Mon, Nov 16, 2009
Atlantis Launch Called "Flawless"
Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off
for a mission to ISS at 1428 Monday afternoon, in what NASA called
a "Flawless" launch.
"What a great way to start this mission," said Bill
Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations. "I
can't say enough about the teams that got this vehicle ready to
fly."
Gerstenmaier congratulated the teams and the work they
accomplished preparing the payload and vehicle for this complex and
ambitious mission. "We still have a tough mission in front of us
… but it (the shuttle) looked really, really good,"
Gerstenmaier continued.
Mike Moses, mission management team chairman, remarked that the
launch ended up being picture-perfect after a low-layer of clouds
settled over the center for the first few hours of the countdown.
"As a management team we had no issues of any note to talk about,"
Moses said. "It (the countdown) was nice and quiet and
smooth."
"We had a great countdown today," said Mike Leinbach, shuttle
launch director. He said Atlantis broke the record for the lowest
problems reported, previously held by space shuttle Discovery.
"It's due to the team and the hardware processing. They just did a
great job."
NASA Photo
The record will probably never be broken again in the history of
the Space Shuttle Program, so congratulations to them," Leinbach
continued.
Leinbach also honored the midbody team with an award for the
processing of Atlantis' payload bay, which included the turnaround
"down-processing" after the return of Atlantis from the Hubble
Space Telescope servicing mission. He said they did an outstanding
job and they deserved their award today.
More News
Aero Linx: JAARS Nearly 1.5 billion people, using more than 5,500 languages, do not have a full Bible in their first language. Many of these people live in the most remote parts of>[...]
'Airplane Bounced Twice On The Grass Runway, Resulting In The Nose Wheel Separating From The Airplane...' Analysis: The pilot reported, “upon touchdown, the plane jumped back>[...]
"Burt is best known to the public for his historic designs of SpaceShipOne, Voyager, and GlobalFlyer, but for EAA members and aviation aficionados, his unique concepts began more t>[...]
"Polaris Dawn, the first of the program’s three human spaceflight missions, is targeted to launch to orbit no earlier than summer 2024. During the five-day mission, the crew >[...]
There Are SO Many Ways To Get YOUR Aero-News! It’s been a while since we have reminded everyone about all the ways we offer your daily dose of aviation news on-the-go...so he>[...]