of 3-3 (15, 33).
at 06:09 on February 20th, 2008
PEP -- do you mean they're using a different route or a different runway?
at 06:12 on February 20th, 2008
Orlando Sentinel says she's landed safely two minutes ago...
at 06:14 on February 20th, 2008
Ahhh, Brian, I'm not in FL. any more! :)
Every time I watch a landing, I think of a) the adventure at Edwards with Columbia, where we waved off landing once for snow and b) the hard work in all the "landing accident" drills we went through at KSC. Of course, what bit us in the end was something we'd not foreseen, and that we couldn't practive for.
When the shuttle lands, she's essentially a flying brick. No chance for touch-and-go with a shuttle!
What's fun is to be at the landing strip with the astros when they're training with the SLA (shuttle landing aircraft, a specially-equipped craft to teach them how to fly the shuttle coming home). I was with the STS-26 commander and pilot (return to flight after the Challenger tragedy) on a beautiful practice day.
Now to update my story, since I always finish coverage I start. Old habits!
at 06:19 on February 20th, 2008
Great! If you're writing a new story, of course feel free to link to it here...
at 06:25 on February 20th, 2008
Brian, those are runway numbers.
As I've done for the past several months, I've provided updates to a developing news baseline story, which I published yesterday morning about dawn or so. I've linked to it here before (see above). Since the story, which is all original content, has been universally ignored since Tuesday, of course I'm not going to waste my time writing anything new on space for NowPublic.
at 06:21 on February 20th, 2008
I am such a shuttle nerd. I love this stuff!
at 06:36 on February 20th, 2008
The meteorologist on our evening news alerted us to this great opportunity set to occur in the sky at 18:21 CST on the 18th of February. Moving in an arc from northwest to southeast, the sun angle was just perfect to reflect off the two spacecraft, Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. They were visible together in the twilit sky for almost two minutes as the shuttle sped away from the ISS.
JR Arehart has contributed a photo to this story.
at 06:37 on February 20th, 2008
These photos are beautiful.
at 07:39 on February 20th, 2008
Shuttle Atlantis taken on 1/23/08, two weeks before launch on 2/7/08.
markjgreiner has contributed a photo to this story.
at 13:28 on February 20th, 2008
I'm really loving these photos.