Early Friday morning the space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-member crew touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the end of a successful 11-day mission to the International Space Station. The Atlantis STS-129 mission delivered more than 27,000 pounds of spare parts to the ISS in order to extend its lifespan.
This article from Space.com highlights the eventful mission, which included “three spacewalks, the birth of a crew member’s daughter back on Earth, a Thanksgiving celebration in space, and also returned the last station resident to arrive and depart the station by a U.S. space shuttle.”
Whew, that sounds like a busy 11 days, especially when you consider they had to travel four-and-a-half million miles to do it all.
Atlantis will embark upon its final mission in May 2010 before making way for the next generation of NASA spacecraft. As always, stay tuned to ClubGalahad.com for all the latest.