• 07/21/11: Post-landing news conference; astronaut news conference; re-entry photo
• 07/21/11: Shuttle Atlantis glides to final landing
• 07/21/11: Astronauts prepare Atlantis for final re-entry
• 07/21/11: Good weather expected for final shuttle landing
• 07/20/11: Adding CBS News crew interview; flight control system checkout complete
• 07/19/11: Shuttle crew packs up for landing
• 07/19/11: Shuttle-station fly-around complete; adding quotes and pictures
• 07/19/11: Shuttle undocks from space station
• 07/19/11: Shuttle Atlantis set for final undocking
• 07/18/11: Shuttle astronauts bid station crew farewell, return to Atlantis
• 07/18/11: Raffaello cargo module returned to shuttle payload bay
• 07/18/11: Atlantis astronauts gear up to move cargo module back to shuttle
• 07/17/11: Cargo transfer work complete
• 07/17/11: Astronauts wrap up station resupply work
• 07/16/11: Shuttle crew focuses on repacking cargo module
• 07/15/11: Shuttle commander optimistic suspect computer will work normally for re-entry
• 07/15/11: Shuttle flight computer restarted; cargo transfers continue
• 07/14/11: General purpose computer No. 4 fails
• 07/14/11: Astronauts pleased with progress of smooth mission
• 07/14/11: Astronauts continue resupply transfer work; look forward to half-day off
• 07/13/11: Astronauts halfway through supply transfers; station toilet back in operation
• 07/13/11: Astronauts focus on cargo transfers
• 07/12/11: EVA-1: Final spacewalk of shuttle era ends; all objectives accomplished
• 07/12/11: EVA-1: Robotic refueling kit attached to space station
• 07/12/11: EVA-1: Failed pump module moved to shuttle cargo bay
• 07/12/11: EVA-1: Spacewalk begins
• 07/12/11: Space station astronauts gear up for spacewalk
• 07/11/11: Shuttle mission extended one day; heat shield in good shape, no focused inspection needed
• 07/11/11: Cargo module opened; shuttle computer restarted
• 07/11/11: Cargo module unberthed from shuttle cargo bay
• 07/10/11: News briefing; details about computer issue; possible space debris encounter
• 07/10/11: Shuttle Atlantis docks with space station
• 07/10/11: Shuttle Atlantis closes in on International Space Station
• 07/09/11: Nose cap, wing leading edge inspections complete; station rendezvous continues; adding docking timeline
• 07/09/11: Astronauts kick off heat shield inspections, docking preps
• 07/08/11: Atlantis rockets into history as NASA's final shuttle flight begins
• 07/07/11: Astronauts head for launch pad; updated weather forecast
• 07/08/11: Fueling complete
• 07/08/11: Shuttle fueling underway
• 07/07/11: Initial review finds no issues with lightning strikes
• 07/07/11: Engineering review board ordered to assess lightning strike
• 07/06/11: Pre-launch news conference; Moses hopeful about Friday launch
• 07/06/11: Shuttle forecast worsens to 70 percent 'no go'
• 07/05/11: STS-135 mission preview posted
• 07/05/11 Update: Countdown begins for final shuttle flight; stormy weather expected
• 07/04/11 Update: Atlantis crew flies to Florida for final shuttle launch
• 06/22/11: External tank inspections proceeding smoothly, fuel valve replaced
• 06/20/11: Atlantis crew flies to Florida for emergency training, practice countdown
• 06/16/11: Engineers gear up for Atlantis external tank inspections, engine fuel valve replacement
• 06/15/11: Shuttle fueling test complete; engine fuel valve update
• 06/15/11: Shuttle fueled; possible main engine fuel valve leak detected
• 06/15/11: Shuttle Atlantis cleared for storm-delayed fueling test
• 06/15/11: Shuttle fueling test held up in wake of thunderstorms
• 06/01/11: Shuttle Endeavour ends final mission; Atlantis moved to pad
• 05/20/11: Shuttle Atlantis re-targeted for July 8 launch
• 09/14/10: Crew named for possible final shuttle mission

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--By the light of a waning moon, the shuttle Atlantis fell back to Earth Thursday, dropping out of predawn darkness to close out NASA's 135th and final shuttle voyage, a long-awaited -- and long-dreaded -- milestone marking the end of an era for American manned space flight.

Coming home to a future clouded by tight budgets and uncertain political support, commander Christopher Ferguson guided Atlantis through a sweeping left overhead turn and lined up on runway 15, quickly descending into the glare of powerful xenon spotlights.

Approaching the 3-mile-long runway, Ferguson pulled the shuttle's nose up in a graceful flare, pilot Douglas Hurley lowered the ship's landing gear and Atlantis settled to a tire-smoking touchdown at 5:57:00 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). A few seconds later, as Atlantis barreled down the runway at more than 200 mph, Hurley deployed a red-and-white braking parachute and the shuttle's nose gear settled to the runway.

"Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end," said mission control commentator Rob Navias.

A few moments later, Atlantis coasted to a halt on the runway centerline, bringing three decades of shuttle operations to a close.

"Mission complete, Houston," Ferguson radioed. "After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. It's come to a final stop."

"We copy your wheels stopped, and we'll take this opportunity to congratulate you, Atlantis, as well as the thousands of passionate individuals across this great, space-faring nation who truly empower this incredible spacecraft, which for three decades has inspired millions around the globe," replied astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore from mission control in Houston. "Job well done."

"Hey thanks, Butch, great words, great words," Ferguson said. "You know, the space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe. There are a lot of emotions today, but one thing is indisputable -- America's not going to stop exploring.

"Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and our ship, Atlantis," he said. "Thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end. God bless all of you, God bless the United States of America."

Ferguson, Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim doffed their 70-pound pressure suits and joined dozens of NASA managers, engineers and contractors, many awaiting layoffs, for a traditional runway inspection, smiling and sharing hugs and handshakes as they celebrated a safe homecoming.

"They have come to be known as the 'final four,' and they did an absolutely incredible job," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "We've been exploring since early in our country's history. What Fergie and his crew did this time was kind of close out this era of our exploration. I want everybody who was involved in this to feel incredibly proud. ... We owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of folk around the country who made all this possible."

Ferguson spoke briefly for the crew, saying "There was a lot of attention paid to this mission, because it does bring to a final close 30 years of space shuttle history."

"Although we got to take the ride, we sure hope that everybody who's ever worked or touched or looked at or envied or admired a space shuttle was able to take just a little part of the journey with us," he said. "We're going to put Atlantis in a museum now, along with the other orbiters, for generations that will come after us, to admire and appreciate.

"On behalf of the crew, thanks so much for the time and attention," he said. "For the folks at KSC, thank you for this fantastic vehicle. It performed absolutely wonderfully, not a glitch, and it's just as pristine as it was, I hope, on the day that we took it."

Landing closed out a voyage spanning 5.3 million miles and 200 complete orbits since blastoff July 8 from nearby launch pad 39A, a mission duration of 12 days 18 hours 27 minutes and 56 seconds. Over the course of 33 missions, Atlantis logged an estimated 125,935,769 miles, 4,848 orbits and 307 days in space.

Launch Director Mike Leinbach captured the mood of many at the Florida spaceport when he described Atlantis' homecoming as a family affair tinged with sadness and hope for the future.

"I heard nothing but pride out on the runway today," he said. "When I talked to people between the hugs and the pats on the back, the pride that they have of having been part of this amazing program, this amazing bit of history. No one can ever take that away from us."

During a virtually trouble-free mission, Ferguson and his crewmates delivered five-and-a-half tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station and helped with a spacewalk to retrieve a failed coolant pump.

The supplies are critical to the space station program. Two companies, Space Exploration Technologies -- SpaceX -- and Orbital Sciences, are building unmanned cargo ships to take over from the shuttle after the fleet is retired with initial test flights expected later this year or early next.

Atlantis' mission was added to the shuttle manifest to deliver enough supplies to keep the station provisioned through 2012 as a hedge against development problems that might delay the commercial cargo ships.

Now, with Atlantis and its crew safely home, the emotional process of remembrance and celebration finally began in earnest as engineers and technicians marveled anew at the technological grandeur of the winged spaceplane and struggled to cope with the reality that it will never fly again.

"Out on the runway, I found myself, as I did with Discovery and Endeavour, taking in the beauty of the vehicle, standing back and taking pictures, taking pictures of the workers, them asking for a picture with me, it was just a family event out there today," Leinbach said. "Hard to describe the emotions. There were good emotions that we brought the crew home safely, and the mission's complete, certainly sadness that it's over and people will be moving on.

"Hate to see them leave," he said, "but that's a reality. I saw grown men and grown women crying today. Tears of joy, to be sure, just human emotions came out on the runway today. You couldn't suppress them."

Ferguson and his crewmates no doubt felt those same emotions.

"After the wheels have stopped and the displays go blank and the orbiter is unpowered for the final time ... there will be a rush of emotion when we all finally realize that's it, that it's all over, the crowning jewel of our space program, the way we got back and forth from low-Earth orbit for 30 years ... we'll realize that's all over," Ferguson said before launch. "That's going to take a little while to deal with."

The landing also brought into sharp focus the post-Columbia decision by the Bush administration to complete the space station and retire the shuttle to make way for new rockets and the establishment of moon bases by the early 2020s, a program deemed unaffordable by the Obama administration.

Instead of returning to the moon, NASA was told to oversee development of new commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. The administration believes that will allow NASA to focus on eventual missions to explore deep space targets ranging from the moon to Mars.

In the meantime, until new commercial spacecraft can be tested and certified for flight -- a process expected to take three to five years at best -- NASA astronauts will be forced to hitch rides to and from the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz rockets.

That reliance, along with tight budgets, the lack of a firm timetable and targets for deep space missions lead many to question whether the United States can maintain its leadership on the high frontier.

"The challenge of space is not in building the space systems, it is in building the space team," legendary Apollo 11 Flight Director Gene Kranz said in an email before Atlantis' launch. "With the termination of shuttle operations the NASA and contractor work force that took a decade to build and mature is being destroyed.

"Now, with inept national and space leadership, we stand with both feet firmly planted on the ground. Our nation has surrendered the high ground that the NASA space team captured July 20, 1969."

Not surprisingly, Bolden disagrees, saying the Obama administration's push to develop commercial spacecraft represents a more realistic, sustainable course for the nation's space program in an era of competing priorities.

"This final shuttle flight marks the end of an era, but today, we recommit ourselves to continuing human spaceflight and taking the necessary and difficult steps to ensure America's leadership in human spaceflight for years to come," Bolden said in a statement.

"Children who dream of being astronauts today may not fly on the space shuttle but, one day, they may walk on Mars. The future belongs to us. And just like those who came before us, we have an obligation to set an ambitious course and take an inspired nation along for the journey."

Regardless of where one stands on the value of the space shuttle and the wisdom of retiring the fleet before a replacement spacecraft is available, everyone seems to agree on one point: the sheer spectacle of space shuttles taking off and landing will be missed.

"That is the most graceful, beautiful vehicle we've had to fly in space, ever, and it's going to be a long time until you see a vehicle ... as beautiful as that," Walheim said before launch. "How can you beat that? An airplane on the side of a rocket. It's absolutely stunning.

"So I think we lose a little bit of grace, of beauty, and also a little bit of majesty. You can't watch that vehicle roll by without thinking what an amazing achievement America has, that America can build something like that, put people inside and sling them off this Earth into space. It's absolutely amazing."

Over the course of the shuttle program's 30-year space odyssey, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour carried more than 3.5 million pounds of cargo to orbit, brought another 230,000 pounds of equipment back to Earth and deployed 180 satellites and space station components.

It was the only reusable manned spacecraft ever built, the only launch vehicle equipped with an airlock and the first to feature a robot arm, a technological marvel that gave the shuttle its unique ability to precisely position spacewalking astronauts, to deploy and retrieve satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope and to assemble the International Space Station.

Over the past three decades, experiencing virtually no technical problems, the Canadian-built robot arm deployed or retrieved seven satellites, assisted in 115 spacewalks, delivered 30 space station components and grappled 72 payloads. In its last performance, the arm was used Tuesday to carry out a final inspection of Atlantis' heat shield.

Leinbach said the shuttle workforce, bracing for major layoffs in the days and weeks ahead, was ready to move on. Hundreds gathered near Atlantis' hangar to welcome the shuttle home, cheering, waving American flags and enjoying hot dogs in the broiling Florida sun.

"There are four phases of change, right? And it doesn't matter what the change is, any major change in one's life you go through these four stages -- it's denial, anger, exploration and acceptance," he said. "We've all been through that now in the shuttle program and we've accepted the fact that it's over. This is the end of the program, and people will move on and do well. ... It's important, but it's not the end of the world. The sun will rise again tomorrow."

Earlier this week, Ferguson told flight controllers finishing their final shifts to pause for a moment before leaving the building and to "turn around and make a memory."

He made his own memory Thursday with a textbook descent from orbit and a ghostly, picture-perfect landing.

Flying upside down and backward over the Indian Ocean, Ferguson and Hurley fired the shuttle's twin braking rockets for three minutes and 16 seconds starting at 4:49:04 a.m., slowing the ship by about 225 miles per hour to drop out of orbit.

A half hour later, the shuttle plunged into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of about 75 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean, enduring the hellish heat of re-entry as it descended along a northeasterly trajectory back toward the Kennedy Space Center.

"Hey Houston, how you doing?" Ferguson called out. "We're doing fantastic. Wish we could share with everybody this really cool glow, it's just amazing outside."

The flight path carried Atlantis high above Central America, across the Gulf of Mexico just west of Cuba and on to Florida, approaching the Kennedy Space Center from the southwest.

Heralded by the shuttle's signature dual sonic booms as Atlantis dropped below the speed of sound, Ferguson took over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet, guiding the shuttle through a sweeping 240-degree left turn to line up on runway 15 for the shuttle program's last landing.

"It's come to a final stop," he called.

And it was so.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--By the light of a waning moon, the shuttle Atlantis fell back to Earth Thursday, dropping out of predawn darkness to close out NASA's 135th and final shuttle voyage, a long-awaited and to many, dreaded, milestone marking the end of an era for American manned space flight.

Coming home to a future clouded by tight budgets and uncertain political support, commander Christopher Ferguson guided Atlantis through a sweeping left overhead turn and lined up on runway 15, quickly descending into the glare of powerful xenon spotlights.

Approaching the 3-mile-long runway, Ferguson pulled the shuttle's nose up in a graceful flare, pilot Douglas Hurley lowered the ship's landing gear and Atlantis settled to a tire-smoking touchdown at 5:57:00 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). A few seconds later, as Atlantis barreled down the runway at more than 200 mph, Hurley deployed a red-and-white braking parachute and the shuttle's nose gear settled to the runway.

"Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, it's place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end," said mission control commentator Rob Navias.

A few moments later, Atlantis coasted to a halt on the runway centerline, bringing three decades of shuttle operations to a close.

"Mission complete, Houston," Ferguson radioed. "After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. It's come to a final stop."

"We copy your wheels stopped, and we'll take this opportunity to congratulate you, Atlantis, as well as the thousands of passionate individuals across this great, space faring nation who truly empower this incredible spacecraft, which for three decades has inspired millinos around the globe," replied astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore from mission control in Houston. "Job well done."

"Hey thanks, Butch, great words, great words," Ferguson said. "You know, the space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe. There are a lot of emotions today, but one thing is indisputable -- America's not going to stop exploring.

"Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and our ship, Atlantis," he said. "Thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end. God bless all of you, God bless the United States of America."

Ferguson, Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim planned to doff their 70-pound pressure suits and join dozens of NASA managers, engineers and contractors, many awaiting layoffs, for a traditional runway inspection.

Landing closed out a voyage spanning 5.3 million miles and 200 complete orbits since blastoff July 8 from nearby launch pad 39A, a mission duration of 12 days 18 hours 27 minutes and 56 seconds. Over the course of 33 missions, Atlantis logged 125,935,769 miles, 4,848 orbits and 307 days in space.

During a virtually trouble-free mission, Ferguson and his crewmates delivered five-and-a-half tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station and helped with a spacewalk to retrieve a failed coolant pump.

The supplies are critical to the space station program. Two companies, Space Exploration Technologies -- SpaceX -- and Orbital Sciences, are building unmanned cargo ships to take over from the shuttle after the fleet is retired with initial test flights expected later this year or early next.

Atlantis' mission was added to the shuttle manifest to deliver enough supplies to keep the station provisioned through 2012 as a hedge against development problems that might delay the commercial cargo ships.

Now, with Atlantis and its crew safely home, the emotional process of remembrance and celebration finally began in earnest as engineers and technicians marveled anew at the technological grandeur of the winged spaceplane and struggled to cope with the reality that it will never fly again.

"After the wheels have stopped and the displays go blank and the orbiter is unmpowered for the final time ... there will be a rush of emotion when we all finally realize that's it, that it's all over, the crowning jewel of our space program, the way we got back and forth from low-Earth orbit for 30 years ... we'll realize that's all over," Ferguson said before launch. "That's going to take a little while to deal with."

The landing also brought into sharp focus the post-Columbia decision by the Bush administration to complete the space station and retire the shuttle to make way for new rockets and the establishment of moon bases by the early 2020s, a program deemed unaffordable by the Obama administration.

Instead of returning to the moon, NASA was told to oversee development of new commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. The administration believes that will allow NASA to focus on eventual missions to explore deep space targets ranging from the moon to Mars.

In the meantime, until new commercial spacecraft can be tested and certified for flight -- a process expected to take three to five years at best -- NASA astronauts will be forced to hitch rides to and from the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz rockets.

That reliance, along with tight budgets, the lack of a firm timetable and targets for deep space missions lead many to question whether the United States can maintain its leadership on the high frontier.

"The challenge of space is not in building the space systems, it is in building the space team," legendary Apollo 11 Flight Director Gene Kranz said in an email before Atlantis' launch. "With the termination of shuttle operations the NASA and contractor work force that took a decade to build and mature is being destroyed.

"Now, with inept national and space leadership, we stand with both feet firmly planted on the ground. Our nation has surrendered the high ground that the NASA space team captured July 20, 1969."

Not surprisingly, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden disagrees, saying the Obama administration's push to develop commercial spacecraft represents a more realistic, sustainable course for the nation's space program in an era of competing priorities.

"Some say that our final shuttle mission will mark the end of America's 50 years of dominance in human spaceflight," he said before launch. "As a former astronaut and the current NASA administrator, I want to tell you that American leadership in space will continue for at least the next half-century because we have laid the foundation for success."

Regardless of where one stands on the value of the space shuttle and the wisdom of retiring the fleet before a replacement spacecraft is available, everyone seems to agree on one point: the sheer spectacle of space shuttles taking off and landing will be missed.

"That is the most graceful, beautiful vehicle we've had to fly in space, ever, and it's going to be a long time until you see a vehicle ... as beautiful as that," Walheim said before launch. "How can you beat that? An airplane on the side of a rocket. It's absolutely stunning.

"So I think we lose a little bit of grace, of beauty, and also a little bit of majesty. You can't watch that vehicle roll by without thinking what an amazing achievement America has, that America can build something like that, put people inside and sling them off this Earth into space. It's absolutely amazing."

Over the course of the shuttle program's 30-year space odyssey, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour carried more than 3.5 million pounds of cargo to orbit, brought another 230,000 pounds of equipment back to Earth and deployed 180 satellites and space station components.

It was the only reuseable manned spacecraft ever built, the only vehicle to feature an airlock and the first to be equipped with a robot arm, a technological marvel that gave the shuttle its unique ability to precisely position spacewalking astronauts, to deploy and retrieve satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope and to assemble the International Space Station.

Over the past three decades, experiencing virtually no technical problems, the Canadian-built robot arm deployed or retrieved seven satellites, assisted in 115 spacewalks, delivered 30 space station components and grappled 72 payloads. In its final performance, the arm was used Tuesday to carry out a final inspection of Atlantis' heat shield.

Earlier this week, Ferguson told flight controllers finishing their final shifts to pause for a moment before leaving the building, "turn around and make a memory."

He made his own memory Thusday with a textbook descent from orbit and a ghostly, picture-perfect landing.

Flying upside down and backward over the Indian Ocean, Ferguson and Hurley fired the shuttle's twin braking rockets for three minutes and 16 seconds starting at 4:49:04 a.m. EDT, slowing the ship by about 225 miles per hour to drop out of orbit.

A half hour later, the shuttle plunged into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of about 75 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean, enduring the hellish heat of re-entry as it descendws along a northeasterly trajectory back toward the Kennedy Space Center.

"Hey Houston, how you doing?" Ferguson called out. "We're doing fantastic. Wish we could share with everybody this really cool glow, it's just amazing outside."

The flight path carried Atlantis high above Central America, across the Gulf of Mexico just west of Cuba and on to Florida, approaching the Kennedy Space Center from the southwest.

Heralded by the shuttle's signature dual sonic booms as Atlantis dropped below the speed of sound, Ferguson took over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet, guiding the shuttle through a sweeping 240-degree left turn to line up on runway 15 for the shuttle program's final landing.

"It's come to a final stop," he called.

And it was so.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Awakened by the rousing strains of Kate Smith's "God Bless America," the Atlantis astronauts rigged the shuttle for it's final re-entry to close out three decades of shuttle operations. There are no technical problems of any significance and forecasters are predicting ideal weather.

"Good morning, Atlantis," astronaut Shannon Lucid radioed from mission control late Wednesday. "And the wakeup music this morning was for the entire crew, and it was also for all the men and women who put their heart and soul into the shuttle program for all of these years."

