On Orbit > Real NASA Space Shuttle Missions
STS-135 - the last STS mission
Admin:
With STS-135, the STS era will come to an end.
This last mission was made possible by using the reserve funds available for rescue missions. Since the need for a reserve rescue mission ended with STS-125, these funds are used now for adding the last Atlantis and the last STS flight.
Wishing Atlantis and the STS program a glorious closure of this chapter in humanity's Space Exploration.
/Admin
Steven:
--- Quote from: Admin on June 01, 2011, 12:43:41 PM ---With STS-135, the STS era will come to an end.
This last mission was made possible by using the reserve funds available for rescue missions. Since the need for a reserve rescue mission ended with STS-125, these funds are used now for adding the last Atlantis and the last STS flight.
Wishing Atlantis and the STS program a glorious closure of this chapter in humanity's Space Exploration.
/Admin
--- End quote ---
They haven't ended, per se... there was LON (Launch On Need) support for STS-134, should Endeavour gotten a bit of unrepairable damage, Atlantis would have launched to save her crew.
Let's pray that's not needed for Atlantis, as they'll have to be rescued by Soyuz, as there's no more external tanks for Shuttle.
I forsee this thread being a somber one, the last flow on LC-39a for the Shuttle era, the best one yet in my opinion. Beautiful girls, too bad they'll have to be retired to a museum.
Admin:
--- Quote from: Steven on June 01, 2011, 04:12:07 PM ---
--- Quote from: Admin on June 01, 2011, 12:43:41 PM ---With STS-135, the STS era will come to an end.
This last mission was made possible by using the reserve funds available for rescue missions. Since the need for a reserve rescue mission ended with STS-125, these funds are used now for adding the last Atlantis and the last STS flight.
Wishing Atlantis and the STS program a glorious closure of this chapter in humanity's Space Exploration.
/Admin
--- End quote ---
They haven't ended, per se... there was LON (Launch On Need) support for STS-134, should Endeavour gotten a bit of unrepairable damage, Atlantis would have launched to save her crew.
Let's pray that's not needed for Atlantis, as they'll have to be rescued by Soyuz, as there's no more external tanks for Shuttle.
I forsee this thread being a somber one, the last flow on LC-39a for the Shuttle era, the best one yet in my opinion. Beautiful girls, too bad they'll have to be retired to a museum.
--- End quote ---
AFAIK, depending on that "unrepairable damage". That means that Atlantis would have launched only in the case Endeavour wasn't able to safely dock with the ISS.
If it was, then the crew would have returned with Russian rides.
That really reduces the chance of a LON for flight-to-ISS missions.
It will be a somber thread allright and soon, it will become strange and sad speaking about the STS in the past tense.
/Admin
Cras:
During the roll-out press conference last night, the Atlantis crew said that should the Shuttle become disabled during launch somehow, that the final crew member would get home something like 9 months later, having to wait his turn on the ISS for an open Soyuz seat.
But we all know that won't happen. Already got my name on the list for tickets. It really will be very sad to think there are no more shuttles. It is still hard for me to think that now two of those famous shuttles are out of service. No more Discovery, no more Endeavour, and soon no more Atlantis.
But we do have Orion to look forward to. Hopefully in five years or so we will see Astronauts going up in a new spacecraft from KSC.
Pocci:
Interesting fact, I found on Spaceflight Now:
The most forward left cylinder (right after the dome) of the left SFB has been used on STS-1.
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts135/fdf/135srbs.pdf
/Armin
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