Atlantis docks with space station one final time - Houston Chronicle

Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station.

At 9:08 a.m. today, the shuttle flew near the space station and performed a 360-degree back flip in space, allowing astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory to photograph the belly of the shuttle.

These images will be sent to imagery experts on the ground who will ensure that the shuttle belly's heat shield tiles were not significantly damaged during Friday's launch.

After the back-flip maneuver, commander Chris Ferguson guided Atlantis toward the station and docked shortly after 10 a.m.

And with that, Atlantis' crew began transferring all that cargo they brought to orbit.

Atlantis spent a nearly flawless first full day in orbit on Saturday, with the space shuttle's crew inspecting the vehicle to ensure it sustained no significant damage during launch.

Although a final assessment of the shuttle's heat shield won't be made until later this week, upon first appearance it looks to be in good condition. During the last mission of the space shuttle program the vehicle, overall, is behaving very well, NASA officials said.

"I couldn't be happier with where we are right now," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.

The four astronauts aboard Atlantis — Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim — spent a busy Saturday in space using a robotic arm with a camera attached to inspect the shuttle's nose and the leading edges of its wings for impact damage.

It's been more than two decades since a shuttle has flown with so few crew members, and there are typically six or seven astronauts on the vehicle to assist with these inspections.

"We normally do have some more hands on board, but I'm happy to report that our four-person crew is staying well ahead of the timeline," Cain said. "And that's saying a lot for flight day two."

NASA assigned just four astronauts to the flight because it wanted to pack the spacecraft with as many supplies as possible for a delivery run to the International Space Station.

Significantly, Atlantis will deliver a year's worth of food to the six space station crew members.

eric.berger@chron.com

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Atlantis docks with space station one final time - Houston Chronicle

Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station.

At 9:08 a.m. today, the shuttle flew near the space station and performed a 360-degree back flip in space, allowing astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory to photograph the belly of the shuttle.

These images will be sent to imagery experts on the ground who will ensure that the shuttle belly's heat shield tiles were not significantly damaged during Friday's launch.

After the back-flip maneuver, commander Chris Ferguson guided Atlantis toward the station and docked shortly after 10 a.m.

And with that, Atlantis' crew began transferring all that cargo they brought to orbit.

Atlantis spent a nearly flawless first full day in orbit on Saturday, with the space shuttle's crew inspecting the vehicle to ensure it sustained no significant damage during launch.

Although a final assessment of the shuttle's heat shield won't be made until later this week, upon first appearance it looks to be in good condition. During the last mission of the space shuttle program the vehicle, overall, is behaving very well, NASA officials said.

"I couldn't be happier with where we are right now," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.

The four astronauts aboard Atlantis — Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim — spent a busy Saturday in space using a robotic arm with a camera attached to inspect the shuttle's nose and the leading edges of its wings for impact damage.

It's been more than two decades since a shuttle has flown with so few crew members, and there are typically six or seven astronauts on the vehicle to assist with these inspections.

"We normally do have some more hands on board, but I'm happy to report that our four-person crew is staying well ahead of the timeline," Cain said. "And that's saying a lot for flight day two."

NASA assigned just four astronauts to the flight because it wanted to pack the spacecraft with as many supplies as possible for a delivery run to the International Space Station.

Significantly, Atlantis will deliver a year's worth of food to the six space station crew members.

eric.berger@chron.com

View the original article here

Marking 10 years aboard the International Space Station (photos) - CNET

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Va. shooting at vacant Marine recruiting station linked to other incidents - Washington Post

An overnight shooting at a vacant Marine Corps recruiting station in Chantilly this week has been definitively linked to two recent attacks on U.S. military buildings in Northern Virginia.

The FBI's Washington Field Office announced Thursday that evidence collected at the recruiting station Tuesday morning matched evidence found at the scenes of similar shootings at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle on Oct. 17 and at the Pentagon in the early hours of Oct. 19. FBI officials said the same weapon was used in all three shootings, but they have not indicated what type of weapon was used or the caliber of ammunition found at the scenes.

Each shooting occurred late at night or early in the morning, when the buildings were either vacant or when it was unlikely that people would be there.

Law enforcement officials said that they have no sense of a motive for the shootings.

"We're following all possible leads at this point,'' a said Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the FBI's Washington Field Office. The office's Joint Terrorism Task Force is leading the investigation.

Anyone with information about the shootings can call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-8477.

- Josh White and Maria Glod

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Soyuz Spacecraft Docks at Space Station With New Crew - FOXNews

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts successfully docked their Soyuz spacecraft at the International Space Station on Saturday to begin a months-long stay on the orbiting laboratory.

The new Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft linked up with the space station at 8:01 p.m. EDT, ending a trip that began with a launch two days earlier from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Riding aboard the Soyuz are American astronaut Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. The three men are expected to spend more than five months aboard the International Space Station.

"We have contact," one of the spaceflyers said as the Soyuz TMA-01M vehicle docked at the space station. Both spacecraft were flying more than 220 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast from Chile.

The trio rounded out the Expedition 25 crew already aboard space station – commander Doug Wheelock and flight engineer Shannon Walker, both of NASA, and Russian flight engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Astronaut Twin in Space

All six spaceflyers shared warm hugs and smiles after the hatches between their two spacecraft were opened.

One of them, Scott Kelly, got a special call from his twin brother Mark – who is also a NASA astronaut.

The Kelly brothers are both U.S. Navy captains and the world's only identical twin astronauts. 

They plan to meet up in March 2011 when Mark Kelly will lead NASA's final flight of the shuttle Endeavour, which will visit the space station while Scott is in command.

During his call, Mark Kelly joked that he was actually Scott and that the twins had switched places before the Soyuz launch because "six months in space is a long time."

In reality, Scott Kelly is in space, but he laughed out loud at his older (by six minutes) brother's joke.

"That is pretty funny," Scott said with a smile.

Mark promised to bring his brother's stuff to the space station when he visits next year.

Busy Mission Ahead

In November, Scott Kelly will take command of the station's Expedition 26 mission, when Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin return home.

During their stay, the astronauts will be involved in general upkeep of the station, as well as a variety of scientific research and experiments.

Those experiments began at launch, which marked the first flight test of Russia's new Soyuz vehicle model, the TMA-01M, which features upgrade navigation systems among other improvements.

"The main goal is to keep the station in good shape and to maintain all the equipment working, and to perform a huge scientific program for all the international partners," Kaleri said in a preflight interview. "For me personally, my main task will be to test the upgraded Soyuz in flight.

So for me, the most important and most valuable flight stages will be from the launch to the docking, from undocking to landing."

While this flight is Skripochka's first trip into space, his crewmembers, Kelly and Kaleri, are both veteran spaceflyers who have made previous visits to the space station.

Space Anniversary Coming Soon

The crew will be aboard the space station during the 10th anniversary of the first crew ever sent to the orbiting laboratory. That first crew, the three-man Expedition 1, launched on Oct. 31, 2000 and arrived on Nov. 2 of that year.

In 2000, the space station only consisted of two Russian modules and a U.S. connecting node. Today, $100 billion space station has more than 10 rooms, as much living space as a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, and a main truss as long as a football field. It is the product of five difference space agencies and 15 different countries.

The station's Expedition 25 crew plans to host two visiting space shuttle flights – the shuttle Discovery in November and Endeavour in February next year – plus the arrival of European and Japanese unmanned freighter ships.

Endeavour's STS-134 mission next year – commanded by Mark Kelly – is the last shuttle flight currently set on NASA's books, though one more shuttle trip may be added to the lineup if President Obama signs the NASA authorization bill recently passed by Congress and it passes through an appropriation review.

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