Last Flight of Endeavor

**American Patriot** · May 16th, 2011, 15:15

Space Weather News for May 16, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

Endeavour has left the planet. The space shuttle lifted off this morning at 8:56 am EDT on a two week mission to the International Space Station. There it will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer--a $1.5 billion cosmic ray detector that could reveal the nature of dark matter and find whole galaxies made of antimatter. Links to more information are available at http://spaceweather.com.

This is Endeavour's final flight as the shuttle program winds down. During the mission, Endeavour will make numerous passes over North America, Australia, and other places. Would you like to see it one last time? You can turn your cell phone into a field tested shuttle tracker by downloading our Simple Flybys app. Details at http://simpleflybys.com

**Backstop** · May 16th, 2011, 15:30

So what's gonna replace it?

Edit:

We just gonna hitch a ride with the Ruskies for a while?

**Ryan Ruck** · May 16th, 2011, 15:40

Originally Posted by Backstop

We just gonna hitch a ride with the Ruskies for a while?

Yep. Great, huh?

**Luke** · May 16th, 2011, 16:43

I have followed NASA since watching Alan Shepard's 15 minute flight in grade school. It is hard to believe the Shuttle program has lasted as long as it has.

I would like to believe that we will replace the Shuttle with new technology. Somehow the ISS just doesn't feel like we are progressing. Having to rely on the Russians sucks.

I wonder if it is possible that we have the capacity to launch humans from Vandenberg?

**American Patriot** · May 16th, 2011, 17:40

We have the capacity to launch from Vandenberg, and from Florida. That's not the issue. We don't have any space craft capable of hauling people up there and doing the work the shuttle was doing and both programs that were in the works have been cancelled.

**Luke** · May 20th, 2011, 09:37

While not on the same scale as the shuttle, I contend that our technology has not degraded to the point that we could not still produce a Redstone "type" rocket able to place at least one human at a time to the ISS.

Being just a common kind of guy I always wondered about all the secret military payloads the Shuttle was used to put in orbit.

Vandenberg has always seemed similar to Groom Lake in my mind for some reason.

**American Patriot** · May 20th, 2011, 13:18

No, absolutely we COULD do that Luke - its not cost effective though. Not that any launch is cost effective.

It costs thousands of dollars per pound of payload. We can certainly launch rockets with space capsules, but simply put, we don't HAVE any space capsules. The old Apollo, Gemini and Mercury craft were the last ones prior to the shuttle.

There are no more.

**American Patriot** · May 27th, 2011, 13:47

Endeavour 'nauts wrap last ever shuttle crew spacewalk

End of an era at the ISS

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author
Posted in Space, 27th May 2011 13:17 GMT

Mission specialists Greg Chamitoff and Mike Fincke earlier today wrapped the fourth and final spacewalk of Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the ISS – the last ever EVA by space shuttle crew members.

The pair ventured outside the orbiting outpost for seven hours and 24 minutes, during which they stowed Endeavour's 50-ft inspection boom at its new home outside the station.
Once they'd added a "power and data grapple fixture" to the boom, it officially became the "Enhanced International Space Station Boom Assembly, available to extend the reach of the space station's robotic arm".

Just shy of five hours into the EVA, Chamitoff and Fincke "surpassed the 1,000th hour astronauts and cosmonauts have spent spacewalking in support of space station assembly and maintenance".

NASA station flight director Derek Hassman said recently: "In the early shuttle program, a flight with one or two EVAs was considered a pretty challenging mission. With the station missions that we fly today, with three and four EVAs the norm, the difference and the upgrade in the capability is just tremendous."

Chamitoff has clocked up two spacewalks, for a total of 13 hours, 43 minutes. Finke is now a nine-EVA veteran, having spent 48 hours and 37 minutes outside the airlock, putting him "sixth on the all-time list".

NASA adds: "This evening, [Finke] will become the US astronaut who has spent the most number of days in space, surpassing Peggy Whitson's record of 377 days."

Space shuttle Atlantis is pencilled to blast off to the ISS on 8 July, carrying the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module. On board for STS-135 will be commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim, but none of them will be doing any spacewalking.