"Hey thanks, Shannon, what a classic patriotic song, it's so appropriate for what will likely be the shuttle's final day in orbit," commander Christopher Ferguson replied from orbit. "Thank you to America for supporting this program. We'll see you on the ground in a few short hours, hopefully."

Flying upside down and backward over the Indian Ocean, Ferguson and pilot Douglas "Chunky" Hurley planned to fire the shuttle's twin braking rockets for three minutes and 17 seconds starting at 4:49:04 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), slowing the ship by about 223 miles per hour to drop out of orbit and set up a landing on runway 15 at 5:56:58 a.m.

A second landing opportunity is available one orbit later, at 7:32:55 a.m. if the weather or some other issue prevents an on-time re-entry. NASA is not staffing its backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. If Atlantis doesn't make it home Thursday, the crew will remain in orbit an additional day and land Friday on one coast or the other.

But the weather appeared ideal early Thursday and entry Flight Director Tony Ceccacci was optimistic about bringing Atlantis' 33rd and final mission to a close.

Assuming an on-time deorbit rocket firing, the shuttle will plunge into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of about 75 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean around 5:25 a.m., enduring the hellish heat of re-entry as it descends along a northeasterly trajectory back toward the Kennedy Space Center.

The flight path will carry Atlantis high above Central America, across the Gulf of Mexico just west of Cuba and on to Florida, approaching the Kennedy Space Center from the southwest.

Ferguson plans to take over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet above the Space Coast, guiding the shuttle through a sweeping 240-degree left turn to line up on runway 15 for the shuttle program's final landing.

Here are timelines for both landing opportunities (in EDT; best viewed with fixed-width font):

Orbit 200 descent to KSC
Deorbit burn duration: 3:17
Deorbit change in velocity: 223 mph

EDT...........EVENT

12:49 AM......Begin deorbit timeline
01:04 AM......Radiator stow
01:14 AM......Astronaut seat installation
01:20 AM......Computers set for deorbit prep
01:24 AM......Hydraulic system configuration
01:49 AM......Flash evaporator cooling system checks
01:55 AM......Final payload deactivation
02:09 AM......Payload bay doors closed
02:19 AM......Mission control 'go' for OPS-3 software load
02:29 AM......OPS-3 transition
02:54 AM......Entry switch list verification
03:04 AM......Deorbit maneuver update
03:09 AM......Crew entry review
03:24 AM......Commander, pilot don entry suits
03:41 AM......Inertial measurement unit alignment
03:49 AM......Commander, pilot strap in; mission specialists don suits
04:06 AM......Shuttle steering check
04:09 AM......Hydraulic system prestart
04:16 AM......Toilet deactivation
04:29 AM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn
04:35 AM......Mission specialists seat ingress
04:44 AM......Single APU start

04:49:04 AM...Deorbit ignition (altitude: 239.8 miles; dT: 3:17; dV: 223 mph)
04:52:21 AM...Deorbit burn complete

05:24:50 AM...Atmospheric entry (altitude: 75.7 miles; velocity: mach 25)
05:29:45 AM...1st roll command to left
05:41:13 AM...1st roll left to right
05:43:58 AM...C-band radar acquisition
05:50:12 AM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (altitude: 83,600 feet)
05:52:22 AM...Velocity less than mach 1 (altitude: 47,000 feet0
05:53:11 AM...Start left turn to runway 15 (altitude: 35,300 feet)
05:56:58 AM...Landing


Orbit 201 descent to KSC

06:05 AM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn
06:11 AM......Mission specialists seat ingress
06:20 AM......Single APU start

06:25:44 AM...Deorbit ignition (altitude: 240.7 miles)
06:29:01 AM...Deorbit burn complete

07:00:44 AM...Atmospheric entry (altitude: 75.7 miles)
07:05:38 AM...1st roll command to left
07:17:57 AM...1st left to right roll reversal
07:19:55 AM...C-band radar acquisition
07:26:05 AM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (altitude: 84,100 feet)
07:28:16 AM...Velocity less than mach 1 (altitude: 46,800 feet)
07:28:46 AM...Start left turn to runway 15 (altitude: 39,200 feet)
07:32:55 AM...Landing

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--With forecasters predicting near ideal weather, entry Flight Director Tony Ceccacci said Wednesday he's optimistic about bringing the shuttle Atlantis back to a pre-dawn landing in Florida Thursday to close out NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission.

"We have a really, really good shot to come home tomorrow morning," he said during a pre-entry news briefing. "Of course, you've heard me say this, no matter what the forecast (is) at KSC, it's always 50-50. So when we come in on console tomorrow, we'll go ahead and see what the weather guys have for us and work it accordingly."

Atlantis commander Christopher Ferguson and pilot Douglas "Chunky" Hurley plan to fire the shuttle's twin braking rockets for three minutes and 17 seconds starting at 4:49:04 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), slowing the ship by about 223 miles per hour and putting the crew on course for a landing on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:56:58 a.m. A second landing opportunity is available one orbit later, at 7:32:55 a.m.

The first landing opportunity comes in darkness, 42 minutes before sunrise, while the second is in daylight. Despite the optimistic forecast and the desire among many for a daylight landing to better savor the shuttle's last homecoming, Ceccacci said he would not wave off one orbit just to improve visibility.

"Sitting at the entry flight director's console, there's a lot of things you have to worry about," he said. "You step back and look at this, and as nice as it would be to land in the daytime to get some very good pictures, you never want to give up an opportunity.

"You've all seen the KSC weather get worse, even though the forecast says hey, it's going to be clear and no wind. So when you're sitting at that console and you have the opportunity to come home, you take it, day or night. I know a lot of folks want to see this, but again, when you have that opportunity and it all looks good and it's safe to come home, you do it."

NASA will not be staffing its backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday. If the weather or some other problem prevents a landing in Florida, the crew will remain in orbit an additional 24 hours and land Friday, on one coast or the other. The forecast both days for Florida and California calls for "go" conditions.

"Right now, our entry strategy for tomorrow is we're just going to try KSC only, just because the weather's looking very (good) there," Ceccacci said. "And if for some reason we can't make it home tomorrow, Friday will be our pick 'em day. That is, we'll just take a look at the KSC weather, Edwards weather and possibly Northrup (N.M.) weather, see how that looks, and we'll for sure come home on Friday."

Asked about his emotions on the eve of NASA's final shuttle entry -- and his last shift as a shuttle flight director -- Ceccacci said simply, "all good things must come to an end."

"For me, it's been an unbelievable journey on a magnificent flying machine," he said. "I'm very proud to have been part of the shuttle team. I've been blessed to have supported STS-1 as a flight controller, and have the honor to be the entry fight director for STS-135. So you can see I've ben here for a while.

"My congratulations and thanks go to all the thousands of dedicated and passionate team members who have made the shuttle program the success it has been, and contributed to the legacy it leaves behind. It's because of their blood, sweat and tears that we can say 'mission complete.' It's time to celebrate this amazing accomplishment and look forward to the future. Godspeed to all."

Then, in an aside to reporters, he added "you guys must know that we do have a motto in the mission control center, that flight controllers don't cry. So we're going to make sure we keep to that."

Here is a timeline for both landing opportunities (in EDT; best viewed with fixed-width font):

Orbit 200 descent to KSC (07/21/11)
Deorbit burn duration: 3:17
Deorbit change in velocity: 223 mph

EDT...........EVENT

12:49 AM......Begin deorbit timeline
01:04 AM......Radiator stow
01:14 AM......Astronaut seat installation
01:20 AM......Computers set for deorbit prep
01:24 AM......Hydraulic system configuration
01:49 AM......Flash evaporator cooling system checks
01:55 AM......Final payload deactivation
02:09 AM......Payload bay doors closed
02:19 AM......Mission control 'go' for OPS-3 software load
02:29 AM......OPS-3 transition
02:54 AM......Entry switchlist verification
03:04 AM......Deorbit maneuver update
03:09 AM......Crew entry review
03:24 AM......Commander, pilot don entry suits
03:41 AM......Inertial measurement unit alignment
03:49 AM......Commander, pilot strap in; mission specialists don suits
04:06 AM......Shuttle steering check
04:09 AM......Hydraulic system prestart
04:16 AM......Toilet deactivation
04:29 AM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn
04:35 AM......Mission specialists seat ingress
04:44 AM......Single APU start

04:49:04 AM...Deorbit ignition (altitude: 239.8 miles; dT: 3:17; dV: 223 mph)
04:52:21 AM...Deorbit burn complete

05:24:50 AM...Atmospheric entry (altitude: 75.7 miles; velocity: mach 25)
05:29:45 AM...1st roll command to left
05:41:13 AM...1st roll left to right
05:43:58 AM...C-band radar acquisition
05:50:12 AM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (altitude: 83,600 feet)
05:52:22 AM...Velocity less than mach 1 (altitude: 47,000 feet0
05:53:11 AM...Start left turn to runway 15 (altitude: 35,300 feet)
05:56:58 AM...Landing


Orbit 201 descent to KSC (07/21/11)

06:05 AM......Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn
06:11 AM......Mission specialists seat ingress
06:20 AM......Single APU start

06:25:44 AM...Deorbit ignition (altitude: 240.7 miles)
06:29:01 AM...Deorbit burn complete

07:00:44 AM...Atmospheric entry (altitude: 75.7 miles)
07:05:38 AM...1st roll command to left
07:17:57 AM...1st left to right roll reversal
07:19:55 AM...C-band radar acquisition
07:26:05 AM...Velocity less than mach 2.5 (altitude: 84,100 feet)
07:28:16 AM...Velocity less than mach 1 (altitude: 46,800 feet)
07:28:46 AM...Start left turn to runway 15 (altitude: 39,200 feet)
07:32:55 AM...Landing

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The crew of the shuttle Atlantis, working through one of the busiest days of their mission, tested the orbiter's re-entry systems Wednesday and packed up for landing Thursday to close out NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission.

Along with deploying a small solar cell research satellite, commander Christopher Ferguson and pilot Douglas Hurley practiced landing procedures with a video game-like simulator and all four astronauts -- Ferguson, Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim -- fielded a final round of questions from the media.

"What I've kind of told everybody all along was that we were not going to fully appreciate the significance of the event until after the wheels have stopped," Ferguson told CBS News. "Just yesterday in the middeck I was talking to Sandy about the fact that you know what, I really do feel like it's coming near the end. And I can almost sense that final 'wheels stopped' call.

"It's going to be tough, it's going to be an emotional moment for a lot of people who have dedicated their lives to the shuttle program for 30 years. But we're going to try to keep it upbeat, we're going to try to keep it light and we're going to try to make it a celebration of the tremendous, crowning achievements that have occurred over the last 30 years with the tremendous satellites that have been deployed from the shuttle and of course, construction of the International Space Station."

Floating in the shuttle cockpit with Hurley, Magnus and Walheim, Ferguson said the 135th shuttle mission successfully delivered enough supplies, equipment and spare parts to the International Space Station to keep the lab complex going through 2012. That will give NASA a bit of a cushion in case commercial rocket companies run into problems developing new unmanned cargo ships to take over from the shuttle.

"No mission is successful until you're finally on the ground," Ferguson said. "I would have to say that up to this point, it's been highly successful. Sandy, Rex, Doug, we all put forth 110 percent, we got about (five-and-a-half tons) of cargo transferred into and out of space station. We have them all set, they're in a good posture to wait for about a year until commercial partners come on board and begin the resupply missions the shuttle formerly had."

Commercial cargo ships will be joined by private sector manned spacecraft later in the decade, part of a push by the Obama administration to turn over "routine" transportation to and from low-Earth orbit to commercial rocket providers while NASA focuses on deep space exploration. Critics have charged that tight budgets and uncertain political support put manned spaceflight at risk in the United States, but Walheim told CBS News he sees a bright future.

"We're in a kind of a transition period, which is a little bit uncomfortable as usual," he said. "But what we're going to be doing is handing over the access to low-Earth orbit, getting to the space station, to commercial providers. That'll free up NASA to do the heavy lifting of the beyond-low-Earth orbit flights, to go to places we haven't been for a long time, or ever, like the moon or an asteroid or maybe Mars.

"So it's a kind of a two-pronged effort," he said. "We'll get through this transition part. It'll be hard, but we'll get there and we'll be going farther and farther and going new places real soon."

Magnus said the program would succeed because of "a huge number of people worldwide who passionately believe in space flight and who dedicate their lives to it."

"And it's because of these people that the shuttle program was so successful for the last 30 years, and we were able to do the amazing things we were able to do," she said. "It's because of these people the International Space Station has been so successful and will continue to be successful."

In a lighter moment, Magnus was asked whether her crewmates ever gave her a hard time because of her "space hair."

"Usually for events like this, I like to leave it out because it demonstrates we are indeed in zero gravity," she laughed. "I mean, these guys have kind of boring hair, so it's not so fun. But they do give me trouble occasionally about the Medusa-like effect of it."

Shuttle crews normally include six or seven astronauts to get all the day-before-landing chores done. But Atlantis was launched with a reduced crew of four to accommodate possible rescue scenarios, complicating the pre-entry timeline. Even though he knew the workload would be challenging, Hurley said he was surprised at the fast pace of the crew's work in orbit.

"We've had to just work so closely together and be so well coordinated because you know, your typical shuttle mission, there's six or seven folks, so you tend to be working more with another person," he told CBS. "And there've been a lot of times where we've just had to depend on the other person to cover a separate task. I don't think I fully appreciated how much more work we'd have to do with only four. So it's been a little bit of an eye opener, because we really have been just stretching it, working very hard every day."

But that's not to say they haven't had a bit of fun occasionally. After launching the small solar cell research satellite -- Picosat -- Walheim read a "deployment poem" to mission control:

With good weather expected, Ferguson and Hurley plan to fire Atlantis' braking rockets at 4:49:04 a.m. Thursday to drop out of orbit. Landing at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 5:56:58 a.m. A second opportunity is available one orbit later at 7:32:55 a.m.

NASA is not staffing its backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday. If the weather or some other problem prevents a Florida landing, the crew will remain in orbit an additional 24 hours and head for one coast or the other on Friday.

Assuming an on-time landing, Atlantis will have logged 5,284,862 miles during its 33rd mission, pushing the orbiter's total mileage to 125,935,769 miles. Over the course of its career, Atlantis will have spent 307 days in space, logging 4,848 orbits.

Earlier this week, Ferguson told the lead flight control team, ending its final shift at the Johnson Space Center, "to look up and make a memory."

"And I'll say that to everybody who has an opportunity to perhaps see the landing realtime or see the shuttle on the runway," he told an interviewer Wednesday. "Take a good look at it and make a memory, because you're never going to see anything like this again. It's been an incredible ride."

Here is an updated timeline of the remainder of the crew's planned activities for flight day 13 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision M of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/20
06:34 AM...11...19...05...00...L-1 comm check (Merritt Island)
06:54 AM...11...19...25...00...Deorbit review
07:24 AM...11...19...55...00...Cabin stow resumes
07:59 AM...11...20...30...00...Playback of undocking video
08:00 AM...11...20...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
09:49 AM...11...22...20...00...L-1 comm check (Dryden)
09:49 AM...11...22...20...00...Ergometer stow
10:00 AM...11...22...31...00...STS-135 ascent highlights replay
10:14 AM...11...22...45...00...Wing leading edge sensor deactivation
10:34 AM...11...23...05...00...PGSC laptop computer stow (part 1)
11:00 AM...11...23...31...00...STS-135 ascent highlights replay
11:39 AM...12...00...10...00...Ku-band antenna stow
01:29 PM...12...02...00...00...Crew sleep begins
03:00 PM...12...03...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV
04:00 PM...12...04...31...00...Flight day 13 highlights on NASA TV
09:59 PM...12...10...30...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The crew of the shuttle Atlantis, working through one of the busiest days of their mission, packed up overnight and prepared for re-entry and landing Thursday to close out NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission.

Along with deploying a small solar cell research satellite at 3:54 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), the crew planned to test the shuttle's flight control systems, test fire the ship's maneuvering thrusters, break down their in-flight laptop computer network and field a final round of questions from network news reporters. Commander Christopher Ferguson and pilot Douglas Hurley also planned to practice landing procedures using a video game-like simulator.

Shuttle crews normally include six or seven astronauts to get all the day-before-landing chores done. But Atlantis was launched with a reduced crew of four to accommodate possible rescue scenarios, complicating the pre-entry timeline.

"We're deploying the picosat, we have to get the cabin ready for return, we have to wind up some of the last-minute science we're doing, we have standard before-landing checks, it's an extremely busy day and there's no cushion in the timeline," astronaut Sandra Magnus said before launch. "So we could probably use an extra pair of hands or two that day. The ground's going to help us out a lot and we'll get through it, but we're going to be very, very busy at a very, very high pace at the end of the mission."

Ferguson agreed, saying "we have to turn the orbiter back into an airplane, we have to set the seats up, we have to run cooling lines, we have to pack everything away so it's not going to fall when we re-enter. So, there's our big challenge day."

With good weather expected, Ferguson, Hurley, Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim plan to fire Atlantis' braking rockets at 4:48:34 a.m. Thursday to drop out of orbit. Landing at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 5:56:36 a.m. A second opportunity is available one orbit later at 7:32:28 a.m.

NASA is not staffing its backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday. If the weather or some other problem prevents a Florida landing, the crew will remain in orbit an additional 24 hours and head for one coast or the other on Friday.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day 13 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision M of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/20
12:29 AM...11...10...30...00...Cabin stow begins
01:07 AM...11...13...38...00...Separation burn No. 3
01:14 AM...11...13...45...00...PILOT landing simulator practice
02:14 AM...11...14...45...00...Flight control system checkout
03:54 AM...11...16...25...00...Picosat deploy
04:04 AM...11...16...35...00...Reaction control system hotfire
04:54 AM...11...17...25...00...CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX/CNN interviews on NASA TV
05:34 AM...11...18...05...00...Crew meal
06:34 AM...11...19...05...00...L-1 comm check (Merritt Island)
06:54 AM...11...19...25...00...Deorbit review
07:24 AM...11...19...55...00...Cabin stow resumes
07:59 AM...11...20...30...00...Playback of undocking video
08:00 AM...11...20...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
09:49 AM...11...22...20...00...L-1 comm check (Dryden)
09:49 AM...11...22...20...00...Ergometer stow
10:00 AM...11...22...31...00...STS-135 ascent highlights replay
10:14 AM...11...22...45...00...Wing leading edge sensor deactivation
10:34 AM...11...23...05...00...PGSC laptop computer stow (part 1)
11:00 AM...11...23...31...00...STS-135 ascent highlights replay
11:39 AM...12...00...10...00...Ku-band antenna stow
01:29 PM...12...02...00...00...Crew sleep begins
03:00 PM...12...03...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV
04:00 PM...12...04...31...00...Flight day 13 highlights on NASA TV
09:59 PM...12...10...30...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--After 37 space station assembly flights over the past 12-and-a-half years, the crew of the shuttle Atlantis undocked from the lab complex for the final time Tuesday in a long-awaited milestone that marks the beginning of the end for NASA's last shuttle mission.

With pilot Douglas "Chunky" Hurley at the control, Atlantis pulled away from the station's forward docking port at 2:28 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft sailed through orbital darkness 243 miles above the Pacific Ocean east of Christchurch, New Zealand.

"Physical separation, Houston," commander Christopher Ferguson radioed as the shuttle pulled away.

A few moments later, space station flight engineer Ronald Garan rang the ship's bell in the Harmony module, saying "Atlantis, departing the International Space Station for the last time."

"Thank you for your 12 docked missions to the ISS and for capping off 37 space shuttle missions to construct this incredible orbiting research facility," he said. "We'll miss you guys. Godspeed, soft landing and we'll see you back on Earth in the fall."

"Thank you, Ron, and to the station commander Andrey Borisenko, we appreciate your hospitality," Ferguson radioed. "What a generation can accomplish is a great thing. It's got a right to stand back and for just a moment, admire and take pride in its work. From our unique vantage point right here perched above the Earth, we can see the International Space Station as a wonderful accomplishment.

"It was born at the end of the Cold War, it's enabled many nations to speak (as) one in space. As the ISS enters an era of utilization, we'll never forget the role the space shuttle played in its creation. Like a proud parent, we anticipate great things to follow from the men and women who build, operate and live there. From this unique vantage point, we can see a great thing has been accomplished. FarewelI, ISS. Make us proud."

After moving to a point about 600 feet directly in front of the orbital laboratory, Hurley paused for about a half hour while the station carried out a 90-degree yaw maneuver, lining up with the long axis of its solar power truss aimed at the shuttle.

"And station, Atlantis, you'll be happy to know you look just as good from the side as you do from the front," Ferguson radioed.

"Thanks, Fergie," Garan replied. "Not sure how to answer that one, but thanks."

"Hey, and that's our good side," quipped station flight engineer Michael Fossum.

The station normally is oriented with the truss oriented at right angles to the lab's direction of travel and departing shuttle's typically loop around the axis formed by the station's pressurized modules before departing. But for this final departure, flight controllers are giving the shuttle a different view to provide better photo documentation of the station's extremities.

"It will be a typical undock day, with a slight twist," Hurley said in a NASA interview. "Our fly-around is going to involve the station yawing to 90 degrees to one side, so when we do the fly-around, rather than over the center portion of the space station, we're going to go over kind of the long axis of the space station and get some views that we haven't seen of the space station in a very long time, if ever.

"This will also help folks on the ground be able to document any specific areas of interest or micrometeorite damage that the station has had, as we move forward into the post-shuttle era. So that in and of itself should be a fairly unique fly-around."

The half-lap fly over began around 3:30 a.m. and ended about 25 minutes later with the first of two rocket firings to leave the area.

