Space shuttle Atlantis and six astronauts ended a 12-day journey of more than 4.8 million miles with an 8:48 a.m. EDT landing Wednesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The flawless landing wrapped up a highly successful mission to deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1, known as “Rassvet” (“dawn” in Russian), to the International Space Station.
“My hat’s off to the team. They make it look easy,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of Space Operations, as he commended the STS-132 astronauts and ground teams at a news conference following landing. “I can tell you it wasn’t easy, and they deserve a lot of praise and congratulations for what they’ve done.”
The third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, this was the last scheduled flight for Atlantis. Mike Moses, space shuttle launch integration manager, spoke highly of everyone who built and maintained Atlantis during the orbiter’s 25 years of service.
“The folks who built it, all the missions it’s flown over its career, have been just amazing. I can’t even begin to talk about how proud I am of Atlantis and the whole team.”
Later today, Atlantis will be towed from the runway to its processing facility. It will go through the normal flow of prelaunch preparations in order to serve as the “launch-on-need” vehicle for Endeavour’s STS-134 mission, the last scheduled flight of the Space Shuttle Program. That flight currently is targeted for November.
Led by Commander Ken Ham, the all-veteran astronaut crew will head home to Houston on Thursday. The public is invited to attend the welcome ceremony for the crew Thursday at 4 p.m. CDT at Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar 276.