Sunday, May 24, 2009

Thus ends AmeriKa's Man Space Missions...


The crew said it was a "thrill from start to finish"

The space shuttle Atlantis has landed in California, where it was diverted after continuing stormy weather prevented a Florida touchdown.

Atlantis landed at 1539 GMT at Edwards Air Force Base.
Officials had aborted Saturday's planned landing at the Kennedy Space Center for the second consecutive day. The seven astronauts on board Atlantis have taken part in an ambitious and risky mission to service and re-fit the Hubble telescope.

Nasa said that weather conditions over Florida forced flight controllers to give up on Sunday's first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center.

Atlantis's mission was intended to give a new lease of life to Hubble.

The orbiting observatory is regarded as one of the most important scientific tools ever built.
The fifth and final mission to service Hubble has been hailed as a great success.
Over five spacewalks, astronauts installed new instruments and thermal blankets, repaired two existing instruments, replaced gyroscopes and batteries.

The only disappointment was the failure to restore the high resolution channel (one of three) on Hubble's main camera - the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

The US space agency cleared Atlantis for its fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere following in-flight inspections of its heat shield by the crew. The Hubble telescope was released from the shuttle's robotic arm on Tuesday.


ALL IN. ALL DONE. THAT'S WRAP. ROLL'EM IN TO THE HANGER... ONE OUT THREE AIN'T BAD.

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