"We'll be coming out underneath you and you should have a good view from the cupola," Ferguson radioed. "I'm not sure when we're going to break down the big loop (communications circuit), but if it's anytime soon we just wanted to give you a final goodbye."

"Hey thanks, Fergie, we'll be watching you from the SM (service module) windows," Garan replied. "You guys looked really good on the fly-around from what we can see. Again, thank you so much for all you guys have done for us up here. We really, really appreciate it."

With Atlantis' on-time departure, space shuttles have spent 276 days 11 hours and 23 minutes docked to the station since construction began in 1998, or more than nine months all together. Space station veteran Dan Tani called Atlantis from the lab's mission control center to say farewell.

"Hey Fergie, from the ULF-7 Orbit 1 team in the ISS mission control room here in Houston, we just wanted to let you know it's been a pleasure and an honor to support this, the 37th mission of the space shuttle to the ISS," he said. "We're proud to be the last in a countless line of mission control teams that have had the honor to watch over the ISS while Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis have visited over the last 13 years.

"From this room, we've watched and supported as the shuttle has enabled the station to grow from a humble single module that was grappled by the shuttle's arm, to a stunning facility that is so large some astronauts have even momentarily gotten lost in it. You can take it from me. Of course, the ISS wouldn't be here without the space shuttle, so while we have the communication link up for the last time, we wanted to say thank you and farewell to the magnificent machines that delivered, assembled and staffed our world class laboratory in space.

"So Fergie, Chunky, Sandy and Rex, get her home safely, and enjoy the last couple of days in space shuttle Atlantis."

"Hey Dan ... we do appreciate those great words," Ferguson said. "It's been an incredible ride, and I think on behalf of the four of us, we're really appreciative that we had the opportunity to work with you and we're extremely fortunate to have taken part in this pivotal mission."

With the station undocking behind them, Ferguson, Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim plan to carry out a final heat shield inspection later today. They will test the shuttle re-entry systems Wednesday, pack up and set their sights on re-entry Thursday and landing back at the Kennedy Space Center around 5:56 a.m. Good weather is expected.

The Atlantis astronauts left a flag behind on the space station that was first carried into orbit aboard the shuttle Columbia during the first shuttle mission in 1981. The flag will remain in place until U.S. astronauts, launched on new commercial spacecraft, retrieve it later this decade, a gap of uncertain duration.

Before Atlantis undocked, Tani tried to put that in perspective during a morning chat with space station flight engineer Ronald Garan.

"Today is the 36th anniversary of the undocking of the Apollo from the Soyuz at the end of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program mission," Tani said from mission control in Houston. "The Apollo landing, which was two days later just like shuttle's, marked the beginning of the gap during which time the U.S. did not have any manned launches. That gap was closed five years and nine months later with the launch of (Columbia on) STS-1. So that's our mark to beat -- five years and nine months. We'll start the clock."

"All right, we just (started) our clock," Garan replied. "Thanks."

The inspection of the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels is a standard feature of post-Columbia shuttle missions. The goal is to look for any signs of impact damage from space debris or micrometeoroids that might have occurred since a similar inspection the day after launch.

As always, the shuttle's Canadian-built robot arm will use an instrumented boom to scan the nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry.

In yet another bittersweet milestone for NASA, the inspection will mark the final use of the 50-foot-long robot arm, a technological marvel that gave the shuttle its unique ability to precisely position spacewalking astronauts, to deploy and retrieve satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope and to assemble the International Space Station.

Over the past three decades, experiencing virtually no technical problems, the robot arm has deployed or retrieved seven satellites, assisted in 115 spacewalks, delivered 30 space station components and grappled 72 payloads. Today's inspection will bring down the curtain on Canada's hugely successful contribution to the shuttle program.

The astronauts are scheduled to go to bed at 1:59 p.m. Wakeup is expected at 9:59 p.m.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day 12 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision L of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/18
09:59 PM...10...10...30...00...Crew wakeup

07/19
12:24 AM...10...12...55...00...ISS daily planning conference
12:30 AM...10...13...00...56...US solar arrays feathered
12:34 AM...10...13...05...00...Group B computer powerup
12:52 AM...10...13...23...54...Sunset
12:54 AM...10...13...24...56...Start maneuver to undocking attitude
01:20 AM...10...13...50...56...ISS in proximity operations mode
01:23 AM...10...13...53...56...Orbiter/ISS in undock attitude
01:27 AM...10...13...58...53...Sunrise
01:56 AM...10...14...27...34...Noon
02:23 AM...10...14...53...56...Russian solar arrays feathered
02:25 AM...10...14...56...15...Sunset

02:28 AM...10...14...59...00...UNDOCKING

02:28 AM...10...14...59...05...Maintain corridor
02:29 AM...10...15...00...00...Initial separation
02:29 AM...10...15...00...40...ISS holds attitude
02:33 AM...10...15...04...00...Range: 50 ft: reselect -X jets
02:35 AM...10...15...06...00...Range: 75 ft: Low-Z jets
02:46 AM...10...15...17...00...Range: 250 ft
02:50 AM...10...15...21...00...Range: 400 ft
03:00 AM...10...15...31...00...Range: 600 feet; begin stationkeeping
03:00 AM...10...15...31...00...ISS start maneuver to +YVV flyaround attitude
03:00 AM...10...15...31...12...Sunrise
03:27 AM...10...15...57...56...ISS in +YVV flyaround attitude
03:27 AM...10...15...58...00...Shuttle starts half-lap flyaround
03:28 AM...10...15...59...53...Noon
03:38 AM...10...16...09...31...Shuttle directly above ISS
03:50 AM...10...16...21...02...Shuttle directly behind ISS
03:50 AM...10...16...21...03...Separation burn No. 1 (1.5 fps +X radial burn)
03:50 AM...10...16...21...03...ISS start maneuver to normal attitude
03:57 AM...10...16...28...34...Sunset
04:17 AM...10...16...47...56...ISS in normal attitude
04:18 AM...10...16...49...03...Separation burn No. 2 (10.0 fps -X retrograde burn)
04:24 AM...10...16...55...00...Group B computer powerdown
04:32 AM...10...17...03...32...Sunrise
05:01 AM...10...17...32...14...Noon
05:19 AM...10...17...50...00...Crew meal
06:34 AM...10...19...05...00...OBSS starboard wing survey
07:30 AM...10...20...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
08:14 AM...10...20...45...00...OBSS nose cap survey
09:04 AM...10...21...35...00...OBSS port wing survey
10:49 AM...10...23...20...00...OBSS berthing
10:49 AM...10...23...20...00...Laser dynamic range imager downlink
11:44 AM...11...00...15...00...Shuttle robot arm powerdown
11:59 AM...11...00...30...00...Playback of undocking video
01:00 PM...11...01...31...00...Mission management team briefing on NASA TV
01:59 PM...11...02...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
02:00 PM...11...02...31...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights on NASA TV
03:00 PM...11...03...31...00...Flight day 12 highlights on NASA TV
05:40 PM...11...06...11...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights replay on NASA TV
06:15 PM...11...06...46...00..."Space Shuttle" video on NASA TV
09:59 PM...11...10...30...00...Crew wakeup
11:00 PM...11...11...31...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights replay on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--After 37 space station assembly flights over the past 12-and-a-half years, the crew of the shuttle Atlantis undocked from the lab complex for the final time Tuesday in a long-awaited milestone that marks the beginning of the end for NASA's last shuttle mission.

With pilot Douglas "Chunky" Hurley at the control, Atlantis pulled away from the station's forward docking port at 2:28 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft sailed through orbital darkness 243 miles above the Pacific Ocean east of Christchurch, New Zealand.

"Physical separation, Houston," commander Christopher Ferguson radioed as the shuttle pulled away.

A few moments later, space station flight engineer Ronald Garan rang the ship's bell in the Harmony module, saying "Atlantis, departing the International Space Station for the last time."

"Thank you for your 12 docked missions to the ISS and for capping off 37 space shuttle missions to construct this incredible orbiting research facility," he said. "We'll miss you guys. Godspeed, soft landing and we'll see you back on Earth in the fall."

"Thank you, Ron, and to the station commander Andrey Borisenko, we appreciate your hospitality," Ferguson radioed. "What a generation can accomplish is a great thing. It's got a right to stand back and for just a moment, admire and take pride in its work. From our unique vantage point right here perched above the Earth, we can see the International Space Station as a wonderful accomplishment.

"It was born at the end of the Cold War, it's enabled many nations to speak (as) one in space. As the ISS enters an era of utilization, we'll never forget the role the space shuttle played in its creation. Like a proud parent, we anticipate great things to follow from the men and women who build, operate and live there. From this unique vantage point, we can see a great thing has been accomplished. FarewelI, ISS. Make us proud."

After moving to a point about 600 feet directly in front of the orbital laboratory, Hurley planned to pause for about a half hour while the station carries out a 90-degree yaw maneuver, lining up with the long axis of its solar power truss aimed at the shuttle.

The station normally is oriented with the truss oriented at right angles to the lab's direction of travel and departing shuttle's typically loop around the axis formed by the station's pressurized modules before departing. But for this final departure, flight controllers are giving the shuttle a different view to provide better photo documentation of the station's extremities.

"It will be a typical undock day, with a slight twist," Hurley said in a NASA interview. "Our flyaround is going to involve the station yawing to 90 degrees to one side, so when we do the flyaround, rather than over the center portion of the space station, we're going to go over kind of the long axis of the space station and get some views that we haven't seen of the space station in a very long time, if ever.

"This will also help folks on the ground be able to document any specific areas of interest or micrometeorite damage that the station has had, as we move forward into the post-shuttle era. So that in and of itself should be a fairly unique flyaround."

The half-lap fly over should begin around 3:30 a.m. and end about 25 minutes later with the first of two rocket firings to leave the area. Assuming an on-time undocking, space shuttles will have spent 276 days 11 hours and 23 minutes docked to the station since construction began in 1998, or more than nine months all together.

With the station departure behind them, Hurley, Ferguson, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim plan to carry out a final heat shield inspection later today. They will test the shuttle re-entry systems Wednesday, pack up and set their sights on re-entry Thursday and landing back at the Kennedy Space Center around 5:56 a.m. Good weather is expected.

The Atlantis astronauts left a flag behind on the space station that was first carried into orbit aboard the shuttle Columbia during the first shuttle mission in 1981. The flag will remain in place until U.S. astronauts, launched on new commercial spacecraft, retrieve it later this decade, a gap of uncertain duration.

Astronaut Dan Tani tried to put that in perspective during a morning chat with space station flight engineer Ronald Garan.

"Today is the 36th anniversary of the undocking of the Apollo from the Soyuz at the end of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program mission," Tani said from mission control in Houston. "The Apollo landing, which was two days later just like shuttle's, marked the beginning of the gap during which time the U.S. did not have any manned launches. That gap was closed five years and nine months later with the launch of (Columbia on) STS-1. So that's our mark to beat -- five years and nine months. We'll start the clock."

"All right, we just (started) our clock," Garan replied. "Thanks."

Departing shuttles normally fly a full loop around the station after undocking, but today's departure was limited to a half-lap flyaround. Atlantis was launched with a reduced crew of four and given the time required to carry out undocking and a final heat shield inspection, flight controllers limited the flyaround to a half loop over the top of the lab complex.

The inspection of the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels is a standard feature of post-Columbia shuttle missions. The goal is to look for any signs of impact damage from space debris or micrometeoroids that might have occurred since a similar inspection the day after launch.

As always, the shuttle's Canadian-built robot arm will use an instrumented boom to scan the nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry.

In yet another bittersweet milestone for NASA, the inspection will mark the final use of the 50-foot-long robot arm, a technological marvel that gave the shuttle its unique ability to precisely position spacewalking astronauts, to deploy and retrieve satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope and to assemble the International Space Station.

Over the past three decades, experiencing virtually no technical problems, the robot arm has deployed or retrieved seven satellites, assisted in 115 spacewalks, delivered 30 space station components and grappled 72 payloads. Today's inspection will bring down the curtain on Canada's hugely successful contribution to the shuttle program.

The astronauts are scheduled to go to bed at 1:59 p.m. Wakeup is expected at 9:59 p.m.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day 12 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision L of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/18
09:59 PM...10...10...30...00...Crew wakeup

07/19
12:24 AM...10...12...55...00...ISS daily planning conference
12:30 AM...10...13...00...56...US solar arrays feathered
12:34 AM...10...13...05...00...Group B computer powerup
12:52 AM...10...13...23...54...Sunset
12:54 AM...10...13...24...56...Start maneuver to undocking attitude
01:20 AM...10...13...50...56...ISS in proximity operations mode
01:23 AM...10...13...53...56...Orbiter/ISS in undock attitude
01:27 AM...10...13...58...53...Sunrise
01:56 AM...10...14...27...34...Noon
02:23 AM...10...14...53...56...Russian solar arrays feathered
02:25 AM...10...14...56...15...Sunset

02:28 AM...10...14...59...00...UNDOCKING

02:28 AM...10...14...59...05...Maintain corridor
02:29 AM...10...15...00...00...Initial separation
02:29 AM...10...15...00...40...ISS holds attitude
02:33 AM...10...15...04...00...Range: 50 ft: reselect -X jets
02:35 AM...10...15...06...00...Range: 75 ft: Low-Z jets
02:46 AM...10...15...17...00...Range: 250 ft
02:50 AM...10...15...21...00...Range: 400 ft
03:00 AM...10...15...31...00...Range: 600 feet; begin stationkeeping
03:00 AM...10...15...31...00...ISS start maneuver to +YVV flyaround attitude
03:00 AM...10...15...31...12...Sunrise
03:27 AM...10...15...57...56...ISS in +YVV flyaround attitude
03:27 AM...10...15...58...00...Shuttle starts half-lap flyaround
03:28 AM...10...15...59...53...Noon
03:38 AM...10...16...09...31...Shuttle directly above ISS
03:50 AM...10...16...21...02...Shuttle directly behind ISS
03:50 AM...10...16...21...03...Separation burn No. 1 (1.5 fps +X radial burn)
03:50 AM...10...16...21...03...ISS start maneuver to normal attitude
03:57 AM...10...16...28...34...Sunset
04:17 AM...10...16...47...56...ISS in normal attitude
04:18 AM...10...16...49...03...Separation burn No. 2 (10.0 fps -X retrograde burn)
04:24 AM...10...16...55...00...Group B computer powerdown
04:32 AM...10...17...03...32...Sunrise
05:01 AM...10...17...32...14...Noon
05:19 AM...10...17...50...00...Crew meal
06:34 AM...10...19...05...00...OBSS starboard wing survey
07:30 AM...10...20...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
08:14 AM...10...20...45...00...OBSS nose cap survey
09:04 AM...10...21...35...00...OBSS port wing survey
10:49 AM...10...23...20...00...OBSS berthing
10:49 AM...10...23...20...00...Laser dynamic range imager downlink
11:44 AM...11...00...15...00...Shuttle robot arm powerdown
11:59 AM...11...00...30...00...Playback of undocking video
01:00 PM...11...01...31...00...Mission management team briefing on NASA TV
01:59 PM...11...02...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
02:00 PM...11...02...31...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights on NASA TV
03:00 PM...11...03...31...00...Flight day 12 highlights on NASA TV
05:40 PM...11...06...11...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights replay on NASA TV
06:15 PM...11...06...46...00..."Space Shuttle" video on NASA TV
09:59 PM...11...10...30...00...Crew wakeup
11:00 PM...11...11...31...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights replay on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--After 37 space station assembly flights over the past 12-and-a-half years, the crew of the shuttle Atlantis prepared to undock from the lab complex for the final time Tuesday in a long-awaited milestone that marks the beginning of the end for NASA's last shuttle mission.

With pilot Douglas "Chunky" Hurley at the control, Atlantis is scheduled to pull away from the station's forward docking port at 2:28 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft pass 243 miles above the Pacific Ocean east of Christchurch, New Zealand.

After moving to a point about 600 feet directly in front of the orbital laboratory, Hurley plans to pause for about a half hour while the station carries out a 90-degree yaw maneuver, lining up with the long axis of its solar power truss aimed at the shuttle.

The station normally is oriented with the truss oriented at right angles to the lab's direction of travel and departing shuttle's typically loop around the axis formed by the station's pressurized modules before departing. But for this final departure, flight controllers are giving the shuttle a different view to provide better photo documentation of the station's extremities.

"It will be a typical undock day, with a slight twist," Hurley said in a NASA interview. "Our flyaround is going to involve the station yawing to 90 degrees to one side, so when we do the flyaround, rather than over the center portion of the space station, we're going to go over kind of the long axis of the space station and get some views that we haven't seen of the space station in a very long time, if ever.

"This will also help folks on the ground be able to document any specific areas of interest or micrometeorite damage that the station has had, as we move forward into the post-shuttle era. So that in and of itself should be a fairly unique flyaround."

The half-lap fly over should begin around 3:30 a.m. and end about 25 minutes later with the first of two rocket firings to leave the area. Assuming an on-time undocking, space shuttles will have spent 276 days 11 hours and 23 minutes docked to the station since construction began in 1998, or more than nine months all together.

With the station departure behind them, Hurley, commander Christopher Ferguson, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim plan to carry out a final heat shield inspection later today. They will test the shuttle re-entry systems Wednesday, pack up and set their sights on re-entry Thursday and landing back at the Kennedy Space Center around 5:56 a.m. Good weather is expected.

The Atlantis astronauts left a flag behind on the space station that was first carried into orbit aboard the shuttle Columbia during the first shuttle mission in 1981. The flag will remain in place until U.S. astronauts, launched on new commercial spacecraft, retrieve it later this decade, a gap of uncertain duration.

Astronaut Dan Tani tried to put that in perspective during a morning chat with space station flight engineer Ronald Garan.

"Today is the 36th anniversary of the undocking of the Apollo from the Soyuz at the end of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program mission," Tani said from mission control in Houston. "The Apollo landing, which was two days later just like shuttle's, marked the beginning of the gap during which time the U.S. did not have any manned launches. That gap was closed five years and nine months later with the launch of (Columbia on) STS-1. So that's our mark to beat -- five years and nine months. We'll start the clock."

"All right, we just (started) our clock," Garan replied. "Thanks."

Departing shuttles normally fly a full loop around the station after undocking, but today's departure was limited to a half-lap flyaround. Atlantis was launched with a reduced crew of four and given the time required to carry out undocking and a final heat shield inspection, flight controllers limited the flyaround to a half loop over the top of the lab complex.

The inspection of the shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels is a standard feature of post-Columbia shuttle missions. The goal is to look for any signs of impact damage from space debris or micrometeoroids that might have occurred since a similar inspection the day after launch.

As always, the shuttle's Canadian-built robot arm will use an instrumented boom to scan the nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry.

In yet another bittersweet milestone for NASA, the inspection will mark the final use of the 50-foot-long robot arm, a technological marvel that gave the shuttle its unique ability to precisely position spacewalking astronauts, to deploy and retrieve satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope and to assemble the International Space Station.

Over the past three decades, experiencing virtually no technical problems, the robot arm has deployed or retrieved seven satellites, assisted in 115 spacewalks, delivered 30 space station components and grappled 72 payloads. Today's inspection will bring down the curtain on Canada's hugely successful contribution to the shuttle program.

The astronauts are scheduled to go to bed at 1:59 p.m. Wakeup is expected at 9:59 p.m.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day 12 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision L of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/18
09:59 PM...10...10...30...00...Crew wakeup

07/19
12:24 AM...10...12...55...00...ISS daily planning conference
12:30 AM...10...13...00...56...US solar arrays feathered
12:34 AM...10...13...05...00...Group B computer powerup
12:52 AM...10...13...23...54...Sunset
12:54 AM...10...13...24...56...Start maneuver to undocking attitude
01:20 AM...10...13...50...56...ISS in proximity operations mode
01:23 AM...10...13...53...56...Orbiter/ISS in undock attitude
01:27 AM...10...13...58...53...Sunrise
01:56 AM...10...14...27...34...Noon
02:23 AM...10...14...53...56...Russian solar arrays feathered
02:25 AM...10...14...56...15...Sunset

02:28 AM...10...14...59...00...UNDOCKING

02:28 AM...10...14...59...05...Maintain corridor
02:29 AM...10...15...00...00...Initial separation
02:29 AM...10...15...00...40...ISS holds attitude
02:33 AM...10...15...04...00...Range: 50 ft: reselect -X jets
02:35 AM...10...15...06...00...Range: 75 ft: Low-Z jets
02:46 AM...10...15...17...00...Range: 250 ft
02:50 AM...10...15...21...00...Range: 400 ft
03:00 AM...10...15...31...00...Range: 600 feet; begin stationkeeping
03:00 AM...10...15...31...00...ISS start maneuver to +YVV flyaround attitude
03:00 AM...10...15...31...12...Sunrise
03:27 AM...10...15...57...56...ISS in +YVV flyaround attitude
03:27 AM...10...15...58...00...Shuttle starts half-lap flyaround
03:28 AM...10...15...59...53...Noon
03:38 AM...10...16...09...31...Shuttle directly above ISS
03:50 AM...10...16...21...02...Shuttle directly behind ISS
03:50 AM...10...16...21...03...Separation burn No. 1 (1.5 fps +X radial burn)
03:50 AM...10...16...21...03...ISS start maneuver to normal attitude
03:57 AM...10...16...28...34...Sunset
04:17 AM...10...16...47...56...ISS in normal attitude
04:18 AM...10...16...49...03...Separation burn No. 2 (10.0 fps -X retrograde burn)
04:24 AM...10...16...55...00...Group B computer powerdown
04:32 AM...10...17...03...32...Sunrise
05:01 AM...10...17...32...14...Noon
05:19 AM...10...17...50...00...Crew meal
06:34 AM...10...19...05...00...OBSS starboard wing survey
07:30 AM...10...20...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
08:14 AM...10...20...45...00...OBSS nose cap survey
09:04 AM...10...21...35...00...OBSS port wing survey
10:49 AM...10...23...20...00...OBSS berthing
10:49 AM...10...23...20...00...Laser dynamic range imager downlink
11:44 AM...11...00...15...00...Shuttle robot arm powerdown
11:59 AM...11...00...30...00...Playback of undocking video
01:00 PM...11...01...31...00...Mission management team briefing on NASA TV
01:59 PM...11...02...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
02:00 PM...11...02...31...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights on NASA TV
03:00 PM...11...03...31...00...Flight day 12 highlights on NASA TV
05:40 PM...11...06...11...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights replay on NASA TV
06:15 PM...11...06...46...00..."Space Shuttle" video on NASA TV
09:59 PM...11...10...30...00...Crew wakeup
11:00 PM...11...11...31...00...STS-135 ascent imagery highlights replay on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--In the dwindling hours of the shuttle program's last visit to the International Space Station, the Atlantis astronauts detached the bus-size Raffaello cargo module and moved it back to the shuttle's payload bay, wrapping up NASA's final shuttle-station resupply mission. The astronauts then gathered for a brief farewell to the lab crew before moving back aboard Atlantis to rig the ship for undocking early Tuesday. Landing at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 5:57 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Thursday.

