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STS-122: The mission

Atlantis' trip to the station will deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus science lab module.

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STS-122: The programs

Managers from the shuttle, station and EVA programs discuss Atlantis' upcoming flight.

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STS-122: Spacewalks

Three spacewalks are planned during Atlantis' STS-122 assembly mission. Lead spacewalk officer Anna Jarvis previews the EVAs.

 Full briefing
 EVA 1 summary
 EVA 2 summary
 EVA 3 summary

The Atlantis crew

The astronauts of Atlantis' STS-122 mission meet the press in the traditional pre-flight news conference.

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Harmony's big move

The station's new Harmony module is detached from the Unity hub and moved to its permanent location on the Destiny lab.

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Delta 4-Heavy launch

The first operational Delta 4-Heavy rocket launches the final Defense Support Program missile warning satellite for the Air Force.

 Full coverage

Columbus readied

The European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory module moves to pad 39A and placed aboard shuttle Atlantis for launch.

 To pad | Installed

Station port moved

The station crew uses the robot arm to detach the main shuttle docking port and mount it to the new Harmony module Nov. 12.

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Atlantis rolls out

Space shuttle Atlantis rolls from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad 39A for its December launch with the Columbus module.

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Atlantis goes vertical

Atlantis is hoisted upright and maneuvered into position for attachment to the external tank and boosters.

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Good weather expected for Wednesday's landing
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: February 19, 2008

The Atlantis astronauts checked out the shuttle's re-entry systems today and packed for landing Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center to close out a successful space station assembly mission. Forecasters are predicting near ideal conditions at the Florida spaceport, with scattered clouds, light winds and good visibility expected.

"The weather forecasts, I've been looking at them almost the last week, the models and the weather forecasts have all been real consistent on what today and tomorrow are going to look like," said entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney. "Today panned out exactly as they said it would and I've got every expectation tomorrow will as well."

He said Atlantis is in good condition and that problems with a heater circuit affecting four small vernier rocket thrusters would have no impact on the shuttle's re-entry. Engineers are equally confident a kinked Freon coolant line in the shuttle's cargo bay will not cause any problems.

Atlantis has enough supplies on board to remain in orbit until Friday in a worst-case scenario. But NASA has activated its backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in a bid to get the shuttle down Wednesday, on one coast or another, to clear the way for a Navy attempt to shoot down a falling spy satellite.

It's not known when the shoot-down attempt will be made, but amateur satellite trackers monitoring the descent of the crippled NROL-21 satellite say a "notice to airmen," or NOTAM, issued by air traffic control in Honolulu Monday https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/distribution/center.html establishes a restricted zone west of Hawaii that NROL-21 will pass over Wednesday evening East Coast time. But the NOTAM does not specify the reason for the restricted airspace and the subject line of an email alerting satellite trackers ended with a question mark.

Editor's note: Interested readers can check the current location of NROL-21 (also known by its orbital designation USA 193) at the Heavens Above website.

Commander Steve Frick and his six crewmates - pilot Alan Poindexter, flight engineer Rex Walheim, Leland Melvin, Stan Love, European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel and returning station flier Dan Tani - have two opportunities on successive orbits to land in Florida Wednesday, followed by two opportunities at Edwards.

The wind is expected to kick up in Florida for the second opportunity, making crosswinds a potential issue, while forecasters are predicting a slight chance of rain within 30 nautical miles of Edwards.

Lunney said the astronauts likely will only have enough water on board for cooling after the cargo bay doors are closed to support three of the four opportunities.

"If in the morning we realize we're only going to have three consecutive opportunities ... we'll assess the weather, and if the weather looks good at KSC, we'll shoot for those first two opportunities with the third being Edwards," Lunney said. "If the weather at KSC goes really bad for us against all the forecasts we've had so opportunities as our backups."

Asked if he was under any pressure to get Atlantis down before the satellite shoot-down attempt, Lunney said "no pressure. I'm not going to land the vehicle until its safe to do so for the crew and we're not going to alter any of our rules, because it's not safe. So if the weather's good on Wednesday, we're going to land on Wednesday. If not, then I'll push to Thursday."

