Wed, May 26, 2010
Set To Return From Her Final Mission Wednesday
Atlantis astronauts stowed spacesuits, wrapped up the standard
late inspection of the shuttle's thermal protection system ahead of
schedule and enjoyed some time off Monday.
Atlantis Docked At ISS
Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialists
Garrett Reisman and Piers Sellers began the inspection well ahead
of scheduled start. By 4:50 a.m. they had finished their look at
the right wing, by 5:52 a.m. the nose cap survey was complete and
the left wing survey was finished at 7:17:a.m., about 2.5 hours
ahead of the timeline.
The survey was done using the shuttle arm and its 50-foot
extension, the orbiter boom sensor system. Early in the mission, a
pan-tilt assembly at the boom's end supporting a laser dynamic
range imager and an intensified video camera had been partly
disabled by a snagged cable.
A secondary system on the boom was used for the day-after-launch
survey, and spacewalkers cleared the cable snag on Wednesday. The
pan-tilt assembly and its instruments functioned flawlessly today.
The results will be analyzed on the ground before Atlantis is
formally cleared to land.
Atlantis Landing STS129
Spacewalkers Mike Good and Steve Bowen finished working with the
spacesuits and put them away while the survey was being done. After
the survey the boom and the arm were stowed on opposite sides of
the cargo bay sill, their work done for the mission.
Tuesday crew members stowed items in the cabin and checked out
Atlantis' reaction control system and its flight control surfaces.
Landing at Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 0748
Wednesday.
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