"I'd like to thank the commander of International Space Station, Andre Borisenko, for your hospitality, you've been absolutely fantastic to us," shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson said as the two crews floated in the forward Harmony module. "You and your crew have demonstrated not only ISS hospitality, but you've demonstrated fantastic Russian hospitality. It's been wonderful to be here with you, you have a wonderful home, you're taking fantastic care of it, and you're going to keep it looking good for generations of space travelers to come."

Space station flight engineer Ronald Garan spoke for the station's six-member crew, saying "It's been an honor having you guys on board. It's great being a part of this really important and historic mission. We just want to thank you guys so much for leaving the space station in a posture for continued use for the rest of the decade. It's been really great."

Garan thanked Ferguson, pilot Douglas "Chunky" Hurley and flight engineer Rex Walheim before turning his attention to Sandra Magnus, the "loadmaster" in charge of orchestrating the transfer of five tons of equipment and supplies from Atlantis to the space station.

"And Fergie, thank you for your leadership, thank you for bringing the guys here," Garan said. "But of all your many, many accomplishments that you did on this mission, for us, from our perspective, the most important thing you did was bring Sandy here. Sandy, we cannot thank you enough for always keeping the big picture in mind. You were just absolutely amazing, we just cannot thank you enough for everything you've done for us. ... we tried to trade Mike (Fossum) for Sandy, but Fergie wouldn't take us up on the deal."

Before the departure ceremony, a shuttle model signed by senior program managers was presented to the station crew, along with a U.S. flag that flew aboard the shuttle Columbia during the first shuttle mission in 1981. Mounted on the station's forward hatch, the longtime gateway between the station and visiting shuttle crews, the flag will remain aboard the lab complex until U.S. astronauts launched aboard new commercial vehicles retrieve it later this decade.

"When we close that hatch, when these guys go by, we're closing a chapter in the history of our nation," Garan said. "But in the future, when another spacecraft docks to that hatch with crew members on board and we open that hatch, we are going to be raising the flag on a new era of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit."

Said Ferguson: "When this flag returns again someday to Earth by astronauts that came up on an American spacecraft, its journey will not end there. Its journey will continue, it will ... leave low-Earth orbit once again, perhaps to a lunar destination, perhaps to Mars. It is our honor to have brought this flag here."

A few minutes later, after a final round of hugs and handshakes, the shuttle astronauts floated back aboard Atlantis for the last time. The main hatch between the two spacecraft was closed at 10:28 a.m., officially ending seven days, 21 hours and 41 minutes of joint activity.

Atlantis delivered 9,403 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station inside the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module and more than a ton in the orbiter's crew cabin. By the end of the day Sunday, the astronauts had re-packed the cargo carrier with 5,666 pounds of trash, packing material and no-longer-needed equipment. Experiment samples and a few other last-minute items were moved into the shuttle's crew cabin early Monday.

"One thing to note, we had a new item added to the transfer list today, that was item 9,006 and that was (loadmaster) Sandy Magnus, to make sure she gets on the right side of the hatch when the mission is complete," space station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan joked. "But it turns out 9,006 is the total number of line items that have been tracked in (space station resupply) transfer lists over the course of the shuttle program, to the space station. So it's quite a lot.

"You imagine all the work that goes into each line item and doing that 9,006 times over the course of the program, that's huge. It's going to be a very odd morning to wake up and think we're not doing that part of the program again. All along the way there's going to be little moments like that where we realize, oh, we're not going another docking like this. We'll be doing other dockings, there are other vehicles coming, but it's never going to be quite the same. It's a strange feeling."

Along with overseeing the transfer work in her role as loadmaster, Magnus took time out to cheer for the U.S. women's soccer team, which lost to Japan Sunday in the Women's World Cup final. Shortly after wakeup, she congratulated Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, a space station flight engineer.

"I just wanted to say, there was a lot of trash talk yesterday going on, and I don't mean debating the nuances between payload trash and common trash," space station flight engineer Ronald Garan said in a morning tagup with mission control. "But I have to say, first thing this morning Sandy came over and congratulated Satoshi. She was a really good sport."

"Yeah, we knew she was a good sport, and I'm happy to hear we have international harmony on the station," astronaut Dan Tani replied from Houston.

"Only in node two," Garan joked. Node two's official name is Harmony.

With the station's robot arm locked onto Raffaello, commands were sent at 6:14 a.m. to begin driving the 16 motorized bolts holding the module in place on the station's forward Harmony compartment. Magnus and Hurley, operating the robot arm from a work station in the Tranquility module's multi-window cupola, pulled the cargo module away at 6:48 a.m. and carefully moved it to its mounting point in the back of Atlantis' cargo bay. The move was complete by around 7:48 a.m.

It was the 10th and final transfer of a multi-purpose logistics module in a decade of shuttle resupply missions.

"I think it's fair to say we experience vacillations between intense pride at how well this mission has gone and sometimes being somewhat freaked out, for lack of a more technical term," said shuttle Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho, "The finality of our service in this mission, the finality of the program, it hits you with greater force the closer you get to the end.

"My team has been absolutely fantastic, I couldn't be more proud of them. And in the midst of these emotions, from time to time I have that thought, oh wow, tomorrow's going to be my last shift as a space shuttle flight director. I get kind of freaked out and have this sinking feeling in my stomach that lasts about five or 10 seconds, then I go back to doing an impersonation of a steely-eyed missile man. So that's kind of what it's been like for me."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--In the final hours of the shuttle program's last visit to International Space Station, the Atlantis astronauts detached the bus-size Raffaello cargo module, loaded with nearly three tons of trash and no-longer-needed equipment, and moved it back to the shuttle's payload bay early Monday for return to Earth. It was the 11th and final transfer of a multi-purpose logistics module in 10 years of space station resupply missions.

With Raffaello safely latched down aboard Atlantis, the shuttle astronauts -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus -- planned to bid the stations six-member Expedition 28 crew farewell before returning to the shuttle later this morning, shutting hatches and rigging the ship for undocking early Tuesday. Landing back at the Kennedy Space Center to close out three decades of shuttle operations is expected around 5:57 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Thursday.

"It's a little hard to realize that it's the last mission, largely because we've all been so busy," said space station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "It's just beginning to creep into (our) realization that it's coming to an end."

Atlantis delivered 9,403 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station inside the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module and more than a ton in the orbiter's crew cabin. By the end of the day Sunday, the astronauts had re-packed the cargo carrier with 5,666 pounds of trash, packing material and no-longer-needed equipment. Experiment samples and a few other last-minute items were moved into the shuttle's crew cabin early Monday.

"One thing to note, we had a new item added to the transfer list today, that was item 9,006 and that was (loadmaster) Sandy Magnus, to make sure she gets on the right side of the hatch when the mission is complete," McMillan joked. "But it turns out 9,006 is the total number of line items that have been tracked in (space station resupply) transfer lists over the course of the shuttle program, to the space station. So it's quite a lot.

"You imagine all the work that goes into each line item and doing that 9,006 times over the course of the program, that's huge. It's going to be a very odd morning to wake up and think we're not doing that part of the program again. All along the way there's going to be little moments like that where we realize, oh, we're not going another docking like this. We'll be doing other dockings, there are other vehicles coming, but it's never going to be quite the same. It's a strange feeling."

Along with overseeing the transfer work in her role as loadmaster, Magnus took time out to cheer for the U.S. women's soccer team, which lost to Japan Sunday in the Women's World Cup final. Shortly after wakeup, she congratulated Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, a space station flight engineer.

"I just wanted to say, there was a lot of trash talk yesterday going on, and I don't mean debating the nuances between payload trash and common trash," space station flight engineer Ronald Garan said in a morning tagup with mission control. "But I have to say, first thing this morning Sandy came over and congratulated Satoshi. She was a really good sport."

"Yeah, we knew she was a good sport, and I'm happy to hear we have international harmony on the station," astronaut Dan Tani replied from Houston.

"Only in node two," Garan joked. Node two's official name is Harmony.

With the station's robot arm locked onto Raffaello, commands were sent at 6:14 a.m. to begin driving the 16 motorized bolts holding the module in place on the station's forward Harmony compartment. Magnus and Hurley, operating the robot arm from a work station in the Tranquility module's multi-window cupola, pulled the cargo module away at 6:48 a.m. and carefully moved it to its mounting point in the back of Atlantis' cargo bay. The move was complete by around 7:47 a.m.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day 11 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision K of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/17
10:29 PM...09...11...00...00...Crew wakeup

07/18
12:19 AM...09...12...50...00...ISS daily planning conference
12:44 AM...09...13...15...00...MPLM egress
01:04 AM...09...13...35...00...MPLM deactivation
01:24 AM...09...13...55...00...MPLM vestibule demate
01:34 AM...09...14...05...00...Middeck transfers
02:54 AM...09...15...25...00...MPLM vestibule depress
04:24 AM...09...16...55...00...Crew meals begin
05:34 AM...09...18...05...00...SSRMS grapples MPLM
06:49 AM...09...19...20...00...SSRMS uninstalls MPLM
07:54 AM...09...20...25...00...MPLM secured in shuttle payload bay
08:00 AM...09...20...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
08:19 AM...09...20...50...00...SSRMS ungrapples MPLM
09:19 AM...09...21...50...00...Farewell ceremony
09:34 AM...09...22...05...00...Hatches closed
10:04 AM...09...22...35...00...Leak checks
10:09 AM...09...22...40...00...Centerline camera install
10:49 AM...09...23...20...00...Rendezvous tools checkout
11:19 AM...09...23...50...00...ISS daily planning conference
01:29 PM...10...02...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
01:59 PM...10...02...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
03:00 PM...10...03...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV
04:00 PM...10...04...31...00...Flight day 11 highlights on NASA TV
09:59 PM...10...10...30...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--In the final hours of the shuttle program's last visit to International Space Station, the Atlantis astronauts geared up Monday to move the bus-size Raffaello cargo module, loaded with nearly three tons of trash and no-longer-needed equipment, back to the shuttle's payload bay for return to Earth.

If all goes well, Atlantis will undock from the space station early Tuesday and land back at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday morning to close out the 135th and final shuttle mission.

"It's a little hard to realize that it's the last mission, largely because we've all been so busy," said space station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "It's just beginning to creep into (our) realization that it's coming to an end."

Shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim delivered 9,403 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station inside the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module and more than a ton in the shuttle's crew cabin. By the end of the day Sunday, the astronauts had re-packed the cargo carrier with 5,666 pounds of trash, packing material and no-longer-needed equipment.

A few final items will be moved to the shuttle's crew cabin today, but the bulk of the work is done.

"One thing to note, we had a new item added to the transfer list today, that was item 9,006 and that was (loadmaster) Sandy Magnus, to make sure she gets on the right side of the hatch when the mission is complete," McMillan joked. "But it turns out 9,006 is the total number of line items that have been tracked in (space station resupply) transfer lists over the course of the shuttle program, to the space station. So it's quite a lot.

"You imagine all the work that goes into each line item and doing that 9,006 times over the course of the program, that's huge. It's going to be a very odd morning to wake up and think we're not doing that part of the program again. All along the way there's going to be little moments like that where we realize, oh, we're not going another docking like this. We'll be doing other dockings, there are other vehicles coming, but it's never going to be quite the same. It's a strange feeling."

Along with overseeing the transfer work in her role as loadmaster, Magnus took time out to cheer for the U.S. women's soccer team, which lost to Japan Sunday in the Women's World Cup final. Shortly after wakeup, she congratulated Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, a space station flight engineer.

"I just wanted to say, there was a lot of trash talk yesterday going on, and I don't mean debating the nuances between payload trash and common trash," space station flight engineer Ronald Garan said in a morning tagup with mission control. "But I have to say, first thing this morning Sandy came over and congratulated Satoshi. She was a really good sport."

"Yeah, we knew she was a good sport, and I'm happy to hear we have international harmony on the station," astronaut Dan Tani replied from Houston.

"Only in node two," Garan joked. Node two's official name is Harmony.

Operating the station's robot arm from a work station in the Tranquility module's multi-window cupola, Magnus and Hurley planned to detach the Raffaello module at 6:49 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), maneuvering it to its mounting point in the back of Atlantis' cargo bay.

A little more than an hour after Raffaello is locked down for return to Earth, Ferguson, Hurley, Magnus and Walheim will gather one last time with their six space station colleagues for a brief farewell ceremony. Ferguson plans to leave a U.S. flag behind that flew into space aboard the shuttle Columbia in April 1981 during the first shuttle flight. The flag will remain aboard the station until it can be retrieved by U.S. astronauts launching aboard new commercial spacecraft.

After the farewell ceremony, Ferguson and his crewmates will move back aboard Atlantis and seal the main hatch between the two spacecraft, setting the stage for undocking at 2:28 a.m. Tuesday. Atlantis is scheduled to close out the 135th and final shuttle mission with a landing back at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 a.m. Thursday.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day 11 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision K of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/17
10:29 PM...09...11...00...00...Crew wakeup

07/18
12:19 AM...09...12...50...00...ISS daily planning conference
12:44 AM...09...13...15...00...MPLM egress
01:04 AM...09...13...35...00...MPLM deactivation
01:24 AM...09...13...55...00...MPLM vestibule demate
01:34 AM...09...14...05...00...Middeck transfers
02:54 AM...09...15...25...00...MPLM vestibule depress
04:24 AM...09...16...55...00...Crew meals begin
05:34 AM...09...18...05...00...SSRMS grapples MPLM
06:49 AM...09...19...20...00...SSRMS uninstalls MPLM
07:54 AM...09...20...25...00...MPLM secured in shuttle payload bay
08:00 AM...09...20...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
08:19 AM...09...20...50...00...SSRMS ungrapples MPLM
09:19 AM...09...21...50...00...Farewell ceremony
09:34 AM...09...22...05...00...Hatches closed
10:04 AM...09...22...35...00...Leak checks
10:09 AM...09...22...40...00...Centerline camera install
10:49 AM...09...23...20...00...Rendezvous tools checkout
11:19 AM...09...23...50...00...ISS daily planning conference
01:29 PM...10...02...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
01:59 PM...10...02...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
03:00 PM...10...03...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV
04:00 PM...10...04...31...00...Flight day 11 highlights on NASA TV
09:59 PM...10...10...30...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The Atlantis astronauts put in a final day of logistics transfer work Sunday, working through off-duty time to finish moving a last few items into the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module for return to Earth. If all goes well, the cargo module will be detached from the station's forward Harmony module and mounted back in the shuttle's payload bay early Monday, setting the stage for the ship's final departure from the lab complex Tuesday morning.

The primary goal of the 135th and last shuttle mission was to deliver five tons of supplies and equipment to the space station, including more than 2,600 pounds of food. Combined with logistics scheduled for delivery aboard Russian Progress supply ships, the lab complex should be able to support a full-time crew of six through 2012.

"They reached a key milestone today in that the Raffaello logistics module was closed out, all the cargo that (came) up to space station has been transferred over, that was actually completed a couple of days ago, and today they've packed Raffaello with all the return cargo that's going to be coming back to Earth," said space station Flight Director Chris Edelen.

"We delivered 9,403 pounds of cargo in the multi-purpose logistics module up to the station and we are returning 5,666 pounds of cargo inside the logistics module. So all that is packed up. The module is real clean and everything is put away in the proper place, strapped down for entry in the shuttle later this week."

The cargo transfer work ended with an inventory review to make sure everything was in its proper place and that nothing had been overlooked.

"The next item is on resupply, page 48, that's in your end cone tab, that's just the end cone bungie jail, and I'll show that complete since you packed all the bungies together as a block," Jeremy Owen, assembly and checkout officer, called from mission control in Houston.

"And I concur, those are all gone," astronaut Sandra Magnus, the mission loadmaster, confirmed.

"OK, that's everything I show open for MPLM resupply," Owen said.

"Yay!" Magnus yelled out. "It's all done! OK, let's go through return, then."

They two then reviewed paperwork listing the supplies and equipment moved from the space station to Raffaello for return to Earth.

"Thanks, Sandy, for standing by and letting us cross all the T's and dot all the I's down here," Owen said, wrapping up the cargo transfer review. "We're showing you fully complete with MPLM transfer. With all that, we should be go for MPLM hatch closure in the morning. And I just want to pass on a couple of more words to you, that this wraps up 10 years of MPLM supplying the space station with cargo and resupply items. It's brought up over 50 tons of internal cargo and we've returned over 20 tons of cargo."

"That's a pretty impressive number, because we don't really have another way to get large amounts of cargo to the ground," Magnus replied. "So the MPLMs have served us well and they've been incredible workhorses for the program here and International Space Station in particular. I agree completely."

"And of course, hats off to you and your crew," Owen said. "You guys have done an outstanding job. Of course, there's a little bit left to do for tomorrow, but that's nothing compared to the job you guys have already done."

"Well, it definitely was challenging, but everybody pitched in and of course, we had a good plan," Magnus said. "If you guys wouldn't have done such a good job, and the folks at KSC (Kennedy Space Center) getting stuff packed and keeping track of all the small things, it would have been a nightmare for us. But it really did go smoothly for all that we were working really hard, and we can't even tell you how much we appreciate all the work you guys did on the ground planning this out."

"Well, I can honestly say we enjoyed it in some weird way," Owen said.

The astronauts went to bed around 2:30 p.m. Wakeup is expected at 10:29 p.m.

Using the space station's robot arm, Raffaello will be disconnected from the station Monday starting around 6:49 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) and mounted back in Atlantis' cargo bay. A few hours later, Magnus, shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley and Rex Walheim will bid the station crew farewell and move back aboard the shuttle, sealing the hatches between the two spacecraft for the last time.

Undocking is scheduled for 2:28 a.m. Tuesday, setting the stage for the shuttle program's final re-entry and landing around 5:57 a.m. Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters are predicting favorable weather, although they are monitoring the development of a tropical system due east of Melbourne, Fla.

In a bit of good news for the shuttle crew, a detailed analysis of general purpose computer No. 4, which unexpectedly shut down Thursday, shows the machine is healthy and in good shape for undocking and re-entry.

"In this morning's handover to the orbit one team, the data processing systems officer here in mission control reported to (shuttle) Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho that the analysis of the data dumped from general purpose computer number four indicates that all of its software has been exonerated from any complicity in the unexpected shutdown of that GPC Thursday afternoon," said Rob Navias, the mission control commentator.

"Yesterday, GPC-4, which had been reloaded with software and reactivated on Friday, ran for several hours to perform some diagnostics and to provide additional data for the data processing experts to analyze. GPC-4 is considered to be a healthy computer, it's in good shape. The final analysis indicates that it's unexpected shutdown was simply a hardware transient and it is up and running in good shape."

Systems management software was reloaded into GPC-4 early today. GPC-1 is running guidance, navigation and control software while GPCs 2 and 3 are in standby mode, available for use as needed.

"So good news, GPC-4 in good shape," Navias said. "Although it will be watched in the days ahead, it should be fully available or entry and landing of Atlantis in the pre-dawn hours next Thursday."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The Atlantis astronauts put in a final day of logistics transfer work Sunday, moving a last few items into the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module for return to Earth before taking a few hours off for a final bit of rest and relaxation. If all goes well, the cargo module will be detached from the station's forward Harmony module early Monday, setting the stage for the shuttle's undocking Tuesday morning.

"What's left to do is basically finish packing it up," said overnight Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "Today, the list is getting very, very short, we're at about 94 percent complete and most of those items are small. There are a few items that need to come out (of the Raffaello module) but again, most of those are small."

Like the cargo module's light bulbs.

"One of the things that we take out, which people may not realize, we take the light bulbs out as we're leaving, because they're the same kind of fixtures that we use on the space station. So we keep them as spares, this is something we do on every flight. So when you see the light scavenge activity on the timeline, you know we're getting close to undocking."

The primary goal of the 135th and final shuttle mission was to deliver five tons of supplies and equipment, including more than 2,600 pounds of food, to the International Space Station. Combined with logistics scheduled for delivery aboard Russian Progress supply ships, the lab complex should be able to support a full-time crew of six through 2012.

