Names | Space Transportation System-135 |
---|---|
Mission type | ISS logistics |
Operator | NASA |
COSPAR ID | 2011-031A |
SATCAT no. | 37736 |
Mission duration | 12 days, 18 hours, 28 minutes, 50 seconds[1] |
Distance travelled | 8,505,161 km (5,284,862 mi) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Atlantis |
Crew | |
Crew size | 4 |
Members | |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | July 8, 2011 15:29 UTC[2][3] |
Launch site | Kennedy, LC-39A |
End of mission | |
Landing date | July 21, 2011, 09:57 | UTC
Landing site | Shuttle Landing Facility[1] |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Inclination | 51.6° |
Docking with ISS | |
Docking date | July 10, 2011 15:07 UTC |
Undocking date | July 19, 2011 06:28 UTC |
Time docked | 8 days, 15 hours, 21 minutes |
Official crew portrait of Walheim, Hurley, Ferguson, and Magnus. |
STS-135 (ISS assembly flight ULF7)[4] was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program.[5][6] It used the orbiter Atlantis and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 launched on July 8, 2011, and landed on July 21, 2011, following a one-day mission extension. The four-person crew was the smallest of any shuttle mission since STS-6 in April 1983. The mission's primary cargo was the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Raffaello and a Lightweight Multi-Purpose Carrier (LMC), which were delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). The flight of Raffaello marked the only time that Atlantis carried an MPLM.[7]
Although the mission was authorized, it initially had no appropriation in the NASA budget, raising questions about whether the mission would fly. On January 20, 2011, program managers changed STS-335 to STS-135 on the flight manifest. This allowed for training and other mission specific preparations.[8] On February 13, 2011, program managers told their workforce that STS-135 would fly regardless of the funding situation via a continuing resolution.[9] Until this point, there had been no official references to the STS-135 mission in NASA documentation for the general public.[10][11][12][13]
During an address at the Marshall Space Flight Center on November 16, 2010, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that the agency needed to fly STS-135 to the station in 2011 due to possible delays in the development of commercial rockets and spacecraft designed to transport cargo to the ISS. "We are hoping to fly a third shuttle mission (in addition to STS-133 and STS-134) in June 2011, what everybody calls the launch-on-need mission... and that's really needed to [buy down] the risk for the development time for commercial cargo", Bolden said.[14]
The mission was included in NASA's 2011 authorization,[15] which was signed into law on October 11, 2010, but funding remained dependent on a subsequent appropriations bill. United Space Alliance signed a contract extension for the mission, along with STS-134; the contract contained six one-month options with NASA in order to support continuing operations.[16]
The federal budget approved in April 2011 called for US$5.5 billion for NASA's space operations division, including the shuttle and space station programs. According to NASA, the budget running through September 30, 2011, ended all concerns about funding the STS-135 mission.[17]
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