![]() ![]() This station only hosted a single crew, which arrived aboard the ill-fated Soyuz 11 mission in June 1971, the earlier Soyuz 10 mission having failed to dock. The launch of Skylab came two years after the Soviet Union had deployed the world’s first space station, Salyut 1. This would allow the agency to continue scientific research and study the effects of spaceflight on crews over the course of long-duration missions. With missions past Apollo 17 canceled, NASA’s attention returned to low Earth orbit, and the development of a space station using Apollo hardware. While six more crewed lunar missions would follow over the next three and a half years, the objective had been achieved and funding was cut. ![]() With Apollo 11’s successful landing on the Moon in July 1969, NASA had met President Kennedy’s challenge of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth by the end of the 1960s. Despite a troubled start to its life, Skylab pioneered long-duration spaceflight, and fifty years later lessons learned in this program are still contributing to the success of the International Space Station. “There’s still a lot of work in front of us,” said Gerstenmaier, “but what a great start to the mission today.On May 14, 1973, the final Saturn V rocket lifted off to deploy Skylab, America’s first space station. Astronauts Ron Garan and Mike Fossum, who flew to the ISS in April and June, respectively, aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, will perform a spacewalk during Atlantis’ visit.Ītlantis is scheduled to return home to Kennedy Space Center and land on the morning of July 20 - the 42nd anniversary of the day Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon - but officials are considering whether to extend the mission an extra day. The astronauts also will perform experiments and bring back some cargo, most notably an ammonia pump that recently failed on the space station. ![]() The group had logged more than 537 million miles heading into the final flight, which is scheduled to last 12 days.Ītlantis will dock at the International Space Station on Sunday, with its primary mission the delivery of the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module - a collection of supplies and spare parts that will help sustain ISS operations once the shuttle program ends. More than 30 years of shuttle missions have seen 355 astronauts representing 16 different countries take flight.Ītlantis is making its 33rd flight, second only to Discovery’s 39 among the five shuttles. Magnus has logged the most space time on the crew, including a 4½-month stay on the International Space Station from November 2008 through March 2009. The mission designated STS-135 will be the second trip to space for Hurley and the third for Ferguson, Magnus and Walheim. You may think I’m talking about the hardware, but I’m really talking about the teams and the people that supported the launch that just occurred.” “We got to witness something really, really special and something really amazing. “What a truly awesome day today,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, director of NASA’s manned space operations. Space center workers later gathered in the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building, where all the shuttle’s components are put in place, to toast the launch. Reaching speeds of 17,500 mph, it headed for orbit and a rendezvous with the International Space Station.Ĭheers rang out at Kennedy Space Center as a crowd that featured former astronauts, family members of the current shuttle crew and thousands of employees who have done the detail work and heavy lifting that keep the shuttles flying celebrated a bittersweet moment. Finally, with the familiar roar of engines accompanied by billowing smoke, Atlantis lifted free of Launch Pad 39A. ![]()
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