CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - With the successful Wednesday landing of NASA's shuttle
Atlantis, the stage is set for a busy year of construction at the International
Space Station (ISS).
The
seven-astronaut crew of Atlantis delivered the European-built Columbus
laboratory to the ISS in the first of up to six shuttle flights - the most in a single year since
2001 - to continue station assembly and overhaul the
Hubble Space Telescope.
"I can't
think of a better way to start this year out than this wonderful flight we just
had," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's space operations chief, after Atlantis
touched down at 9:07 a.m. EST (1407 GMT) here at the agency's
Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
Commanded
by veteran shuttle flyer Stephen Frick, Atlantis' STS-122
crew installed and activated the 23-foot (7-meter) long Columbus laboratory
for the European Space Agency (ESA). The astronauts also performed maintenance work
and swapped out one member of the station's Expedition 16 crew. But even before
Atlantis returned to Earth, its sister ship Endeavour rolled out to the launch
pad for a planned March 11 liftoff to haul a Japanese module and two-armed
Canadian robot to the ISS.
"It feels
really good to be having missions back-to-back like this again," NASA launch
director Mike Leinbach said.
Endeavour's
STS-123 mission will deliver the first segment of Japan's three-part Kibo
laboratory to the ISS along with the Canadian Space Agency's Dextre attachment
for the station's robotic arm. NASA pushed a third flight, initially slated to
fly April 24 aboard Discovery, to May 25 due to delays in the preparation of
its external fuel tank, but the move is not expected to impact the agency's
shuttle lineup.
"We're just
going to work these flights one at a time," Gerstenmaier said. "We've got good
plans in place. We'll see how things work."
In addition
to the next three shuttle missions, NASA plans to launch an August flight to
Hubble and two other flights, slated for October and December, respectively, to
rotate crewmembers, haul cargo and deliver new solar arrays at the ISS.
"It's just
going to be a joy to get through this year with five more launches," said
Leinbach, adding that there will be little time for complacency among his
launch teams.
NASA's
international partners also have a busy few months ahead. ESA officials plan to
launch Jules Verne, the first Automated
Transfer Vehicle cargo ship, to the ISS on March 7 while Russia is set to
launch a new station crew to the orbiting laboratory on April 8. Discovery has
until about March 23 to launch in between those two flights, mission managers
said.
Gerstenmaier
said the U.S. military's plan to shoot
down a failing spy satellite laden with a half-ton of toxic rocket fuel should
not pose a debris risk to the Endeavour's March launch, which is now less than three
weeks away. The U.S. Navy was waiting until Atlantis landed before going ahead
with a missile launch to knock down the bus-sized reconnaissance satellite
later this week.
"We don't
think it'll be a problem, but we'll continue to analyze it to make sure that it's
not a problem or a concern to us," Gerstenmaier said.
Leinbach said
Atlantis and its astronaut crew are in fine shape after their landing earlier
today. In addition to delivering the station's new Columbus lab, Atlantis astronauts
returned U.S. spaceflyer Dan Tani to Earth to end his four-month stint as an
ISS Expedition 16 flight engineer.
"He's doing
great," Gerstenmaier said, adding that, like all long-duration astronauts, Tani
will spend the next few weeks recovering from months of living without gravity.
"He's in great shape."
ESA
astronaut Leopold Eyharts of France relieved Tani and will stay aboard the
station until his own replacement arrives next month. Atlantis' STS-122 mission
marked NASA's 121st shuttle flight and the eighth to fly since the 2003
Columbia accident.
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