The Hindu : Front Page : Atlantis undocks from space station

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Wednesday, Jun 20, 2007
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Atlantis undocks from space station

Houston: Space shuttle Atlantis on Tuesday undocked from the International Space Station, setting the stage for the return of Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who created a record for the longest stay by a woman in space. Overcoming a comput er-meltdown and repairing the heat shield of the shuttle, Atlantis undocked from the space station at 8.10 p.m. IST carrying onboard six astronauts besides Sunita.

Atlantis might have stayed an extra day if engineers had not been happy with a test to see how well the Russian computers that crashed last week can control the orbiting outpost’s orientation. The shuttle and space station crew said their farewe lls on Monday before closing the hatches between the two spacecraft in preparation for departure. Atlantis will remain in orbit for a day before landing at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday.

“Have a good, safe landing. Until we see you again,” station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin said before the hatches were closed. Sunita had set a new space endurance record for female astronauts last Saturday, moving past the 188-day four-hou r record set by Shannon Lucid during a stay aboard the old Mir space station.

During their stay, the Atlantis crew worked on the on-orbit construction of the station with the installation of the Starboard 3 and 4 truss segment. The crew installed the truss on Monday last and conducted four spacewalks to activate the solar array . During the third spacewalk, the crew repaired an out of-position thermal blanket on the left orbital manoeuvring system pod.

Atlantis delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson, who replaced Sunita. The 11-day mission was extended to 13 days so astronauts could repair the thermal blanket. Twelve more construction missions are needed to finish buil ding the space station before the 2010 deadline, when the shuttles are to be grounded permanently. — PTI

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