Here are the latest deorbit and landing times for Wednesday (in EST/GMT and mission elapsed time):


07:59:54 AM...12...17...14...Deorbit ignition (orbit 202)
09:07:39 AM...12...18...22...Landing at KSC

09:35:20 AM...12...18...50...Deorbit ignition (orbit 203)
10:42:35 AM...12...19...57...Landing at KSC

11:05:15 AM...12...20...20...Deorbit ignition (orbit 204)
12:12:31 PM...12...21...27...Landing at Edwards Air Force Base

12:41:25 PM...12...21...56...Deorbit ignition (orbit 205)
01:47:34 PM...12...23...02...Landing at Edwards Air Force Base

"We're certainly very hopeful we'll be getting home tomorrow to the Kennedy Space Center," Frick told ABC News earlier today. "It sounds like we'll be very likely to land either at Kennedy or Edwards tomorrow and we'd like very much to land at Kennedy. All our families are waiting for us there, we've been up here for all of two weeks, most of us, Dan of course has been up here much longer, and we're very excited to see our families. We miss them very much and we're looking forward to getting home."

Asked what he thought about the satellite shoot-down effort, Frick said "my first thought when we talked about that was 'go Navy!'"

"But Capt. Poindexter and myself are obviously very excited about the upcoming event they're going to have with the satellite, we're interested to see how it happens," Frick told CNN. "We're not concerned about it, certainly we're going to be safely on the ground and the space station is going to be safely well above the deorbiting satellite. But we'll be interested to watch it and see what happens."

He described the risk of space debris as minimal, to either the shuttle or the space station.

"The only reason we're concerned about the space shuttle is because ... that satellite is below us," he said. "We, of course, have to descend through its altitude on our re-entry. The space station is up at about 185 nautical miles, well above any debris, and once they break the satellite up, the debris is just going to slowly descend ... and drop into the atmosphere and burn up."

Over the course of the mission, the Atlantis astronauts staged three spacewalks, delivered and installed the 26,627-pound European Space Agency Columbus research module, two external experiment packages totaling 1,409 pounds and a fresh tank of high-pressure nitrogen for the station's ammonia cooling system that tipped the scales at 1,.069 pounds.

The shuttle is bringing 2,242 pounds of station hardware back to Earth in its cargo bay, including a spent nitrogen tank and a faulty control moment gyroscope. Some 1,299 pounds of supplies and equipment were transferred from the shuttle cabin to the space station, including a new solar alpha rotary joint drive motor, and 1,343 pounds of equipment was moved from the station to the shuttle's cabin for return to Earth.

The astronauts transferred 1,386 pounds of fresh water to the space station, 95 pounds of oxygen and 27 pounds of nitrogen.

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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: GOVERNMENT BRIEFING ON SATELLITE SHOOT-DOWN PLAN PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 9 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 8 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 6 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: MONDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: COLUMBUS MODULE HOISTED OUT OF SHUTTLE BAY PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF COLUMBUS' ATTACHMENT PLAY
VIDEO: OVERVIEW ANIMATION OF COLUMBUS MODULE PLAY
VIDEO: GUIDED TOUR OF ATLANTIS' PAYLOAD BAY PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF TODAY'S SPACEWALK PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: POST-MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE ATLANTIS DOCKS TO SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS PERFORMS THE 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP PLAY
VIDEO: VIEWS OF THE SHUTTLE APPROACHING FROM BELOW PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS COMPLETES THE "TI" BURN PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF THE DOCKING PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS EXPLAINED PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-1 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-2 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-6 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: FRONT CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 009 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 049 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 050 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 051 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 054 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 060 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: NARRATED REVIEW OF ATLANTIS' LAUNCH PREPS PLAY | XL SIZE
VIDEO: NASA AND ESA POST-LAUNCH NEWS BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: FULL LENGTH LAUNCH MOVIE! PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS BLASTS OFF WITH COLUMBUS PLAY
VIDEO: POLLS GIVE THE FINAL "GO" TO LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON THEIR SPACESUITS FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP DOCKS TO STATION THIS MORNING PLAY
VIDEO: PAD GANTRY ROLLED BACK THE NIGHT BEFORE LAUNCH PLAY

VIDEO: COLUMBUS AND ATV OVERVIEW BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY MORNING'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY'S CARGO SHIP UNDOCKING FROM STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS' PAYLOAD BAY DOORS CLOSED FOR FLIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: CREW RETURNS TO KENNEDY SPACE CENTER FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY MORNING'S COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: POST-FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: STS-122 ASTRONAUT BIOGRAPHIES PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED OVERVIEW OF ATLANTIS' MISSION PLAY
VIDEO: INSIGHTS INTO COLUMBUS SCIENCE LABORATORY PLAY
VIDEO: STS-122 MISSION OVERVIEW BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON THE SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH STEVE FRICK PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH ALAN POINDEXTER PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH LELAND MELVIN PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH REX WALHEIM PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH HANS SCHLEGEL PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH STANLEY LOVE PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INTERVIEW WITH LEOPOLD EYHARTS PLAY
MORE: STS-122 VIDEO COVERAGE
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