The astronauts have been busy the past few days loading Raffaello with an estimated 5,666 pounds of packing material, trash and no-longer-needed equipment that will be returned to Earth. That work should be wrapped up today, giving the final shuttle crew time for a half day off to relax and enjoy the view.

Using the space station's robot arm, Raffaello will be disconnected from the station Monday starting around 6:49 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) and mounted back in Atlantis' cargo bay. A few hours later, shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim will bid the station crew farewell and move back aboard the shuttle, sealing the hatches between the two spacecraft for the last time.

Undocking is scheduled for 2:28 a.m. Tuesday, setting the stage for the shuttle program's final re-entry and landing around 5:57 a.m. Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters are predicting favorable weather.

In a bit of good news for the shuttle crew, a detailed analysis of general purpose computer No. 4, which unexpectedly shut down Thursday, shows the machine is healthy and in good shape for undocking and re-entry.

"In this morning's handover to the orbit one team, the data processing systems officer here in mission control reported to (shuttle) Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho that the analysis of the data dumped from general purpose computer number four indicates that all of its software has been exonerated from any complicity in the unexpected shutdown of that GPC Thursday afternoon," said Rob Navias, the mission control commentator.

"Yesterday, GPC-4, which had been reloaded with software and reactivated on Friday, ran for several hours to perform some diagnostics and to provide additional data for the data processing experts to analyze. GPC-4 is considered to be a healthy computer, it's in good shape. The final analysis indicates that it's unexpected shutdown was simply a hardware transient and it is up and running in good shape."

Systems management software was reloaded into GPC-4 early today. GPC-1 is running guidance, navigation and control software while GPCs 2 and 3 are in standby mode, available for use as needed.

"So good news, GPC-4 in good shape," Navias said. "Although it will be watched in the days ahead, it should be fully available or entry and landing of Atlantis in the pre-dawn hours next Thursday."

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day 10 (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision K of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/16
10:59 PM...08...11...30...00...Crew wakeup

07/17
12:34 AM...08...13...05...00...ISS daily planning conference
01:19 AM...08...13...50...00...ISS: MCA disconnect
02:04 AM...08...14...35...00...Middeck transfers
02:19 AM...08...14...50...00...MPLM transfers resume
03:19 AM...08...15...50...00...ISS: MCA remove
04:04 AM...08...16...35...00...Glacier freezer transfer to shuttle
04:24 AM...08...16...55...00...MPLM vestibule CPA install
05:54 AM...08...18...25...00...MPLM racks configured
06:24 AM...08...18...55...00...PAO event
06:39 AM...08...19...10...00...Crew meals begin
07:39 AM...08...20...10...00...ISS: MCA reconnect
08:44 AM...08...21...15...00...Crew off duty
11:44 AM...09...00...15...00...Transfer tagup
11:44 AM...09...00...15...00...ISS daily planning conference
01:59 PM...09...02...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins
02:29 PM...09...03...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
02:30 PM...09...03...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
04:00 PM...09...04...31...00...Flight day 10 highlights on NASA TV
08:00 PM...09...08...31...00..."Space Shuttle" video on NASA TV
09:00 PM...09...09...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV
10:10 PM...09...10...41...00...Flight director update on NASA TV
10:29 PM...09...11...00...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Work to move supplies and equipment into the International Space Station and to reload a shuttle cargo module with trash, packing material and no-longer-needed gear is about 78 percent complete as the Atlantis astronauts move into the home stretch of NASA's final shuttle mission.

The four-member crew was awakened at 11:29 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) Friday by Beyonce Knowles' "Run the World (Girls)" beamed up from mission control.

"Good morning Atlantis," the Houston native said in a recorded message to the crew. "This is Beyonce. Sandy, Chris, Doug and Rex, you inspire all of us to dare to live our dreams, to know that we're smart enough and strong enough to achieve them. This song is especially for my girl Sandy (Magnus) and all the women who've taken us to space with them, and the girls who are our future explorers."

"And good morning, Houston, and a big thanks to Beyonce for taking some time out of her schedule to record us a greeting," Magnus replied. "We're ready for another day here on Atlantis and hopefully, with the team at NASA, we can keep our inspirational work up for the young people of America."

Space station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan said the astronauts are ahead of schedule with their logistics transfer work and will focus Saturday on packing up the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module for return to Earth aboard Atlantis.

"Transfer is going really well," McMillan said. "We're at about, I think the magic number right now is 78 percent complete and the crew is really focusing on packing the MPLM at this point. So pretty much everything that we need on the station is moved over, almost everything is moved over. For the MPLM, they're really focusing on getting it configured for return."

With nearly five tons of supplies and equipment moved into the space station, "there's a lot of stuff now ... and a lot of it is just temporarily stowed in convenient locations to get the transfer done," McMillan said. "We're going to try to start getting the crew into basically unpacking that and putting it in its final location so things are a little better organized and it will not take them so much time to find things after undocking."

With any luck, she added, "they'll be able to use some of the (logistics) transfer time today to get that done on the station side while the shuttle crew are packing up the MPLM."

The station crew also planned to continue repair work on a high-tech treadmill in the Russian segment of the lab complex that failed earlier. A new gyroscope for the treadmill's vibration isolation system was delivered by the Atlantis astronauts, but that did not solve the problem.

"So today we've got a little bit of troubleshooting, then we're going to go after the next box that could be causing a problem, which is the vibration isolation system controller unit, which basically is the brains that powers the vibration isolation system, including the gyro," McMillan said.

Flight controllers are continuing to assess the health of a shuttle flight computer that shut down Thursday evening. General Purpose Computer No. 4 was successfully restarted Friday and placed in standby mode, but engineers studying telemetry from the system have not yet figured out what went wrong. Later today, GPC-4 likely will be taken out of standby mode for additional analysis.

"So far, no definitive cause for its unexpected shutdown late in the day on Thursday has been identified, but the leading cause ... could be radiation, simply a transient shutdown of that general purpose computer," said Rob Navias, NASA's mission control commentator. "GPC-4 is likely to be expanded into the set of operational general purpose computers, brought up from its freeze-dried, or hibernated, mode later today and could run for about seven hours so more data can be collected on its general health."

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day nine (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision J of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/15
11:29 PM...07...12...00...00...Crew wakeup

07/16
01:04 AM...07...13...35...00...ISS daily planning conference
02:49 AM...07...15...20...00...MPLM cargo transfers resume
06:24 AM...07...18...55...00...Crew choice recording
06:54 AM...07...19...25...00...Joint crew meal
07:54 AM...07...20...25...00...MPLM cargo transfers resume
07:54 AM...07...20...25...00...Russian EVA-29 tools configured
11:00 AM...07...23...31...00...Replay of Atlantis flag tribute
11:44 AM...08...00...15...00...Transfer tagup
12:00 PM...08...00...31...00...Replay of Atlantis tribute to naval aviation
01:00 PM...08...01...31...00...Replay of Atlantis flag tribute
02:29 PM...08...03...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
03:30 PM...08...04...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
02:59 PM...08...03...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
05:00 PM...09...05...31...00...Flight day 9 highlights on NASA TV
08:00 PM...08...08...31...00..."The Space Shuttle" video on NASA TV
10:00 PM...08...10...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV
10:59 PM...08...11...30...00...Crew wakeup
11:30 PM...08...12...01...00...Flight director update on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Atlantis commander Christopher Ferguson and pilot Douglas Hurley carried out troubleshooting procedures early Friday and successfully restarted a shuttle flight computer that failed Thursday. But it is not yet clear what caused the initial failure and given the critical nature of the machines, flight controllers planned to carefully monitor general purpose computer No. 4 to make sure it was, in fact, running normally.

"Well, it actually failed last night, I think it was about an hour and a half after we fell asleep the alarm went off," Ferguson told CBS Radio in an orbital interview. "I think we all looked at each other, had that bright-eyed, sort of bushy-tailed look, and raced up to the flight deck. The folks on the ground did a nice job helping us get through that. We brought up another GPC to help out with the functions (GPC-)4 was performing. We got it, hopefully, back up and running this morning so it's hanging in there and we're confident it's going to work for entry for us."

While Ferguson and Hurley focused on computer troubleshooting, the rest of the shuttle-station crew pressed ahead with a full slate of work to transfer supplies, equipment and other hardware to and from the International Space Station. The astronauts planned to take a break later in the morning, holding a traditional in-flight news conference at 9:24 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), and taking a call from President Barack Obama at 12:29 p.m.

The Atlantis astronauts are halfway through the 135th and final shuttle mission. Ferguson said the crew has been focused on the tasks at hand, but the reality of the looming end of shuttle operations is beginning to sink in.

"Of course, we've got a busy timeline and there's not a whole lot of time to think about it, but we realize as we go from module to module here, I mean literally we've reached the point where we're saying OK, it's the last train out of town, is there anything else that needs to go back to the Kennedy Space Center, back to Houston before the shuttle program wraps up here?

"And when you say things like that, I think the reality of it really begins to sink in, this is really the last train out of town. Of course, we're going to stay focused and very busy up until we undock, but you know, it's beginning to sink in. I don't think the full magnitude of everything is really going to hit us until after the wheels stop (on the runway)."

With thousands of shuttle workers facing layoffs, the mood at NASA field centers is somber at best, not so much because the shuttle program is ending but because funding was not provided to jump start development of follow-on spacecraft and missions.

As it now stands, it will be several years at best before U.S. rockets and new manned spacecraft are available to launch American astronauts. Until then, NASA will be forced to buy seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

But Ferguson is optimistic, looking forward to a new era of commercial spaceflight and eventual deep space missions using new NASA spacecraft and heavy-lift rockets that are little more than drawing-board concepts right now.

"Everybody realizes, the shuttle program, everything they've worked on for the last 30 years is coming to a close but by and large, we have something right behind it," he said. "And I think once we can finally get over the fact that the shuttle is gone and its day has come, I believe we'll begin to pick up the pieces and everyone will see that we really do have some vibrant programs out there that we're working on. So I know it's tough, it's kind of one of those wake-type things, you have to come to terms with the end before you can really put on a new beginning."

The glitch with general purpose computer No. 4 is the only significant technical problem encountered by Atlantis' crew since blastoff last Friday.

The shuttle is equipped with five IBM AP-101 general purpose computers. Four of them run identical software while the fifth, tied to a different electrical bus, runs programming from a different vendor to protect against bugs that might take down the four machines in the "redundant set." The shuttle can fly with just two operational GPCs, assuming no generic problems.

During normal orbital operations, two of the redundant computers are typically in stand-by mode while one of the operational machines runs systems management software. That was the machine that failed Thursday, triggering an alarm that woke the crew.

Ferguson loaded the management software into GPC-2 and then went back to bed, leaving the shuttle under the control of GPCs 1 and 2 with GPC-3 in standby mode, ready for use if needed. Early Friday, he re-loaded GPC-4's software from a mass memory unit.

"And the data processing systems officer here in mission control reports that GPC-4 is now up and running in the common set," NASA commentator Rob Navias reported after an initial program load, or IPL, was carried out. "It appears, at least, that the recovery procedure has proven successful. If this computer remains up and running, it will be considered a transient failure and likely will be placed in a standby mode.

"The flight control team will watch the operation of this GPC for some period of time, but based on the way the procedures dictate, this GPC, although at the moment operable once again, would be considered a transient failure."

A transient glitch is defined as a single failure in a computer that subsequently responded normally to an initial program load, or IPL.

"A GPC failure is generally thought to be caused by hardware failures more than software problems," according to NASA's data processing system flight rules. "Even if the failed GPC recovers by doing an IPL, there is concern that the GPC will fail again. If dump analysis can confirm a software-induced failure, the GPC will be considered recovered."

With GPC-4 back up and running, flight controllers will carry out a detailed assessment of its performance to better understand what went wrong in the first place and to determine whether the computer can be relied on to operate normally.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day eight (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision I of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/15
12:59 AM...06...13...30...00...Crew wakeup
02:04 AM...06...14...35...00...ISS daily planning conference
02:39 AM...06...15...10...00...MPLM transfers resume
03:49 AM...06...16...20...00...Spacesuit checkout
05:34 AM...06...18...05...00...Spacesuit resizing
06:44 AM...06...19...15...00...CBS Radio/KYW-TV/AP crew interviews
07:04 AM...06...19...35...00...MPLM transfers resume
08:04 AM...06...20...35...00...WPVI-TV/KYW Radio/Reuter crew interviews
08:24 AM...06...20...55...00...Joint crew meal
09:24 AM...06...21...55...00...Crew news conference
10:09 AM...06...22...40...00...Crew photo
10:29 AM...06...23...00...00...MPLM transfers resume
10:45 AM...06...23...16...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
12:29 PM...07...01...00...00...Presidential phone call to crew
12:49 PM...07...01...20...00...ISS daily planning conference
01:04 PM...07...01...35...00...Transfer tagup
02:00 PM...07...02...31...00...VIP phone call replay on NASA TV
02:30 PM...07...03...01...00...Interpreted replay of crew conference
02:59 PM...07...03...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins
03:29 PM...07...04...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
03:30 PM...07...04...01...00...VIP phone call replay on NASA TV
05:00 PM...07...05...31...00...Flight day 8 highlights on NASA TV
11:29 PM...07...12...00...00...Crew wakeup
11:45 PM...07...12...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Atlantis commander Christopher Ferguson and pilot Douglas Hurley carried out troubleshooting procedures early Friday and successfully restarted a shuttle flight computer that failed Thursday. But it is not yet clear what caused the initial failure and given the critical nature of the machines, flight controllers planned to carefully monitor general purpose computer No. 4 to make sure it was, in fact, running normally.

"And the data processing systems officer here in mission control reports that GPC-4 is now up and running in the common set," NASA commentator Rob Navias reported after an initial program load, or reboot, was carried out. "It appears, at least, that the recovery procedure has proven successful. If this computer remains up and running, it will be considered a transient failure and likely will be placed in a standby mode.

"The flight control team will watch the operation of this GPC for some period of time, but based on the way the procedures dictate, this GPC, although at the moment operable once again, would be considered a transient failure."

A transient glitch is defined as a single failure in a computer that subsequently responded normally to an initial program load, or IPL.

"A GPC failure is generally thought to be caused by hardware failures more than software problems," according to NASA's data processing system flight rules. "Even if the failed GPC recovers by doing an IPL, there is concern that the GPC will fail again. If dump analysis can confirm a software-induced failure, the GPC will be considered recovered."

While Ferguson and Hurley focused on computer troubleshooting, the rest of the shuttle-station crew pressed ahead with a full slate of work to transfer supplies, equipment and other hardware to and from the International Space Station.

The astronauts plan to field questions from reporters during two round-robin interview sessions before participating in a traditional crew news conference at 9:24 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). President Barack Obama plans to call the shuttle-station crew at 12:29 p.m.

The shuttle is equipped with five IBM AP-101 general purpose computers. Four of them run identical software while the fifth, tied to a different electrical bus, runs programming from a different vendor to protect against bugs that might take down the four machines in the "redundant set." The shuttle can fly with just two operational GPCs, assuming no generic problems.

During normal orbital operations, two of the redundant computers are typically in stand-by mode while one of the operational machines runs systems management software. That was the machine that failed Thursday, triggering an alarm that woke the crew.

Ferguson loaded the management software into GPC-2 and then went back to bed, leaving the shuttle under the control of GPCs 1 and 2 with GPC-3 in standby mode, ready for use if needed. With GPC-4 back up and running in stand-by mode, flight controllers will carry out a detailed assessment of its performance to better understand what went wrong in the first place and to determine whether the computer can be relied on to operate normally.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day eight (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision I of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/15
12:59 AM...06...13...30...00...Crew wakeup
02:04 AM...06...14...35...00...ISS daily planning conference
02:39 AM...06...15...10...00...MPLM transfers resume
03:49 AM...06...16...20...00...Spacesuit checkout
05:34 AM...06...18...05...00...Spacesuit resizing
06:44 AM...06...19...15...00...CBS Radio/KYW-TV/AP crew interviews
07:04 AM...06...19...35...00...MPLM transfers resume
08:04 AM...06...20...35...00...WPVI-TV/KYW Radio/Reuter crew interviews
08:24 AM...06...20...55...00...Joint crew meal
09:24 AM...06...21...55...00...Crew news conference
10:09 AM...06...22...40...00...Crew photo
10:29 AM...06...23...00...00...MPLM transfers resume
10:45 AM...06...23...16...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
12:29 PM...07...01...00...00...Presidential phone call to crew
12:49 PM...07...01...20...00...ISS daily planning conference
01:04 PM...07...01...35...00...Transfer tagup
02:00 PM...07...02...31...00...VIP phone call replay on NASA TV
02:30 PM...07...03...01...00...Interpreted replay of crew conference
02:59 PM...07...03...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins
03:29 PM...07...04...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
03:30 PM...07...04...01...00...VIP phone call replay on NASA TV
05:00 PM...07...05...31...00...Flight day 8 highlights on NASA TV
11:29 PM...07...12...00...00...Crew wakeup
11:45 PM...07...12...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

The Atlantis astronauts were awakened by a master alarm Thursday when one of the shuttle's five general purpose computers apparently failed, NASA officials said. GPC-4 was running systems management software at the time and commander Christopher Ferguson spent about 45 minutes loading that software into general purpose computer No. 2 before going back to bed.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the malfunction with GPC-4, whether the machine can be restarted later or whether additional troubleshooting will be needed. Earlier in the flight, GPC-3 shut itself down, but that was caused by a temperamental switch and the computer was successfully restarted the next day.

The shuttle is equipped with five general purpose computers. Four of them run identical software while the fifth runs programming from a different vendor to protect against bugs that might take down the four machines in the "redundant set." During normal orbital operations, two of the redundant computers are typically in stand-by mode while one of the operational machines runs systems management software. That was the machine that failed Thursday.

"The crew was awakened about (6:07 p.m. EDT (GMT-4)) with an error message from the shuttle, a master alarm that had to do with general purpose computer No. 4 having an issue," said Brandi Dean, the mission control commentator. "General purpose computer four has been the designated systems management computer for the on-orbit operations. That failed, and so the team here on the ground has been having the crew work through procedures to bring up the systems management operation on another general purpose computer."

Astronaut Shannon Lucid, the overnight "capsule communicator," or CAPCOM, in mission control, thanked Ferguson for his quick work loading the management software from Atlantis' mass memory unit into GPC-2.

"You all have done an absolutely fabulous job," Lucid said. "We have polled the room, everyone is ready for you to go back to sleep. ... Would you like to wake up at the normal time, or wake up a little later in the morning?"

"Hey thanks for offering, Houston," Ferguson replied. "If you could add a half an hour to our wakeup time, I think that would be really nice."

Shannon agreed, and wakeup was rescheduled for 12:59 a.m. Friday.

The computer glitch was the first technical issue of any significance since Atlantis blasted off last Friday.

The astronauts spent the day Thursday pressing ahead with work to unload a cargo module packed with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station, reaching the 70 percent mark in logistics transferred to date. The crew then took a half day off to relax and enjoy the view after a busy week in space before going to bed.

Aside from the computer failure, Ferguson said earler the astronauts were pleased with mission's progress, adding that Atlantis, making the shuttle program's 135th and final flight, was operating in near flawless fashion.

"This is one of the first days we've been able to take a deep breath and appreciate what we're doing up here," he told Fox News Radio. "We've been really busy for the first five, six days or so but I'd like to think it's going really well. The vehicle's really healthy, Atlantis is doing just wonderfully, It's great to see our space station friends up here. We've got our big cargo module about three quarters or so all transferred. So it's going great."

Space station Flight Director Chris Edelen said the crew "made very good progress today on transferring the remaining cargo. ... They are now 70 percent complete with the planned cargo transfer."

"Most of the cargo is now on the correct side of the hatches, the things that we were bringing up to the space station are now inside the space station, some stowed away, some waiting to be permanently stowed," he said. "And the items to be brought back to Earth, most of those items are now in the logistics module. It still looks a little bit cluttered because a lot of those items have not been placed into their return position yet, fully strapped down. That's the primary remaining task for the crew, to get all the return cargo safely stowed for the trip home."

The station's Russian crew members installed a new gyroscope in a treadmill in the Zvezda command module, attempting to revive the zero-gravity exercise device.

"We thought that by replacing that, that would restore the treadmill to operational use," Edelen said. "However, when that was installed it did not fix the problem. We are seeing the same failure signature, which is the gyroscop is receiving power but is not spinning up. So that seems to indicate the problem is upstream of the gyroscope, perhaps in the controller for that device. So we are looking at rescheduling additional maintenance to replace that controller."

The shuttle astronauts began their day around 1:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), enjoying R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe singing "Man on the Moon." In a personal message recorded before launch, Stipe told the astronauts "we wish you much success on your mission, and thank all the women and men at NASA who have worked on shuttle for three decades. From Earth, a very good morning to you."

"Good morning, Houston, and all we can say up here is wow," said Atlantis pilot Douglas Hurley. "We'd like to thank Mr. Michael Stipe for sending up that wonderful message and that great song. I know a lot of us up have been listening to R.E.M. for a long, long time and it's some of the greatest music. Also reminds us about the moon landing (anniversary) next week. We also echo his sentiments and thank all the great people who worked on this wonderful space shuttle. We're ready for another day in space and ready to get to work."

"We are making a rather large delivery and a lot of our time is being spent moving things onto the station and bringing things back into our cargo carrier," said astronaut Sandra Magnus, the mission's "loadmaster." "We're leaving behind about a year's supply of food and consumables as well as about a thousand pounds of science equipment and some spare parts. We're taking back with us some trash and some pieces of hardware that need to be refurbished on the ground and some other consumables that need to go home. It's keeping us pretty busy, but the station will be (well supplied) once we leave."