Once the shuttle programme wraps, Atlantis will go on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Discovery is bound for the Udvar-Hazy Center at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, while Endeavour will come to rest at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Endeavour commander Mark Kelly previously expressed his sadness at seeing the shuttles farmed out to museums, but described it as "a necessary step so we can go on and do some more exciting things".

**American Patriot** · May 27th, 2011, 13:48

US Honor Flag will fly on last shuttle mission

© 2011 The Associated Press

May 27, 2011, 6:19AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An American flag that flew over the World Trade Center site after 9/11 is heading into space for the last shuttle mission.

About 100 police officers handed the United States Honor Flag to NASA on Thursday at a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The flag will fly on the shuttle Atlantis' final mission, tentatively set July 8.

Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana said the flag adds even more significance to Atlantis' flight, which will be the last of the shuttle program.

The flag will remain at Johnson Space Center in Houston until the launch.

The flag was donated by the Texas House of Representatives just after the 2001 terrorist attacks. It also has been flown in Iraq and Afghanistan and at the funerals of police officers.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1NYoHmP2K

**American Patriot** · May 27th, 2011, 13:49

Endeavour Crew Inspects Shuttle Heat Shield for Last Time

Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer
Date: 25 May 2011 Time: 07:56 PM ET

The docked space shuttle Endeavour is featured in this image photographed by an STS-134 crew member onboard the International Space Station on May 21, 2011 during flight Day 6 activities. Earth's horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene.
CREDIT: NASA
View full size image

This story was updated at 1:08 a.m. ET.
HOUSTON – The astronauts on NASA's shuttle Endeavour are more than halfway through their mission to the International Space Station, but there's still plenty of work to be done before they head home. Case in point: The astronauts took one last look at Endeavour's heat shield to be sure it was not dinged while in orbit.
The spaceflyers inspected Endeavour's wing edges and nose cap in preparation for their scheduled undocking from the station on Sunday (May 29). NASA engineers already cleared the shuttle's heat shield of any concerns related to launch debris, so the astronauts looked for any new dings since they've been in space. [Photos: Shuttle Endeavour's Final Mission]

For this final inspection, Endeavour's astronauts once again used the shuttle's 50-foot (15 meter) Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS), which is a long pole with cameras and laser sensors attached.
Since this is Endeavour's final mission before being retired, the inspection pole — which normally returns to Earth with the shuttle — will be left at the space station for use as an extension of the outpost's own robotic arm.
During the mission's fourth and final spacewalk on Friday (May 27), the OBSS will be installed on the starboard side of the space station's backbone-like truss. As a result, the shuttle crew scanned Endeavour's heat shield before leaving the station, rather than waiting until after undocking. [Inside and Out: The International Space Station]
NASA has kept a close eye on the health of space shuttles' heat shields since the 2003 shuttle Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts. Since then, astronauts on every shuttle mission inspect their vehicle's heat shield several times to make sure the spacecraft is in good health.
Endeavour has a minor gouge on its belly and the shuttle astronauts took a second look at it last week to make sure it didn't pose a safety risk. Last Saturday (May 21), Mission Control declared Endeavour fit for landing.
After their shuttle survey today, Endeavour's crew will round out the day with a string of live media interviews, including a news conference with the space station crew, which is scheduled to begin at 5:42 a.m. EDT (0942 GMT).
The crew will also review procedures for Friday's spacewalk, which will be conducted by mission specialists Mike Fincke and Greg Chamitoff. To prepare for their work outside, the spacewalking duo will camp out overnight in the station's Quest airlock. [FAQ: How Do Astronauts Take Spacewalks?]
Fincke and Chamitoff will remain in the airlock overnight, where they will don masks to breathe in pure oxygen prior to going to sleep. The hatch to the Quest airlock will be closed and the pressure in the compartment will be lowered to help purge nitrogen from the spacewalkers' bloodstreams. This helps their bodies adjust for the spacewalk, and also makes them less susceptible to suffering from decompression sickness, which is know in common vernacular as "the bends."
Endeavour's STS-134 astronaut crew is currently flying a 16-day mission to deliver a $2 billion astrophysics experiment and other supplies to the International Space Station. It is the 25th and final flight of Endeavour before the shuttle is retired along with the rest of NASA's orbiter fleet later this year.
You can follow SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of Endeavour's final mission STS-134or follow us @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.