The space shuttle orbiter Discovery is now docked with the International Space Station, some 350 kilometers above planet Earth. Last Monday, its launch to orbit was a beautiful one as it rose into clear, predawn skies at 6:21am EDT from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A. Looking east, this time exposure was taken shortly after lift off from a marina about 13 miles west of the launch site in Titusville, Florida. It shows the dawn's emerging colors along the horizon, with wafting rocket contrails at the upper right. The bright streak surrounded by the remarkable, elongated, vapor cloud near the center of the image is the actual track of Discovery, arcing toward the horizon and its orbital rendezvous.

Retour de Discovery dimanche
HOUSTON – Preparations for landing take center stage Sunday as the seven astronauts on space shuttle Discovery wrap up a 10-day stay at the International Space Station that included three spacewalks and delivery of more than seven tons of equipment and supplies.

The crew was awakened at 11:21 p.m. CDT by Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World,” played for Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson, who concluded her third trip to the station on Discovery today. Wilson flew on Discovery for STS-121 in July 2006 and STS-120 in October 2007.

Commander Alan G. Poindexter, Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. and Mission Specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Clayton Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki are scheduled to land their spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center at 7:51 a.m. Monday.

On Sunday, Poindexter, Dutton and Metcalf-Lindenburger will checkout Discovery’s flight control systems and steering jets for the ride home to Earth.

At 6:36 a.m., the crew will have audio interviews with Mary Blake of WBZ-AM in Boston, Marcia Dunn of the Associated Press, and Brandi Smith of KEZI-TV in Portland, Ore. Wilson is from Pittsfield, Mass., and Dutton is from Eugene, Ore.

On board the International Space Station the crew’s work day is being shifted to its normal cycle. The next wakeup call for Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov, and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mikhail Kornienko, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer is 1:00 a.m. Sunday.

NASA Sets Launch Date For Space Shuttle Atlantis


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to begin a 12-day flight to the International Space Station with a launch at 2:20 pm EDT on Friday, May 14, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-132 mission is Atlantis' final scheduled flight.

Atlantis' launch date was announced Wednesday at the conclusion of a flight readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle and station's equipment, support systems and personnel are ready.

STS-132 is the third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010. Two flights remain until the retirement of the shuttle fleet. The STS-133 and STS-134 launches are targeted for September and November, respectively.

The six astronauts for Atlantis' STS-132 mission will deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1, also known as Rassvet (dawn in Russian) to the station. The flight also will transport critical spare parts and cargo, including six new solar array batteries and Ku-band antenna systems. During the mission, three spacewalks are planned to put those spare parts on the station.

Commander Ken Ham and his crew are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy at approximately 7 p.m. on Monday, May 10, for final launch preparations. Joining Ham are Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen, and Piers Sellers.

STS-132 will be Atlantis' 32nd mission and the 34th shuttle flight dedicated to station assembly and maintenance.

USA: feu vert de la Nasa pour lancer la navette Atlantis le 14 mai

La Nasa a officiellement donné mercredi le feu vert pour le lancement le 14 mai de la navette Atlantis, avec six astronautes à bord, vers la la Station spatiale internationale, annonce l'agence dans un communiqué.

AFP - le 06 mai 2010, 00h29

La Nasa a officiellement donné mercredi le feu vert pour le lancement le 14 mai de la navette Atlantis, avec six astronautes à bord, vers la la Station spatiale internationale, annonce l'agence dans un communiqué.

Cette décision a été prise à l'issu d'une réunion des responsables de la mission au Centre spatial Kennedy, près de Cap Canaveral, en Floride (sud-est).

Si les conditions météorologiques le permettent et s'il n'y a pas d'imprévu technique, Atlantis sera lancée du Centre spatial Kennedy le vendredi 14 mai à 18H20 GMT (14H20 locales) pour une mission de douze jours destinée notamment à livrer un petit module russe de recherche MRM-1 (Mini Research Module-1) à l'ISS ainsi qu'un système de livraison de fret pour des chargements non-pressurisés appelé "Integrated Cargo Carrier".

"La navette est prête à voler", a indiqué Bill Gerstenmaier, responsable des programmes spatiaux de la Nasa lors d'une conférence de presse à l'issu de cette réunion.