The shuttle-station crew planned to share what NASA billed as "an all-American meal," enjoying grilled chicken, barbecue brisket, southwestern corn, baked beans and apple pie. Recipes, or "formulations," were posted on NASA's website for anyone who wanted to participate in a "virtual" meal with the astronauts.

Before stopping for lunch, Ferguson and Magnus tried to describe their impressions of the space station, giving listeners at least a sense of the wonder they experience in orbit.

"We are indeed very fortunate to have had the experiences that we've had," said Magus, veteran of an earlier long-duration stay aboard the outpost. "I remember a moment when I was up here on Expedition 18, I was just going about my normal routine and in the course of one day, I talked to Moscow, I talked to Germany, I talked to Japan and talked to our two control centers in Houston and Huntsville.

"And then I stopped for a moment and I had one of those moments of realization, like 'wow, look what we did.' We built this huge, huge, monster laboratory orbiting the Earth using cooperation with countries all over the world and here I am living on it. It was just one of those moments you have (when) it just strikes you that wow, this is really just incredible."

Ferguson said he had his own "wow" moment during approach to the space station Sunday, when Atlantis was 600 feet directly below the lab complex.

"I'll tell you, it's just an incredibly emotional moment for those who are fortunate enough to have been in that position (to) look up and see this tremendous space station that we've built in space," he said. "It really, it makes me both humble and awestruck at what human beings, when they put their collective efforts together across a multi-national effort, can build in space. This orbiting laboratory is absolutely tremendous. And just to see it from below, it really leaves you with a feeling of awe."

The combined 10-member shuttle-station crew took the afternoon off starting at 9:44 a.m.

Reflecting on the shuttle's final voyage, Ferguson told an interviewer the space shuttle was like a first car, "you love it, you hate to see it go but you realize that every vehicle has its time."

"While I personally believe there's a little bit of lifetime left in the space shuttle, we do have to realize that if we want to go beyond and get another rocket or craft that will go outside of low-Earth orbit, the space shuttle's not the one," he said. "And eventually, we do want to go back to the moon, perhaps to Mars or an asteroid, and we're going to need to stand down a little bit and take time and take perhaps the money that was used to operate the space shuttle and instead build a new vehicle with it, which is what we plan to do."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Ready for a half day off after a busy week in space, the Atlantis astronauts pressed ahead early Thursday with work to unload a cargo module packed with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station. The lab's Russian crew members carried out a bit of mechanical surgery on a high-tech treadmill, installing a new gyroscope needed for its vibration isolation system.

Commander Christopher Ferguson said the astronauts were pleased with mission's progress, adding that Atlantis, making the shuttle program's 135th and final flight, was operating in near flawless fashion.

"This is one of the first days we've been able to take a deep breath and appreciate what we're doing up here," he told Fox News Radio. "We've been really busy for the first five, six days or so but I'd like to think it's going really well. The vehicle's really healthy, Atlantis is doing just wonderfully, It's great to see our space station friends up here. We've got our big cargo module about three quarters or so all transferred. So it's going great."

Earlier this week, mission managers completed an assessment of Atlantis' heat shield and cleared the ship for re-entry.

"It's one of the cleanest vehicles they've ever seen so we're not worried about that at all," Ferguson said. "Atlantis is purring like a kitten. I think she's about 25 years or so old, but she performs just like a newborn. She's doing great."

The shuttle crew was awakened around 1:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe singing "Man on the Moon." In a personal message recorded before launch, Stipe told the astronauts "we wish you much success on your mission, and thank all the women and men at NASA who have worked on shuttle for three decades. From Earth, a very good morning to you."

"Good morning, Houston, and all we can say up here is wow," said Atlantis pilot Douglas Hurley. "We'd like to thank Mr. Michael Stipe for sending up that wonderful message and that great song. I know a lot of us up have been listening to R.E.M. for a long, long time and it's some of the greatest music. Also reminds us about the moon landing (anniversary) next week. We also echo his sentiments and thank all the great people who worked on this wonderful space shuttle. We're ready for another day in space and ready to get to work."

Space station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan said the astronauts were ahead of scheduled unloading the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module that was carried aloft aboard Atlantis. Unloading the module is the crew's primary objective over the next several days, along with ongoing maintenance work.

"We are making a rather large delivery and a lot of our time is being spent moving things onto the station and bringing things back into our cargo carrier," said astronaut Sandra Magnus, the mission's "loadmaster." "We're leaving behind about a year's supply of food and consumables as well as about a thousand pounds of science equipment and some spare parts. We're taking back with us some trash and some pieces of hardware that need to be refurbished on the ground and some other consumables that need to go home. It's keeping us pretty busy, but the station will be (well supplied) once we leave."

The shuttle-station crew planned to share what NASA billed as "an all-American meal," enjoying grilled chicken, barbecue brisket, southwestern corn, baked beans and apple pie. Recipes, or "formulations," were posted on NASA's website for anyone who wanted to participate in a "virtual" meal with the astronauts.

Before stopping for lunch, Ferguson and Magnus tried to describe their impressions of the space station, giving listeners at least a sense of the wonder they experience in orbit.

"We are indeed very fortunate to have had the experiences that we've had," said Magus, veteran of an earlier long-duration stay aboard the outpost. "I remember a moment when I was up here on Expedition 18, I was just going about my normal routine and in the course of one day, I talked to Moscow, I talked to Germany, I talked to Japan and talked to our two control centers in Houston and Huntsville.

"And then I stopped for a moment and I had one of those moments of realization, like 'wow, look what we did.' We built this huge, huge, monster laboratory orbiting the Earth using cooperation with countries all over the world and here I am living on it. It was just one of those moments you have (when) it just strikes you that wow, this is really just incredible."

Ferguson said he had his own "wow" moment during approach to the space station Sunday, when Atlantis was 600 feet directly below the lab complex.

"I'll tell you, it's just an incredibly emotional moment for those who are fortunate enough to have been in that position (to) look up and see this tremendous space station that we've built in space," he said. "It really, it makes me both humble and awestruck at what human beings, when they put their collective efforts together across a multi-national effort, can build in space. This orbiting laboratory is absolutely tremendous. And just to see it from below, it really leaves you with a feeling of awe."

The combined 10-member shuttle-station crew planned to take their afternoon off starting at 9:44 a.m.

Video recorded by cameras on Atlantis' two solid-fuel boosters during launch last Friday will be shown on NASA television at 10 a.m., with replays at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. NASA's daily mission status briefing is scheduled for 5 p.m., followed by another booster video replay at 5:30 p.m.

Reflecting on the shuttle's final voyage, Ferguson told an interviewer the space shuttle was like a first car, "you love it, you hate to see it go but you realize that every vehicle has its time."

"While I personally believe there's a little bit of lifetime left in the space shuttle, we do have to realize that if we want to go beyond and get another rocket or craft that will go outside of low-Earth orbit, the space shuttle's not the one," he said. "And eventually, we do want to go back to the moon, perhaps to Mars or an asteroid, and we're going to need to stand down a little bit and take time and take perhaps the money that was used to operate the space shuttle and instead build a new vehicle with it, which is what we plan to do."

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day seven (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision G of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/14
12:45 AM...05...13...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV
01:29 AM...05...14...00...00...Crew wakeup
01:45 AM...05...14...16...00...Flight director update replay
02:59 AM...05...15...30...00...ISS daily planning conference
03:24 AM...05...15...55...00...Gyro installation in Russian treadmill
04:04 AM...05...16...35...00...MPLM transfers resume
06:59 AM...05...19...30...00...Fox Radio/KTVI-TV/KSDK-TV crew interviews
08:19 AM...05...20...50...00...Joint crew meal
09:19 AM...05...21...50...00...WBBM-TV/KTVU-TV/WTXF-TV crew interviews
09:44 AM...05...22...15...00...Crew off duty
10:00 AM...05...21...31...00...Booster launch video on NASA TV
01:00 PM...06...01...31...00...Booster launch video replay
01:44 PM...06...02...15...00...ISS daily planning conference
03:00 PM...06...03...31...00...Booster launch video replay
03:59 PM...06...04...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins
04:29 PM...06...05...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
05:00 PM...06...05...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
05:30 PM...06...06...01...00...Booster launch video replay
06:00 PM...06...06...31...00...Flight day 7 highlights on NASA TV
09:00 PM...06...09...31...00..."The Space Shuttle" video on NASA TV
11:00 PM...06...11...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV

07/15
12:29 AM...06...13...00...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

The Atlantis astronauts, looking forward to a half day off after a busy week in space, pressed ahead Thursday with work to unload a cargo module packed with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station. The lab's Russian crew members planned to carry out a bit of mechanical surgery on a high-tech treadmill, installing a new gyroscope needed by its vibration isolation system.

The shuttle crew was awakened around 1:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe singing "Man on the Moon."

"Good morning, Atlantis, this is Michael Stipe from R.E.M.," the singer said in a message recorded before launch in Venice, Italy. "We wish you much success on your mission, and thank all the women and men at NASA who have worked on shuttle for three decades. From Earth, a very good morning to you."

"Good morning, Houston, and all we can say up here is wow," said Atlantis pilot Douglas Hurley. "We'd like to thank Mr. Michael Stipe for sending up that wonderful message and that great song. I know a lot of us up have been listening to R.E.M. for a long, long time and it's some of the greatest music. Also reminds us about the moon landing (anniversary) next week. We also echo his sentiments and thank all the great people who worked on this wonderful space shuttle. We're ready for another day in space and ready to get to work."

Space station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan said the astronauts were about halfway done with work to unload the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module that was carried aloft aboard Atlantis. Unloading the module is the crew's primary objective over the next several days, along with ongoing maintenance work.

"The Atlantis crew will be doing pretty much transfer all morning," said McMillan. "The Russian crew in the morning on the space station are going to be working on their treadmill. They have a gyroscope that stabilizes the treadmill and that needs to be replaced. The one that was in there failed some time ago and was removed, (it is) going to be returned on Atlantis and the new one is going in."

The shuttle-station crew plans to share what NASA is billing as "an all-American meal" around 8:20 a.m., enjoying grilled chicken, barbecue brisket, southwestern corn, baked beans and apple pie. Recipes, or "formulations," have been posted on NASA's website.

Two sets of round-robin media interviews are planned, the first at 6:59 a.m. and the second at 9:19 a.m. The combined 10-member shuttle-station crew plans to take their afternoon off starting at 9:44 a.m.

Video recorded by cameras on Atlantis' two solid-fuel boosters during launch last Friday will be shown on NASA television at 10 a.m., with replays at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. NASA's daily mission status briefing is scheduled for 5 p.m., followed by another booster video replay at 5:30 p.m.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day seven (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision G of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/14
12:45 AM...05...13...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV
01:29 AM...05...14...00...00...Crew wakeup
01:45 AM...05...14...16...00...Flight director update replay
02:59 AM...05...15...30...00...ISS daily planning conference
03:24 AM...05...15...55...00...Gyro installation in Russian treadmill
04:04 AM...05...16...35...00...MPLM transfers resume
06:59 AM...05...19...30...00...WBBM-TV/KTVI-TV/KSDK-TV crew interviews
08:19 AM...05...20...50...00...Joint crew meal
09:19 AM...05...21...50...00...FOX Radio/KTVU-TV/WTXF-TV crew interviews
09:44 AM...05...22...15...00...Crew off duty
10:00 AM...05...21...31...00...Booster launch video on NASA TV
01:00 PM...06...01...31...00...Booster launch video replay
01:44 PM...06...02...15...00...ISS daily planning conference
03:00 PM...06...03...31...00...Booster launch video replay
03:59 PM...06...04...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins
04:29 PM...06...05...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
05:00 PM...06...05...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
05:30 PM...06...06...01...00...Booster launch video replay
06:00 PM...06...06...31...00...Flight day 7 highlights on NASA TV
09:00 PM...06...09...31...00..."The Space Shuttle" video on NASA TV
11:00 PM...06...11...31...00..."Launching our Dreams" video on NASA TV

07/15
12:29 AM...06...13...00...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

With a final shuttle-era spacewalk behind them, the Atlantis astronauts focused on logistics transfers Wednesday, devoting their day to moving cargo and supplies from the shuttle's crew cabin and the Raffaello multi-purpose module into the International Space Station. They also took time for maintenance work, servicing the lab's U.S. toilet and restarting the crew's urine recycling system after standing down a day to let a strong odor dissipate.

"That's the great thing about spaceflight," joked space station astronaut Michael Fossum, whose fellow spacewalker Ronald Garan worked on the toilet Wednesday. "One day, you're doing the most outrageous thing humans have ever done -- spacewalking. The next day, you're fixing toilets and packing boxes."

Carried aloft in Atlantis' payload bay, Raffaello was launched with 9,403 pounds of supplies and equipment packed inside, including 2,677 pounds of food to provision the station crew through 2012. Another ton of logistics was carried inside the shuttle's crew cabin.

The supplies delivered by the Atlantis astronauts, along with provisions aboard Russian cargo ships, will keep the six-member crew supplied through 2012.

"We have a lot of clothing, a lot of food and of course we want to put the space station in a good position to be self-sustaining for up to a year and that's about what it takes," shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson said in a NASA interview. "We're also taking a lot of environmental supplies. We have the urine processor on board (the station), and that requires a fairly scheduled and systematic delivery of filter tanks ... we'll be taking six or seven of those, a lot of other components for the environmental system.

"We'll be bringing back an awful lot as well. We'll be bringing back a heat exchanger and a lot of the components that were stationed full time aboard the ISS just to support the space shuttle. We can bring that all back with us. Like I said, in addition to delivering an awful lot of cargo we're also hoping to offload trash, maybe things that could be repaired and sent back up (aboard unmanned cargo ships)."

The station's three Russian crew members helped out with cargo transfers Wednesday morning before carrying out their own maintenance activities later in the day.

Space station Flight Director Chris Edelen said the astronauts are about 50 percent complete with work to unload the multi-purpose logistics module and re-pack it with no longer needed equipment and trash.

"The crew is now about halfway complete unloading the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module, moving that cargo out of the module and into the space station and bringing back the spare parts, the trash and other various pieces of equipment that will be coming back to Earth.

"If you saw some of the downlink video, you may have noticed it's very cluttered in the logistics module, there are bags and boxes everywhere, just like in your house on moving day. But it's a controlled chaos. The team here in Houston is working very closely with the crew, they've choreographed the movements of equipment in and out of the logistics module so there's a place for everything. We're making sure, very carefully, that everything we need for resupplying the station ends up on the station and everything we want to come home ends up in Raffaello."

One area of interest to flight controllers has been the performance of the U.S. toilet and urine recycling system in the Tranquility module. The crew reported a strong odor around the equipment Monday. The urine processor was shut down and the intensity of the smell subsided.

"Ron Garan spent several hours working on the space station toilet, the waste hygiene compartment," Edelen said. "He replaced several components there that were starting to give some noises and vibrations that were indicating those components were approaching their end of life. He replaced those and now reports the space station toilet is working just fine.

The toilet is tied into NASA's urine recycling system, which produces ultra-pure water for drinking and other uses. About 10 days ago, a leak was detected in the system and in the process of making repairs, air got into the urine processor.

"And so we've been very gingerly and very carefully doing our urine processing to make sure we're not over-stressing any of the components in that," Edelen said. "There was a report of an odor the day before yesterday that we believe is associated with that air as it works its way out of the system.

The system was restarted Wednesday and operated for nearly four hours without any problems or objectionable smells.

"This is an important technology we are demonstrating and perfecting in low-Earth orbit so that it can be used on future missions into deep space," Edelen said. "It's vitally important that we recycle all our water, all forms of our water, because it's so heavy you can't resupply a mission with water when you're far from the Earth."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

With a final shuttle-era spacewalk behind them, the Atlantis astronauts focused on logistics transfers Wednesday, devoting their day to moving cargo and supplies from the shuttle's crew cabin and the Raffaello multi-purpose module into the International Space Station.

Carried aloft in Atlantis' payload bay, Raffaello was launched with 9,403 pounds of supplies and equipment packed inside, including 2,677 pounds of food to provision the station crew through 2012. Another ton of logistics was carried inside the shuttle's crew cabin.

"We have a lot of clothing, a lot of food and of course we want to put the space station in a good position to be self-sustaining for up to a year and that's about what it takes," shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson said in a NASA interview. "We're also taking a lot of environmental supplies. We have the urine processor on board (the station), and that requires a fairly scheduled and systematic delivery of filter tanks ... we'll be taking six or seven of those, a lot of other components for the environmental system.

"We'll be bringing back an awful lot as well. We'll be bringing back a heat exchanger and a lot of the components that were stationed full time aboard the ISS just to support the space shuttle. We can bring that all back with us. Like I said, in addition to delivering an awful lot of cargo we're also hoping to offload trash, maybe things that could be repaired and sent back up (aboard unmanned cargo ships)."

The station crew will help out with cargo transfers Wednesday morning before carrying out a variety of maintenance activities later in the day.

During transfer work Tuesday, "we ... had a hurricane of activity," astronaut Sandra Magnus, the designated "load master," told flight controllers. "Our Russian colleagues came, they conquered and then they went. I haven't even quite caught up yet with everything that got done."

One area of interest to flight controllers is the performance of the U.S. toilet and urine recycling system in the Tranquility module. The crew reported a strong odor around the equipment Monday. The urine processor was shut down and the intensity of the smell subsided.

"We don't have a firm understanding (of what caused the odor), but we have a couple of good ideas and we're going to find out today if it's related to the processing in the urine processing assembly, doing a cycle through the processor to see if the smell increases again," said Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "We didn't get any more reports from the crew, they had told us the night before (the spacewalk Tuesday) the smell had improved considerably.

"We're going to kick off a short cycle in the morning when the crew is awake and see if we notice anything," she said. "That will also get us some more data on the performance of the system. So far, all the data shows the system is performing totally nominally. So we're not entirely sure yet (what is causing the smell) but we have a couple of ideas and this will help us figure out for sure where it's coming from."

Ferguson and his crewmates will participate in the mission's first round of media interviews starting at 12:54 p.m. EDT (GMT-4). The daily mission status briefing is scheduled for 5 p.m.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day six (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision F of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/13
12:45 AM...04...13...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV
01:45 AM...04...14...16...00...Flight director update replay
02:29 AM...04...15...00...00...Crew wakeup
04:09 AM...04...16...40...00...ISS daily planning conference
04:29 AM...04...17...00...00...Middeck transfers resume
04:59 AM...04...17...30...00...MPLM transfers resume
04:59 AM...04...17...30...00...Lithium hydroxide transfer
07:54 AM...04...20...25...00...Crew choice recording (not live)
08:24 AM...04...20...55...00...Middeck, MPLM transfers resume
09:14 AM...04...21...45...00...Joint crew meal
10:14 AM...04...22...45...00...MPLM transfer resumes
12:54 PM...05...01...25...00...WBNG-TV/WICZ-TV/KGO-TV crew interviews
01:14 PM...05...01...45...00..."Face in Space" downlink
01:19 PM...05...01...50...00...MPLM transfers resume
02:44 PM...05...03...15...00...ISS evening planning conference
02:59 PM...05...03...30...00...Transfer tagup
04:59 PM...05...05...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins
05:00 PM...05...05...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
05:29 PM...05...06...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
07:00 PM...05...07...31...00...Flight day 6 highlights on NASA TV
10:00 PM...05...10...31...00...William Shatner "The Space Shuttle" on NASA TV

07/14
12:45 AM...05...13...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV
01:29 AM...05...14...00...00...Crew wakeup
01:45 AM...05...14...16...00...Flight director update replay

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

After accomplishing their two primary objectives -- moving a failed cooling pump from the station to the shuttle Atlantis and a robotic refueling apparatus from the shuttle to the lab complex -- astronauts Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan installed a materials science experiment on the station's power truss, serviced a robot arm attachment fitting and installed a thermal cover over an unused docking port.

The astronauts then made their way back to the lab's Quest airlock module, closed the hatch and began repressurizing at 3:53 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), officially ending a six-hour 31-minute spacewalk, the final excursion of the space shuttle era.

"You guys did an outstanding job today," spacewalk coordinator Rex Walheim radioed from inside the shuttle-station complex a few minutes earlier. "You got everything done plus one bonus task and you're finishing perfectly on time."

Today's spacewalk was the 160th devoted to space station assembly and maintenance, the ninth so far this year, the seventh for Fossum and the fourth for Garan. Total space station EVA time now stands at 1,009 hours and nine minutes, or 42 days. Fossum, with 48 hours and 32 minutes of EVA time, moves up to seventh on the list of most experienced spacewalkers while Garan's total increases to 27 hours and three minutes.

Because Atlantis was launched with a reduced crew of four to accommodate possible rescue scenarios, today's spacewalk was carried out by station flight engineers Garan and Fossum to reduce training time for the shuttle crew. As such, the EVA was considered an Expedition 28 spacewalk, but it was the final outing by any astronauts with a space shuttle in orbit.

"I remember back when this space station was being designed and redesigned in '93 and '94, all of these tasks, the assembly tasks, the expected maintenance tasks and all of those things were starting to take shape and we looked at the future of EVA and compared it to our past history, starting with Gemini, through Apollo, Skylab, the early days of the shuttle program," Fossum reflected.

Considering the number of spacewalks required to build the International Space Station, "we called it the EVA 'wall,' because on the charts, that's what it looked like," Fossum said. "We had to learn a lot, and this has been accomplished by literally tens of thousands of people around the country and around the world who figured these things out. It is hard work. It's hard work on the ground, it's hard work by everybody involved. And it's really strange, and you don't get to test it much. You try things out for the first time in the real environment of space, and it's hard, it has been all the way along.

