page_title: Space Shuttle Atlantis
section_title: Notable missions
hierarchical_section_title: Space Shuttle Atlantis / Notable missions
caption_attribution_description: English: Space shuttle Atlantis soars to orbit from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the STS-132 mission to the International Space Station at 2:20 p.m. EDT on May 14. The third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, this was the last planned launch for Atlantis. The Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 is inside the shuttle's cargo bay. Also known as Rassvet, or "dawn," it will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. The laboratory will be attached to the bottom port of the station's Zarya module. The mission's three spacewalks will focus on storing spare components outside the station, including six batteries, a communications antenna and parts for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm. STS-132 is the 132nd shuttle flight, the 32nd for Atlantis and the 34th shuttle mission dedicated to station assembly and maintenance.
context_page_description: Space Shuttle Atlantis is a Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Manufactured by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985, Atlantis is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J from 3 to 7 October 1985.
  Atlantis embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on 8 July 2011. STS-134 by Endeavour was expected to be the final flight before STS-135 was authorized in October 2010. STS-135 took advantage of the processing for the STS-335 Launch on Need mission that would have been necessary if STS-134's crew became stranded in orbit.Atlantis landed for the final time at the Kennedy Space Center on 21 July 2011.
  By the end of its final mission, Atlantis had orbited the Earth a total of 4,848 times, traveling nearly 126,000,000 mi or more than 525 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
context_section_description: Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on its maiden voyage on 3 October 1985, on mission STS-51-J, the second dedicated Department of Defense flight. It flew one other mission, STS-61-B, the second night launch in the shuttle program, before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster temporarily grounded the Shuttle fleet in 1986. Among the five Space Shuttles flown into space, Atlantis conducted a subsequent mission in the shortest time after the previous mission (turnaround time) when it launched in November 1985 on STS-61-B, only 50 days after its previous mission, STS-51-J in October 1985. Atlantis was then used for ten flights between 1988 and 1992. Two of these, both flown in 1989, deployed the planetary probes Magellan to Venus (on STS-30) and Galileo to Jupiter (on STS-34). With STS-30 Atlantis became the first Space Shuttle to launch an interplanetary probe.
  During NASA's 27th Shuttle Launch of STS-27 during an operation to release the payload, which was eventually determined to be a Lacrosse Surveillance satellite, Atlantis lost part of its protective heat shield during lift off, which substantially damaged the underside of her right wing, damaging over 700 tiles, which caused the melting of aluminum plating during her reentry. Before return to Earth, the Commander Robert L. Gibson thought to himself "We are going to die." due to the extensive damage to her wing. Due to the secretive nature of the Atlantis's payload, the crew was forced to use a more secure encrypted transmission, which had more than likely been received at a low quality. NASA engineers thought the damage was just light and shadows, and as a result the crew was infuriated. During reentry, Guy Garder, the pilot for the mission, returned the Shuttle safely. Upon inspection the Shuttle's bottom right wing was seen to be severely damaged in critical areas. Ultimately, the same fate would eventually be the result that destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, due to tile failures, which resulted in the Columbia being ripped apart on reentry. Had Atlantis been destroyed during her mission in 1988, more than likely the second destruction of an Orbiter would have set NASA back at least two years, forced a redesign of the fuel tanks foam coverings and the fragile heat shield plating, or it would have forced NASA to close down the Shuttle Program 30 years before it actually ended.
  During another mission, STS-37 flown in 1991, Atlantis deployed the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Beginning in 1995 with STS-71, Atlantis made seven straight flights to the former Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle-Mir Program. STS-71 marked a number of firsts in human spaceflight: 100th U.S. crewed space flight; first U.S. Shuttle-Russian Space Station Mir docking and joint on-orbit operations; and first on-orbit change-out of shuttle crew. When linked, Atlantis and Mir together formed the largest spacecraft in orbit at the time.
  Shuttle Atlantis also delivered several vital components for the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). During the February 2001 mission STS-98 to the ISS, Atlantis delivered the Destiny Module, the primary operating facility for U.S. research payloads aboard the ISS. The five-hour 25-minute third spacewalk performed by astronauts Robert Curbeam and Thomas Jones during STS-98 marked NASA's 100th extra vehicular activity in space. The Quest Joint Airlock, was flown and installed to the ISS by Atlantis during the mission STS-104 in July 2001. The successful installation of the airlock gave on-board space station crews the ability to stage repair and maintenance spacewalks outside the ISS using U.S. EMU or Russian Orlan space suits. The first mission flown by Atlantis after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was STS-115, conducted during September 2006. The mission carried the P3/P4 truss segments and solar arrays to the ISS. On ISS assembly flight STS-122 in February 2008, Atlantis delivered the Columbus laboratory to the ISS. Columbus laboratory is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency (
caption: Atlantis heads toward Earth orbit at the beginning of STS-132.
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