Après cette mission (STS-132), la troisième cette année, il ne restera plus que deux vols programmés de navette, la dernière devant en principe voler en novembre.

Il s'agira du 32e et dernier vol de la navette Atlantis.

La Nasa avait annoncé le 26 avril sa décision de repousser le lancement de Endeavour, initialement prévu le 29 juillet, à novembre pour modifier un module d'expérimentation scientifique "Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer" devant être acheminé à l'ISS.

Il apparaît que la fenêtre de tir s'ouvrira le 27 novembre et se refermera le 8 décembre, a dit Bill Gerstenmaier, notant qu'avant et après ces dates un lancement ne serait pas possible en raison notamment d'une mission de Soyouz à l'ISS.

Durant cette mission de douze jours, trois sorties orbitales de 6,30 heures chacune, par une équipe de deux astronautes, sont prévues.

Le compte à rebours pour le lancement commencera le 11 mai à 20H00 GMT.

Décollage d'Atlantis il y a quelques heures tjs des images extraordinaires
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal … d=13894434

Atlantis Back Flip

Atlantis le véhicule le plus complexe que les hommes aient construit !

Shuttle Atlantis lands after final mission
Only two flights remain in the space shuttle program, and other ships are scheduled to fly those. Atlantis logged more than 120 million miles in 25 years of use.
The Associated Press

May 26, 2010 | 5:55 a.m.
 
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
Space shuttle Atlantis landed for the last time Wednesday morning, capping a 25-year flying career by bringing back six astronauts who boosted the International Space Station's size and power.

Storms that had threatened to come too close to the landing site dissipated and remained at a safe distance.

Cheers erupted in the cockpit when Mission Control radioed up the "go" to come home.


Ham and his crew fired the braking rockets an hour before the touchdown and put Atlantis on a downward course.

Tens of thousands jammed the space center to witness Atlantis' launch on May 14. The landing attracted far fewer people. But coming in from Houston were the lead flight directors for the space station construction mission -- NASA's third-to-last shuttle journey.

Atlantis logged its 120-millionth mile shortly after midnight, accumulated over 32 flights.

Only two shuttle missions remain, by NASA's two other spaceships. NASA is pushing for one more flight for Atlantis, which would need White House approval.

The astronauts accomplished everything they set out to do on the 12-day flight and did it with humor. When Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert called to chat Tuesday, the one-liners zipped back and forth.

"We've got a new antenna on the space station, a new six-pack of batteries, a new module docked to the station, and generally have defeated the forces of evil, so we're very happy about how things have gone," said spaceman Garrett Reisman.

Ham and his crew turned serious, though, when reflecting on Atlantis' quarter-century of service and the impending end of the space shuttle program.

Atlantis -- the fourth in NASA's shuttle series -- is ending its run after having spent an accumulated 294 days in orbit and circled Earth 4,648 times. It's carried 189 astronauts and visited the International Space Station 11 times. It also flew seven times to Russia's old Mir station and once to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The shuttle added another 4.8 million miles this time around, for a grand total of 120.65 million miles over its lifetime.

Once Atlantis is back in its hangar, it will be prepped for a potential rescue mission for what's currently slated to be the final shuttle flight by Endeavour. Endeavour's trip is targeted for November, but NASA managers will reassess the date in another week or two.

The only other flight on the books is a supply run to the space station by Discovery in September. That date also is being evaluated.

Both of those missions have payload issues that are threatening to cause delays.

NASA would like to fly Atlantis again in June 2011, provided no rescue mission is needed for Endeavour's flight. It would be one last supply run with a four-person crew that could camp out at the space station in the event of serious shuttle damage and return to Earth in Russian Soyuz capsules.

The space station -- 98% complete now in terms of living space -- will lose half of its six-person crew in another week. Three astronauts will return to Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz on June 2, and their replacements will fly up two weeks after that.

Americans will keep hitching rides on Russian rockets until U.S. private enterprise is able to take over. That's one of the goals set forth earlier this year by President Barack Obama, who wants astronauts aiming for asteroids and Mars in the next few decades.

Merci Atlantis ! et bonne retraite !...dans un musée...après 32 vols...!!!