"But for those of us who were working the program back in those days, to see that we've really done it, it's just awe inspiring," he said. "It's a true testament to will power, perseverance and trust and teamwork. Ron and I are honored to be a part of it, to help close out one of the final chapters."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Taking his turn on the end of the space station's robot arm, astronaut Michael Fossum carried a 550-pound robotic refueling kit from the shuttle Atlantis to a mounting platform on the International Space Station to accomplish the second major objective of today's spacewalk.

The refueling kit will be used by a Canadian-built robot arm appendage known as the special purpose dexterous manipulator, or SPDM, to test techniques for robotic fueling of satellites and other equipment. While Fossum was carrying the module to the station, Garan cleaned up tools and equipment in the shuttle's cargo bay.

"Take a look around, Ronny," spacewalk coordinator Rex Walheim radioed from Atlantis' cockpit. "You're the last EVA person (spacewalker) in the payload bay of a shuttle."

A few minutes later, Garan headed back up to the station to join Fossum.

"Rex, as I leave for the last time, I want to tell you how much I appreciate all the thousands of people who worked on this vehicle," Garan said. "It is really beautiful back here."

"Yeah, it's an amazing vehicle, isn't it?" Walheim agreed.

Earlier in the spacewalk, the astronauts moved a failed pump module from the station to Atlantis so it can be returned to Earth for troubleshooting. With the robotics kit in place, Fossum and Garan now plan to install a materials science experiment before tackling a few maintenance chores.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Anchored to the end of the space station's robot arm, astronaut Ronald Garan pulled a 1,400-pound ammonia coolant pump from a storage rack on the lab complex and manually held it in place as arm operators Sandra Magnus and Douglas Hurley carefully maneuvered him to the shuttle Atlantis' payload bay.

The pump module failed last July, taking down half of the International Space Station's external cooling system, which uses ammonia circulating through giant radiators to get rid of the heat generated by the lab's electronics. The failure forced the crew to carry out an emergency powerdown until a replacement could be installed and hooked up during three subsequent spacewalks.

Getting the failed pump back to Earth for analysis is a top priority and today, Garan and fellow spacewalker Michael Fossum started that process, moving the bulky module from a storage shelf near the station's airlock to a carrier beam at the back of Atlantis' cargo bay. Taking their time, the spacewalkers carefully maneuvered the pump away from other components before a spectacular robot arm ride to the shuttle.

"Ronny, can you control it?" Fossum asked, after releasing the bolt holding it the pump module in place.

"Yep."

"OK, I'm letting loose of it," Fossum said. "This end is pitching down... that's good, if you can pitch my end more zenith, that would better. You've got about 10 inches of clearance over that ORU, positive clearance, but it's not a lot. There you go, that's a lot better. It looks very stable. Doug, no more zenith required."

"Copy, starboard only," replied robot arm operator Douglas Hurley.

"I'm taking eyes off for a moment," Fossum said.

"OK," Garan said.

"It was pitching down on this end," Fossum said. "You've gotta maintain it. If you need a pitch back, Ron, they can give you that."

"Um, that might not be a bad idea."

"You're almost clear, guys, so if you can just hold it for a few more seconds, I think we'll be fine," Hurley said.

After rotating the pump 180 degrees, Garan held it in place while Hurley moved him down to Atlantis' cargo bay. Fossum met him there to begin the process of bolting it in place.

"How you doing, Ronnie?" spacewalk coordinator Rex Walheim radioed from the cockpit as the robot arm swept through a large arc.

"Doing great."

Spectacular video from the station showed Garan on the end of the arm above the limb of the Earth, dwarfed by the station and the immensity of space.

"Kind of like you're hanging off the edge of the world, isn't it?" Walheim radioed a few moments later.

"Yeah, it is," Garan agreed.

A few moments later, around 11:34 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), Garan and Fossum successfully bolted the pump module in place to complete the first primary task of today's spacewalk.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Floating in the International Space Station's Quest airlock compartment, astronauts Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan switched their spacesuits to battery power at 9:22 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) to officially kick off a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk.

"Ronny, you ready to rock and roll?" Fossum asked before floating out of the airlock.

"Ready to rock and roll," Garan replied.

"Let's go, buddy."

Fossum and Garan plan to accomplish their primary goal first, moving a failed ammonia pump module from a storage platform just outside the airlock to a carrier in the shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay. After that, the astronauts will move a robotic refueling demonstration apparatus from the shuttle to the station, install a materials science space exposure experiment and perform a few maintenance chores.

This is the 160th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the ninth so far this year, the seventh for Fossum and the fourth for Garan.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Space station astronauts Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan are gearing up for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to move a failed ammonia coolant pump from the lab complex to the shuttle Atlantis for return to Earth. They also plan to install a robotic refueling demonstration kit and a materials science space exposure experiment on the station and carry out a few get-ahead tasks.

The spacewalk, the 160th devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in late 1998, is scheduled to begin at 8:44 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). This will be the ninth space station EVA so far this year, the seventh for Fossum and the fourth for Garan.

For identification, Fossum, call sign EV-1, will be wearing a suit with red stripes around the legs. Garan, EV-2, will be in an unmarked suit. Shuttle pilot Douglas Hurley and Sandra Magnus will operate the station's robot arm during the excursion and shuttle flight engineer Rex Walheim will serve as the spacewalk coordinator, working from the flight deck of Atlantis.

Hurley and Magnus will use a robotics work station in the Tranquility module's multi-window cupola. A U.S. toilet also is located in Tranquility, along with equipment used to recover water from urine. The astronauts reported a strong odor from the equipment Monday and the urine processor will not be turned on during today's spacewalk.

"There are two toilets on the space station," said overnight Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "There's one in the Russian segment, and it's working fine. And there's one, basically the same design, that's in the U.S. segment and it hooks up to our urine processor. So we got a report from the crew that there was a smell that was unexpected coming from that area, and it was pretty intense.

"At the time, we were processing urine in the urine processor, not the toilet itself, but the machine that it hooks up to to recycle the water from the urine. We got some air in that system a little while ago and it needs to basically purge itself out over the course of processing. So we think, because everything looks fine in the system, we think it's just working its way out of the system. So we stopped the urine processing for the time being and we're using the toilet basically in stand-alone mode right now."

Flight controllers likely will resume urine processing Wednesday but "not while the crew is doing EVA support,:" McMillan said. "They'll be using the robotics work station in the cupola, which is in the vicinity of the toilet, so we don't really want to be making a smell while they're working in there."

Today's spacewalk is the first during a shuttle visit that will be carried out by space station personnel. Because of a short training flow and a requirement to launch Atlantis with a reduced crew of four, "we wanted to off load the training tasks on the shuttle crew and sort of level the load," lead station Flight Director Chris Edelen said before launch. "So we took advantage of the EVA experience of Mike Fossum and Ron Garan. They've actually done three spacewalks together on previous shuttle missions (and they) were able to get up to speed very quickly on this EVA."

Fossum has 42 hours and one minute of EVA time in his previous six spacewalks while Garan has 20 hours and 32 minutes of EVA experience.

Returning the failed ammonia pump module is a high priority objective for NASA. The space station is equipped with two coolant loops that circulate ammonia through huge radiators to get rid of the heat generated by the space station's electrical systems. Last July 30, the pump in one coolant loop failed, forcing the crew to implement an emergency powerdown.

"I remember it because I was on console when it failed," Edelen said. "It was one of those moments where on a quiet Saturday and the crew's off duty and getting ready to go to bed and everything's going real well and it all changed in a second when that pump module failed. All the caution and warnings started going off and the crew had to very quickly scramble to reconfigure the systems and power down some of the systems in order to keep the station limping along on one remaining cooling loop.

"That was a major failure in the history of the space station program, the first major failure that required (U.S.) spacewalks without a shuttle present to fix a problem."

Over the course of three spacewalks, the pump module was successfully replaced by a pre-positioned spare. But the coolant system is critical to the station's long-term health and engineers want to find out what went wrong in the pump that failed. After troubleshooting, engineers plan to repair the pump and re-launch it aboard a Japanese cargo ship.

After mounting the pump module in Atlantis' payload bay, Fossum and Garan plan to move an experimental robotic refueling apparatus from the shuttle to a storage platform used by the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or SPDM, a robot arm extension also known as DEXTRE.

"We are taking up a payload, it's called the robotics refueling module, this is to demonstrate a capability for the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, which hasn't seen a whole lot of use on the International Space Station to date, but we hope to turn that all around with this payload," said shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson.

"I've kind of likened it to a Fisher-Price play toy for a robot. And I don't mean that in a negative sense, it is really an opportunity for the SPDM to get in there and use several different tools and prove the capability to do something extremely novel, and that is to refuel satellites in orbit that were never designed to be refueled.

"So the manipulator will actually go in and pick up special cutter tools and cut safety wire, it has a drill that can actually drill into a fuel tank so there's some very unique capabilities that will be demonstrated using this. What capability will robots provide to us in the future? To think about going out there and perhaps grappling a satellite that was never designed to be refueled ... and refill it and use it for an additional five or 10 years is a dramatic example of how robotics can modify what we're doing in space."

Along with moving the pump module to Atlantis and installing the robotics refueling kit on the station, Fossum plans to inspect a robot arm mounting fixture on the Russian Zarya module to re-position a grounding wire that appears to be caught in an access door. Both spacewalkers then will install a thermal shield over an unused docking port attached to Tranquility before heading back to the Quest airlock.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day five (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision C of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/12
02:59 AM...03...15...30...00...Crew wakeup
04:14 AM...03...16...45...00...EVA-1: ISLE EVA prep
05:24 AM...03...17...55...00...MPLM transfers
05:49 AM...03...18...20...00...MPLM rack PVT install
05:54 AM...03...18...25...00...Zero gravity storage rack transfer
06:19 AM...03...18...50...00...EVA-1: Spacesuit purge
06:34 AM...03...19...05...00...EVA-1: ISLE spacesuit prebreathe
08:14 AM...03...20...45...00...EVA-1: Crew lock depressurization
08:44 AM...03...21...15...00...EVA-1: Spacesuits to battery power (spacewalk begins)
08:49 AM...03...21...20...00...EVA-1: Egress
08:59 AM...03...21...30...00...EVA-1: Garan: SSRMS setup
08:59 AM...03...21...30...00...EVA-1: Fossum: Install contingency tools
09:44 AM...03...22...15...00...EVA-1: Remove pump module from ESP-2
10:14 AM...03...22...45...00...EVA-1: Transfer pump module to shuttle
10:44 AM...03...23...15...00...EVA-1: Install pump module on carrier
11:14 AM...03...23...45...00...EVA-1: Remove robotic refueling module from carrier
11:34 AM...04...00...05...00...EVA-1: Transfer RRM to SPDM
12:04 PM...04...00...35...00...EVA-1: Install RRM
12:24 PM...04...00...55...00...EVA-1: Garan: ORMATE experiment install on ELC-2
12:24 PM...04...00...55...00...EVA-1: Fossum: SSRMS cleanup
01:09 PM...04...01...40...00...EVA-1: Fossum: FGB PDGF troubleshooting
01:44 PM...04...02...15...00...EVA-1: PMA-3 cover install
02:29 PM...04...03...00...00...EVA-1: Cleanup and airlock ingress
03:14 PM...04...03...45...00...EVA-1: Airlock repressurization
03:29 PM...04...04...00...00...Post-EVA servicing
04:30 PM...04...05...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
05:59 PM...04...06...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins
06:29 PM...04...07...00...00...STS crew sleep begins
08:00 PM...04...05...01...00...Flight day 5 highlights on NTV

07/13
12:45 AM...04...13...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV
01:45 AM...04...14...16...00...Flight director update replay
02:29 AM...04...17...00...00...Crew wakeup

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Using the International Space Station's robot arm, the Atlantis astronauts pulled a bus-size cargo module from the shuttle's payload bay early Monday and attached it to the lab's forward Harmony module to clear the way for a busy week of logistics transfers. The Italian-built Raffaello module is loaded with 9,403 pounds of supplies and equipment, including 2,677 pounds of food, that will help keep the station crew supplied through 2012.

Because Atlantis launched on time last Friday with a full load of onboard hydrogen and oxygen for its electricity-generating fuel cells, NASA's mission management team Monday approved a one-day mission extension to give the combined shuttle-station crew an extra docked day to fully unload Raffaello and to re-pack it with trash and no-longer-needed equipment for return to Earth aboard the shuttle.

"Guys, I wanted to let you know that the MMT has voted and you're now officially a 13-day mission," astronaut Megan McArthur radioed from mission control in Houston. "They have added the extra day to your flight."

"Great news, Megan. From Atlantis, thanks," commander Christopher Ferguson replied from the shuttle-station complex. "I'm sure we will fill it up in a very useful fashion for the station folks."

"And that's great news from the station side as well," added station flight engineer Ronald Garan. "These guys have been outstanding house guests. We'd like them to stay as long as they want."

The revised flight plan calls for Atlantis to undock from the space station at 12:56 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Tuesday, July 19, setting up a pre-dawn landing back at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:56 a.m. on July 21, 41 minutes before sunrise. A second landing opportunity will be available on orbit later at 7:32 a.m.

Thanks in part to power conservation measures, Atlantis currently has six hours of margin above the additional day approved Monday and not counting two days always held in reserve in case of weather-related landing delays.

"That margin is expected to continue to grow, somewhere on the order of one to two hours a day for the remainder of the docked period," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team. "So, we went around the room and talked to each one of the projects and the elements and reviewed the plus-one day recommendation and everyone was 'go' to add a day. This is exactly the right thing to do on this mission, there's a lot of good work we can help the space station program with."

NASA's Damage Assessment Team, meanwhile, is wrapping up its post-launch analysis of Atlantis' heat shield. So far, only one tile ding has been found, Cain said, along with four areas of minor damage to insulating blankets. While the analysis is not yet complete, Atlantis appears to be chalking up the most trouble-free performance of any post-Columbia shuttle mission.

"At this point there are no areas of concern ... but per the standard process, the DAT is finishing up with the data review and will report out to the MMT tomorrow," the mission management team said in an afternoon update to the crew. "For completeness, there are a few frayed blankets and minor damage to a tile outboard of the (starboard external tank feedline) door that pose no liberation or entry heating concerns. ... Overall, the TPS (thermal protection system) looks excellent this mission and is a testament to the team’s diligence to assure this level of success!"

As such, the astronauts were told they will not need to carry out a time-consuming re-examination -- a so-called "focused" inspection -- of any areas of interest on the heat shield.

"That's awesome news," Ferguson radioed mission control. "Thanks so much."

Along with attaching Raffaello to the space station, the astronauts and flight controllers successfully restarted one of Atlantis' four general purpose computers that was inadvertently shut down during rendezvous with the station Sunday. As it turned out, the shutdown was caused by a temperamental switch and the crew successfully rebooted GPC-3 early Monday.

Earlier in the day, flight controllers tracking a piece of debris from an old Soviet satellite breakup conclude there was no threat to the shuttle-station complex. Initial tracking passes indicated the debris might pass relatively close to the station Tuesday, but follow-on observations show it will not come closer than about 11 miles, well outside the station safety zone.

"We got a couple of more opportunities to get some data on this shift and decided the probabilities are trending really low," said overnight Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "So we are not currently planning to do any debris avoidance maneuver. It looks pretty good, this is something we see a lot on the station side. We followed our normal process and we're going to continue to track it. But right now, it's looking really good."

Pilot Douglas Hurley and Sandra Magnus, operating the space station's robot arm, began Raffaello's unberthing from Atlantis' payload bay around 5:47 a.m. The multi-purpose logistics module, or MPLM, was carefully maneuvered to the Earth-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module and locked in place with 16 motor-driven bolts in the port's common berthing mechanism.

The attachment was completed at 6:45 a.m. Five-and-a-half hours later, at 12:10 p.m., Raffaello's main hatch was opened and the astronauts, running more than an hour and a half ahead of schedule, floated inside.

Atlantis' mission was added to NASA's shuttle manifest to deliver enough supplies, spare parts and other gear, in concert with Russian, European and Japanese cargo ships, to support the station's six-person crew through 2012 even if new commercial cargo carriers designed to take over resupply duties from the shuttle run into problems.

Raffaello is packed with "one year's worth of food, we're taking about 2,000 pounds of science equipment, we're taking hygiene items, we're taking clothing, we're taking thousands of pounds of spare parts for the different systems, life support system, the electrical system, the computer system and so forth," Magnus said in a NASA interview. "We're trying to supply the station for a whole year, and that hedges our bets against when the commercial follow-on cargo contracts will be available up and running."

It will take the combined shuttle-station crew a full week to unload Raffaello and to reload it with 5,660 pounds of trash, packing material and other no-longer-needed equipment that will be returned to Earth aboard Atlantis.

"Basically, all the crew members at some point are going to be helping us do the transfer and pack of the MPLM during the next couple of days," said Flight Director Jerry Jason. "It is pretty much an all hands on deck (process), we have about 10,000 pounds of cargo we need to move out of the MPLM and then we have to move all the items we are returning back (to Earth) into the MPLM. So it's going to be a very busy time period. That's what this mission's for, it's a utilization and logistics mission, and we want to make sure we get all that cargo out of there."

Later today, the astronauts reviewed plans for a spacewalk Tuesday by Garan and station flight engineer Michael Fossum. The primary goals of the excursion, the only EVA planned during Atlantis' visit, are to move a failed ammonia coolant pump to the shuttle for return to Earth and to install an experimental robotic refueling experiment on the station. The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8:44 a.m. Tuesday.

"The most important (objective) is getting the pump module back into the payload bay to return it home so we can do (an) evaluation of why the pump module failed," Jason said. "Back last year in July, we had the pump module fail, that took down half the external cooling on the station. So we pulled that out, we've been keeping it stored on the outside of the station. We're going to put it back in the payload bay and return it. Getting that back and understanding what the cause of that failure is will help us in the long run."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Using the International Space Station's robot arm, the Atlantis astronauts pulled a bus-size cargo module from the shuttle's payload bay early Monday and attached it to the lab's forward Harmony module to clear the way for a busy week of logistics transfers. The Italian-built Raffaello module is loaded with 9,403 pounds of supplies and equipment, including 2,677 pounds of food, that will help keep the station crew supplied through 2012.

Along with attaching Raffaello to the space station, the astronauts and flight controllers successfully restarted one of the shuttle's four general purpose computers that was inadvertently shut down during rendezvous with the station Sunday. Commander Christopher Ferguson re-loaded software from a mass memory unit and Flight Director Jerry Jason said GPC-3 started up normally.

Earlier in the day, flight controllers tracking a piece of debris from an old Soviet satellite breakup conclude there was no threat to the shuttle-station complex. Initial tracking passes indicated the debris might pass relatively close to the station Tuesday, but follow-on observations show it will not come closer than about 11 miles, well outside the station safety zone.

"We got a couple of more opportunities to get some data on this shift and decided the probabilities are trending really low," said overnight Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "So we are not currently planning to do any debris avoidance maneuver. It looks pretty good, this is something we see a lot on the station side. We followed our normal process and we're going to continue to track it. But right now, it's looking really good."

Pilot Douglas Hurley and Sandra Magnus, operating the space station's robot arm, began Raffaello's unberthing from Atlantis' payload bay around 5:47 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). The multi-purpose logistics module, or MPLM, was carefully maneuvered to the Earth-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module and locked in place with 16 motor-driven bolts in the port's common berthing mechanism.

The attachment was completed at 6:45 a.m. Five-and-a-half hours later, at 12:10 p.m., Raffaello's main hatch was opened and the astronauts, running more than an hour and a half ahead of schedule, floated inside.

Atlantis' mission was added to NASA's shuttle manifest to deliver enough supplies, spare parts and other gear, in concert with Russian, European and Japanese cargo ships, to support the station's six-person crew through 2012 even if new commercial cargo carriers designed to take over resupply duties from the shuttle run into problems.

Raffaello is packed with "one year's worth of food, we're taking about 2,000 pounds of science equipment, we're taking hygiene items, we're taking clothing, we're taking thousands of pounds of spare parts for the different systems, life support system, the electrical system, the computer system and so forth," Magnus said in a NASA interview. "We're trying to supply the station for a whole year, and that hedges our bets against when the commercial follow-on cargo contracts will be available up and running."

It will take the combined shuttle-station crew a full week to unload Raffaello and to reload it with 5,660 pounds of trash, packing material and other no-longer-needed equipment that will be returned to Earth aboard Atlantis.

"Basically, all the crew members at some point are going to be helping us do the transfer and pack of the MPLM during the next couple of days," Jason said. "It is pretty much an all hands on deck (process), we have about 10,000 pounds of cargo we need to move out of the MPLM and then we have to move all the items we are returning back (to Earth) into the MPLM. So it's going to be a very busy time period. That's what this mission's for, it's a utilitization and logistics mission, and we want to make sure we get all that cargo out of there."

Later today, the astronauts will review plans for a spacewalk Tuesday by station flight engineers Ronald Garan and Michael Fossum. The primary goals of the excursion, the only EVA planned during Atlantis' visit, are to move a failed ammonia coolant pump to the shuttle for return to Earth and to install an experimental robotic refueling experiment on the station. The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8:44 a.m. Tuesday.

