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The Planetary Society BlogBy Emily LakdawallaAtlantis Last Launch Blazes to Space and delivers Russian Rassvet Science Module to ISSMay. 19, 2010 | 13:24 PDT | 20:24 UTC
by Ken Kremer
Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer is reporting for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he witnessed the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Kremer is a research scientist and freelance journalist who spends his spare time giving public outreach presentations on behalf of The Planetary Society as a volunteer and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Solar System Ambassador. He also enjoys creating Mars mosaics. More at Ken Kremer's website. A new ‘Dawn' appeared in space on May 18 as the gorgeous new ‘Rassvet' science and docking module, contributed by Russia, was permanently joined to the International Space Station (ISS) after entering orbital sunrise and while soaring about 220 miles above Argentina. ‘Rassvet' translates as the Russian word for ‘Dawn' or ‘Sunrise'. Space Shuttle Atlantis thundered into the High Frontier for her last planned voyage to space on Friday, May 14 with Rassvet nestled inside the cargo bay as the principal payload. After a two day orbital pursuit, Atlantis rendezvoused and docked with the ISS on Sunday morning May 16 at 10:28 AM EDT. The planned 12-day flight of the STS 132 mission includes 3 spacewalks and is the 32nd flight of Atlantis.
American shuttle astronaut Garret Reisman and British born astronaut Piers Sellers utilized the stations Canadian built robotic arm (SSRMS) to attach the new MRM-1 compartment to the Earth- facing (nadir) port of the Russian Zarya control module, as Russian cosmonaut and ISS commander Oleg Kotov monitored the delicate maneuvers. Shuttle commander Ken Ham and pilot Dominic Antonelli hoisted Rassvet out of Atlantis cargo bay using the shuttle's own Canadian robot arm and delicately handed it off to Reisman and Sellers. Atlantis roared to life with a ground shaking rumble at 2:20 PM EDT from Launch Pad 39 A on May 14 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Moments later, Atlantis and her all male crew of 6 veteran astronauts cleared the launch tower atop a growing trail of blazing fire, smoke and ash spewing from the two Solid Rocket Boosters and the three Space Shuttle Main Engines. Atlantis soon rolled about and arced over on an accelerating ascent to the heavens following a northeasterly trajectory up the East coast of the United States. I witnessed the blast off from a rooftop at the KSC Press Center and felt the rumbling thunder shake the building some 10 seconds later. The incandescent flames shooting from Atlantis were almost blindingly bright and far beyond awesome. The spectacular sky show was enjoyed by many tens of thousands of spectators lined up along the beaches of Florida's Space Coast as well as hordes more in more distant communities in all directions. Tourists flocked to Florida from across America and countries around the globe, packing hotels for a chance to see the Historic Last Launch of Atlantis. I inspected ‘Rassvet' close up during a media briefing inside the "clean room" at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Port Canaveral, FL, where I had the opportunity to interview the top managers of the Russian engineering team. About 100 Russian scientists and engineers were diligently working at Astrotech to prepare the module for flight since it arrived here in Florida on Dec 17, 2009. Astrotech is located a few kilometers south of KSC. "MRM 1 will be utilized for scientific research, cargo stowage, and also to provide a 4th docking port at the ISS for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft," according to Mikhail Kashitsyn, the Deputy Technical Manager and Head of MRM 1 Prelaunch Processing for the Design Bureau division of RSC Energia.
"This mission [STS 132] will be carrying up a whole lot of shuttle Mid-deck science experiments. We added a lot of science and are flying up our National Lab Pathfinder (NLP) vaccine program experiments", explained Mike Moses, chair of the Shuttle Mission Management Team. A major science focus will be studies on developing potential vaccines for the prevention of infections caused by different pathogens, aiming to fight disease-causing bacteria. "JAXA [the Japanese Space Agency] is sponsoring many science payloads". Atlantis also carried aloft a second heavy payload, namely the 7500 lb (3400 kg) Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) which is packed with spare parts crucial for extending the usable working lifetime of the ISS to 2020 and beyond. The gear includes a back up 6 ft wide KU-band communications antenna and boom, 6 fresh Ni- H batteries and hardware components for the Canadian built Dextre robotic arm. During the first spacewalk, EVA-1, Astronauts Reisman and Steve Bowen successfully installed the spare high speed Space-to-Ground KU-band antenna and a new tool platform for Dextre. EVA's 2 and 3 are primarily devoted to swapping out the old batteries and exchanging them with the six new ones. Each battery weighs more than 372 pounds. EVA 2 is on tap for Wednesday, May 19 by astronauts Bowen and Michael Good. An important new task added for Bowen is an attempt to tie off a snagged cable in the Orbiter Boom Sensor System which is hindering the inspection of the health of the heat shield tiles crucial for a safe reentry to Earth. Good was a member of the STS 125 crew and conducted spacewalks to rejuvenate the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA currently plans to retire the three orbiter shuttle fleet by the end of 2010 or early 2011, while the shuttle program operates like clockwork at the absolute height of its capabilities and safety. After the last two shuttle flights, no one can say with any certainty when humans will again fly to space from American soil. Many people associated with the shuttle program are hoping that President Obama will approve one more shuttle flight for Atlantis using an External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters that NASA has already secured and which will be processed for a final "Launch on Need" rescue mission in case an emergency situation arises on the final Shuttle mission, dubbed STS 134.
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The ISS construction may top out at 160 billion USD over 30 years, but an efficient (~ 60 % protected, say) vaccine would pay that back in 160/(0.6*5) or ~ 50 years while saving ~ 400 000 lives. And some people complain about space exploration costs?! Amazing.