Atlantis Back Home Following Ambitious Mission

November 28, 2009 — Space Shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday morning, ending an 11-day mission that included installing two new platforms to the International Space Station’s truss, or backbone. The platforms hold spare parts to sustain station operations after the shuttles are retired. In fact, the shuttle crew delivered about 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for systems that provide power to the station, keep it from overheating, and maintain a proper orientation in space. The shuttle left the space station 86 percent complete, weighing 759,222 pounds. At a press conference Friday afternoon, Commander Charles O. Hobaugh described how well Atlantis performed from launch to landing, and talked about the incredible amount of work that went into preparing both the shuttle and the crew for this ambitious mission. Hobaugh introduced his crew and the tasks each member was responsible for. He mentioned Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik was not present at the briefing because he flew home to be with his wife and new baby girl, Abigail Mae, born while he was still in orbit. Astronaut Nicole Stott returned to Earth after 91 days in space. She had spent 87 days aboard the space station and 80 days as a flight engineer. She is the last astronaut who will be transported to or from the space station by the space shuttle. Atlantis flew 171 orbits around Earth and traveled about 4.5 million miles since its November 16 launch. STS-129 was not only the 31st mission for Atlantis, it was the 31st shuttle mission to the ISS as well as the fifth and final flight of 2009. In the next shuttle mission, Endeavour is scheduled for a February 4, 2010 launch. STS-130 will deliver a third connecting module - the Tranquility node - to the station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics.

Space shuttle Atlantis lands on runway 33 at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility concluding the STS-129 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller Set against a background of clouds, the International Space Station is seen from space shuttle Atlantis after undocking. Photo credit: NASA

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