"The most important (objective) is getting the pump module back into the payload bay to return it home so we can do (an) evaluation of why the pump module failed," Jason said. "Back last year in July, we had the pump module fail, that took down half the external cooling on the station. So we pulled that out, we've been keeping it stored on the outside of the station. We're going to put it back in the payload bay and return it. Getting that back and understanding what the cause of that failure is will help us in the long run."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Using the International Space Station's robot arm, the Atlantis astronauts pulled a bus-size cargo module from the shuttle's payload bay early Monday, kicking off a slow-motion move to a port on the lab's forward Harmony module to clear the way for a busy week of logistics transfers. The Italian-built Raffaello module is loaded with 9,403 pounds of supplies and equipment, including 2,677 pounds of food, that will help keep the station crew supplied through 2012.

Along with attaching Raffaello to the space station, the astronauts and flight controllers plan to restart one of the shuttle's four general purpose computers that was inadvertently shut down during rendezvous with the station Sunday. Engineers believe the computer is healthy and that the shutdown was triggered by a temperamental switch.

Station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan said flight controllers are no longer worried about a possible "conjunction," or close approach, with a piece of debris from an old Russian satellite. Initial tracking passes indicated the debris might pass close to the station Tuesday, but follow-on observations show no need for an avoidance maneuver.

"We got a couple of more opportunities to get some data on this shift and decided the probabilities are trending really low," McMillan said. "So we are not currently planning to do any debris avoidance maneuver. It looks pretty good, this is something we see a lot on the station side. We followed our normal process and we're going to continue to track it. But right now, it's looking really good."

Pilot Douglas Hurley and Sandra Magnus, operating the space station's robot arm, began Raffaello's unberthing from Atlantis' payload bay around 5:47 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). The multi-purpose logistics module, or MPLM, will be maneuvered to the Earth-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module and locked in place with 16 motor-driven bolts in the port's common berthing mechanism,

"They have to get all the vestibule connections hooked up so that we have ventilation and power and all that good stuff so we can do all the transfer operations later on," McMillan said. "So it'll be about one o'clock in the afternoon Houston time, maybe a little earlier if they get ahead."

Atlantis' mission was added to NASA's shuttle manifest to deliver enough supplies, spare parts and other gear, in concert with Russian, European and Japanese cargo ships, to support the station's six-person crew through 2012 even if new commercial cargo carriers designed to take over resupply duties from the shuttle run into problems.

Raffaello is packed with "one year's worth of food, we're taking about 2,000 pounds of science equipment, we're taking hygiene items, we're taking clothing, we're taking thousands of pounds of spare parts for the different systems, life support system, the electrical system, the computer system and so forth," Magnus said in a NASA interview. "We're trying to supply the station for a whole year, and that hedges our bets against when the commercial follow-on cargo contracts will be available up and running."

It will take the combined shuttle-station crew a full week to unload Raffaello and to reload it with 5,660 pounds of trash, packing material and other no-longer-needed equipment that will be returned to Earth aboard Atlantis.

Later today, the astronauts will review plans for a spacewalk Tuesday by station flight engineers Ronald Garan and Michael Fossum. The primary goals of the excursion, the only EVA planned during Atlantis' visit, are to move a failed ammonia coolant pump to the shuttle for return to Earth and to install an experimental robotic refueling experiment on the station. The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8:44 a.m. Tuesday.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day four (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision D of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/11
02:56 AM...02...15...30...00...STS/ISS crew wakeup
04:36 AM...02...17...10...00...ISS daily planning conference
05:06 AM...02...17...40...00...Station arm (SSRMS) grapples MPLM cargo module
05:36 AM...02...18...10...00...SSRMS unberths MPLM
06:16 AM...02...18...50...00...Middeck transfers
06:56 AM...02...19...30...00...SSRMS installs MPLM on Harmony nadir port
07:26 AM...02...20...00...00...First stage bolts
07:41 AM...02...20...15...00...Second stage bolts
08:06 AM...02...20...40...00...EVA-1: Equipment lock preps
08:06 AM...02...20...40...00...SSRMS ungrapples MPLM
08:36 AM...02...21...10...00...MPLM vestibule pressurization
08:46 AM...02...21...20...00...Crew meals begin
09:30 AM...02...22...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
09:51 AM...02...22...25...00...MPLM vestibule configured for ingress
11:26 AM...03...00...00...00...MPLM activation (part 1)
01:16 PM...03...01...50...00...MPLM activation (part 2)
01:36 PM...03...02...10...00...MPLM ingress
02:56 PM...03...03...30...00...EVA-1: Procedures review
04:00 PM...03...04...31...00...MMT briefing on NASA TV
04:21 PM...03...04...55...00...ISS evening planning conference
06:26 PM...03...07...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
06:56 PM...03...07...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
09:00 PM...03...09...31...00...Flight day 4 video highlights

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Bringing more than five tons of supplies and equipment, the shuttle Atlantis caught up with the International Space Station Sunday, pausing 600 feet below the lab complex for a spectacular, never-to-be-seen-again back-flip maneuver before pressing ahead for a flawless docking, the 37th and final shuttle-station linkup.

With commander Christopher Ferguson at the controls, Atlantis' docking mechanism engaged its counterpart on the station's forward port at 11:07 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft, with a combined weight of more than a million pounds, sailed 240 miles above the south Pacific Ocean at more than 5 miles per second.

"Houston, station, Atlantis, capture confirmed and we see free drift," radioed pilot Douglas Hurley, confirming a successful docking.

Following naval tradition, station flight engineer Ronald Garan rang the ship's bell, saying "Atlantis, arriving. Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time."

"It's great to be here, station, we'll see you shortly," Ferguson replied.

After extensive leak checks, hatches were opened and Ferguson, Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim floated into the station's Harmony module at 12:55 p.m., welcomed aboard by Garan, Expedition 28 commander Andre Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev, Sergei Volkov, Michael Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa.

"A real customs officer is supposed to ask them several questions about alcohol, drugs, weapons and the purpose of the visit," Volkov joked in English a few minutes before hatch opening.

LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA's mission management team, told reporters Sunday afternoon that engineers were optimistic Atlantis will have enough hydrogen and oxygen to power the shuttle's electricity producing fuel cells to extend the mission one day, giving the astronauts more time to transfer supplies and equipment to and from the space station.

If all goes well, the astronauts will use the space station's robot arm Monday to move a bus-size cargo module from Atlantis' cargo bay to an Earth-facing port on the Harmony segment, setting the stage for a busy week of logistics transfer work. A spacewalk is planned Tuesday by Garan and Fossum.

But Cain said flight controllers are closely tracking a piece of debris from an old Russian satellite that may pass relatively close to the shuttle-station complex around mid-day Tuesday, during the planned spacewalk.The size of the debris and its distance at closest approach was not immediately known.

"In all likelihood, it will not interfere with what we're doing on the spacewalk," Cain said. "If we do a debris avoidance maneuver to get away from the object, we would do it using the shuttle VRCS (vernier reaction control system), the (shuttle's) small little thrusters. In all likelihood, we could do that in an operation where it's not going to impact what we're trying to do ... on that day."

The debris is from a Soviet military satellite known as Cosmos 375. According to NASA's National Space Science Data Center, Cosmos 375 was launched Oct. 30, 1970. The satellite "maneuvered from its initial orbit into a more extreme eccentric orbit, made a flyby of Cosmos 373, and was exploded into many pieces."

NASA protects an imaginary box around the station measuring roughly 2,500 feet thick and 15.5 miles on a side. If continued tracking indicates a probability of collision greater than 1-in-100,000, NASA managers will begin considering evasive action. But Cain said it was too early to say what, if anything, might need to be done in this case.

Ferguson and his crewmates carried out a textbook rendezvous with the station, catching up from behind and below with a series of carefully timed rocket firings. Pausing directly below the station, Ferguson guided Atlantis through a spectacular rendezvous pitch maneuver, or RPM, just after 10 a.m., exposing the shuttle's belly to the station.

As Atlantis slowly flipped about, Volkov photographed the shuttle's heat shield with a 1,000-mm telephoto lens, capturing details as small as one inch across, while Fossum and Furukawa "shot" the spaceplane with 800-mm and 400-mm lenses respectively.

The dramatic rendezvous pitch maneuver is a standard post-Columbia procedure to help analysts make sure the shuttle's heat shield came through launch in good shape and is up to the rigors of re-entry. The RPM imagery will be combined with ascent photography and radar data, along with readings from impact sensors and the results of laser scans of Atlantis' nose cap and wing leading edge panels that were collected Saturday to provide a detailed assessment of the heat shield before Atlantis is cleared for return to Earth.

With the rendezvous pitch maneuver complete, Ferguson guided Atlantis up to a point about 350 feet directly in front of the space station with the shuttle's nose pointed toward deep space and payload bay docking module pointed toward the lab's forward port. From there, he manually piloted the shuttle to a textbook docking, wrapping up the 37th and final planned rendezvous in the shuttle program's 30-year history,.

"Everybody on the flight control team was feeling it," Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho told reporters later. "On the one hand, I know we all felt a great sense of excitement and a great sense of anticipation as we came to participate in this highly complex, highly technical and very precise series of operations. But at the same time, I think it did start to weigh on the team, that it was going to be the last one.

"My team is filled with consummate professionals, some of the best I've ever worked with. There was certainly no emotional impediment to good performance today. But I think it's fair to say the finality of our executing this particular series of operations was felt."

Space station assembly began in 1998. Over the course of 74 Russian flights, 37 shuttle missions and 159 spacewalks, an international team of astronauts and engineers built an orbiting laboratory with a mass of 919,776 pounds and a pressurized volume of 32,333 cubic feet, roughly the same as a 747 jumbo jet.

"So here we are 13 years later, the space station is now over 900,000 pounds, it's bigger than a football field from end to end, it's home to a multi-national crew of six doing cutting edge research in biology and medical science, astronomy, physics, fluid and materials science," said station Flight Director Chris Edelen.

"Space station largely has been lifted into orbit by the space shuttle," he said. "It's been assembled by spacewalking crews from the space shuttle and its been resupplied by the space shuttle over the years. The space station literally would not have been possible without the contribution of the space shuttle."

But keeping the station supplied after the shuttle fleet is retired will be a major challenge for NASA and its international partners. Two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, are building unmanned cargo ships to take over U.S. logistics deliveries after a series of test flights late this year and early in 2012.

Atlantis' mission was added to the shuttle manifest earlier this year to deliver a final load of supplies and equipment as a hedge against problems that might delay the commercial cargo ships. The supplies and equipment delivered by Atlantis, along with provisions delivered by unmanned European, Japanese and Russian cargo ships, will support normal station operations through 2012.

"The main purpose of STS-135 is logistics, bringing up supplies to provision the space station through 2012," Edelen said. "That's a key date because our commercial cargo providers are going to be coming on line in early 2012 and by providing the supplies we need to get through all of next year that will provide a little bit of breathing room as those companies enter the challenging flight test phase."

After a brief post-docking safety briefing, the combined crews planned to get to work transferring equipment from the shuttle to the station and using the lab's robot arm to pull Atlantis' heat shield inspection boom out of the cargo bay so it can be handed off to the shuttle's arm. The boom is being moved to provide extra clearance when Atlantis' main payload, an Italian-built cargo module, is pulled from the bay Monday and attached to the forward Harmony module's Earth-facing port for unloading.

Atlantis has chalked up a near-flawless performance during its 33rd and final mission. But around 6 a.m., one of the shuttle's four general purpose computers -- GPC-3 -- was inadvertently shut down during a "wakeup" procedure, and flight controllers told the crew to press ahead without it. As it turns out, GPC-3 experienced a similar shutdown during a 2008 flight.

"It turns out we have seen something like this fairly recently on (shuttle mission) STS-122," astronaut Steve Robinson radioed from mission control. "I don't know what you want to make of the common factors, but it was the same orbiter, the same GPC and the same MS-2." He was referring to Walheim, mission specialist No. 2.

"Yeah, Rex was telling me the story," Ferguson replied.

Alibaruho blamed the shutdown on a temperamental switch that disengaged for an instant, fooling the other computers in the set to declaring GPC-3 failed.

"As we're powering up those computers to prepare for the rendezvous and dock, we physically flip a switch in the cockpit that takes the computers that were asleep into an active state," he said. "The switches on those computers have detents that can be a little bit temperamental from time to time. If you don't decisively and carefully move the switch from one position to the other, there can be a slight rebounding effect that makes the contacts in the switch come off the detent ever so slightly.

"That happened with our computer number three. The switch came off the detent for a split second, just long enough for the other two computers that were up to see a change in its state and vote that computer to a failed state. We don't think there's anything physically wrong with the computer."

Flight controllers plan to restart the computer Monday.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Bringing more than five tons of supplies and equipment, the shuttle Atlantis caught up with the International Space Station Sunday, pausing 600 feet below the lab complex for a spectacular, never-to-be-seen-again back-flip maneuver before pressing ahead for a flawless docking, the 37th and final shuttle-station linkup.

With commander Christopher Ferguson at the controls, Atlantis' docking mechanism engaged its counterpart on the station's forward port at 11:07 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft, with a combined weight of more than a million pounds, sailed 240 miles above the south Pacific Ocean at 5 miles per second.

"Houston, station, (this is) Atlantis, capture confirmed and we see free drift," radioed pilot Douglas Hurley, confirming a successful docking.

Following naval tradition, station flight engineer Ronald Garan rang the ship's bell, saying "Atlantis, arriving. Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time."

"It's great to be here, station, we'll see you shortly," Ferguson replied.

Standing by to welcome Ferguson, Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim were Garan, Expedition 28 commander Andre Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev, Sergei Volkov, Michael Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa.

After verifying a firm seal between the two spacecraft, the crews planned to carry out leak checks before opening hatches for a traditional welcome-aboard ceremony and safety briefing.

Ferguson and his crewmates carried out a textbook rendezvous with the station, catching up from behind and below with a series of carefully timed rocket firings. Pausing directly below the station, Ferguson guided Atlantis through a spectacular rendezvous pitch maneuver, or RPM, just after 10 a.m., exposing the shuttle's belly to the station.

As Atlantis slowly flipped about, Volkov photographed the shuttle's heat shield with a 1,000-mm telephoto lens, capturing details as small as one inch across, while Fossum and Furukawa "shot" the spaceplane with 800-mm and 400-mm lenses respectively.

The dramatic rendezvous pitch maneuver is a standard post-Columbia procedure to help analysts make sure the shuttle's heat shield came through launch in good shape and is up to the rigors of re-entry. The RPM imagery will be combined with ascent photography and radar data, along with readings from impact sensors and the results of laser scans of Atlantis' nose cap and wing leading edge panels that were collected Saturday to provide a detailed assessment of the heat shield before Atlantis is cleared for return to Earth.

With the rendezvous pitch maneuver complete, Ferguson guided Atlantis up to a point about 350 feet directly in front of the space station with the shuttle's nose pointed toward deep space and payload bay docking module pointed toward the lab's forward port. From there, he guided Atlantis to a smooth, on-time linkup.

"With a reduced crew (of four), the deployment of the crew in the cockpit will be a little bit different, but they've been able to get a good flow and we've rehearsed this rendezvous scenario several times with the crew and we are excited to engage in this final rendezvous with the International Space Station," Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho said before launch. "It'll be a great day, and I think we'll get some great imagery of the shuttle on its final approach."

This is the 37th and final flight of a shuttle to the space station since assembly began in 1998.

"So here we are 13 years later, the space station is now over 900,000 pounds, it's bigger than a football field from end to end, it's home to a multi-national crew of six doing cutting edge research in biology and medical science, astronomy, physics, fluid and materials science," said station Flight Director Chris Edelen.

"Space station largely has been lifted into orbit by the space shuttle," he said. "It's been assembled by spacewalking crews from the space shuttle and its been resupplied by the space shuttle over the years. The space station literally would not have been possible without the contribution of the space shuttle."

But keeping the station supplied after the shuttle fleet is retired will be a major challenge for NASA and its international partners. Two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, are building unmanned cargo ships to take over U.S. logistics deliveries after a series of test flights late this year and early in 2012.

Atlantis' mission was added to the shuttle manifest earlier this year to deliver a final load of supplies and equipment as a hedge against problems that might delay the commercial cargo ships. The supplies and equipment delivered by Atlantis, along with provisions delivered by unmanned European, Japanese and Russian cargo ships, will support normal station operations through 2012.

"The main purpose of STS-135 is logistics, bringing up supplies to provision the space station through 2012," Edelen said. "That's a key date because our commercial cargo providers are going to be coming on line in early 2012 and by providing the supplies we need to get through all of next year that will provide a little bit of breathing room as those companies enter the challenging flight test phase."

After a brief post-docking safety briefing, the combined crews planned to get to work transferring equipment from the shuttle to the station and using the lab's robot arm to pull Atlantis' heat shield inspection boom out of the cargo bay so it can be handed off to the shuttle's arm. The boom is being moved to provide extra clearance when Atlantis' main payload, an Italian-built cargo module, is pulled from the bay Monday and attached to the forward Harmony module's Earth-facing port for unloading.

Atlantis has chalked up a near-flawless performance during its 33rd and final mission. But around 6 a.m., one of the shuttle's four general purpose computers -- GPC-3 -- inadvertently shut itself down during a "wakeup" procedure, and flight controllers told the crew to press ahead without it. As it turns out, GPC-3 experienced a similar shutdown during a 2008 flight.

"It turns out we have seen something like this fairly recently on (shuttle mission) STS-122," Robinson radioed from mission control. "I don't know what you want to make of the common factors, but it was the same orbiter, the same GPC and the same MS-2." He was referring to Walheim, mission specialist No. 2.

"Yeah, Rex was telling me the story," Ferguson replied.

NASA mission control commentator Rob Navias said the loss of one general purpose computer would have no impact on rendezvous and docking.

"GPC-3 told itself to turn itself off, basically, at the time we were going into what is known as a set expansion for the rendezvous," he said. "This is when all the computers are brought up ... in support of the rendezvous activities. The switch detent that this GPC runs under thought it went into a halt and shut itself down. It will not be put back into the set of GPCs until once we dock to the International Space Station, and likely will not be recovered until Monday morning."

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day three (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision C of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

11:07 AM...01...23...38...07...DOCKING
11:12 AM...01...23...43...15...Sunrise
11:34 AM...02...00...05...00...Leak checks
11:41 AM...02...00...11...59...Noon
12:04 PM...02...00...35...00...Orbiter docking system prepped for ingress
12:09 PM...02...00...40...43...Sunset
12:14 PM...02...00...45...00...Group B computer powerdown
12:34 PM...02...01...05...00...Hatch open
01:19 PM...02...01...50...00...Welcome aboard!
01:24 PM...02...01...55...00...Safety briefing
01:30 PM...02...02...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
02:04 PM...02...02...35...00...SRMS OBSS handoff
04:00 PM...02...04...31...00...MMT briefing on NASA TV
04:14 PM...02...04...45...00...ISS evening planning conference
06:29 PM...02...07...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
06:59 PM...02...07...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
09:00 PM...02...09...31...00...Flight day 3 highlights on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Bringing more than five tons of supplies and equipment, the shuttle Atlantis closed in on the International Space Station early Sunday, on course for the shuttle program's 37th and final docking since the lab's assembly began in 1998.

Around 6 a.m., one of Atlantis' four general purpose computers -- GPC-3 -- inadvertently shut itself down during a "wakeup" procedure, and flight controllers told the crew to press ahead without it. As it turns out, GPC-3 experienced a similar shutdown during a 2008 flight.

"It turns out we have seen something like this fairly recently on (shuttle mission) STS-122," astronaut Steve Robinson radioed from mission control. "I don't know what you want to make of the common factors, but it was the same orbiter, the same GPC and the same MS-2." He was referring to mission specialist No. 2, Rex Walheim, one of Atlantis' four current crew members.

"Yeah, Rex was telling me the story," commander Christopher Ferguson replied.

NASA mission control commentator Rob Navias said the loss of one general purpose computer would have no impact on rendezvous and docking.

"GPC-3 told itself to turn itself off, basically, at the time we were going into what is known as a set expansion for the rendezvous," he said. "This is when all the computers are brought up ... in support of the rendezvous activities. The switch detent that this GPC runs under thought it went into a halt and shut itself down. It will not be put back into the set of GPCs until once we dock to the International Space Station, and likely will not be recovered until Monday morning."

The terminal phase of the two-day rendezvous was scheduled to begin at 8:29 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) with a rocket firing to begin closing the final eight nautical miles to the lab complex.

Approaching from behind and below, Ferguson plans to pause briefly about 600 feet directly under the space station, guiding Atlantis through a computer-assisted back flip maneuver to expose heat shield tiles on the belly of the orbiter to cameras aboard the station. The lab crew, using 1,000-mm, 800-mm and 400-mm telephoto lenses, will photograph the heat shield in exquisite detail, then downlink the digital images to NASA's Damage Assessment Team at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The dramatic rendezvous pitch maneuver, or RPM, is a standard post-Columbia procedure to help analysts make sure the shuttle's heat shield came through launch in good shape and is up to the rigors of re-entry. The RPM imagery will be combined with ascent photography and radar data, along with readings from impact sensors and the results of laser scans of Atlantis' nose cap and wing leading edge panels that were collected Saturday to provide a detailed assessment of the heat shield before Atlantis is cleared for entry.

With the RPM complete, Ferguson will guide Endeavour up to a point about 300 feet directly in front of the space station with the shuttle's nose pointed toward deep space and payload bay docking module pointed toward the lab's forward port.

"And then commander Chris Ferguson will guide Atlantis to her final approach and docking with the ISS," said shuttle Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho. "Again, with a reduced crew (of four), the deployment of the crew in the cockpit will be a little bit different, but they've been able to get a good flow and we've rehearsed this rendezvous scenario several times with the crew and we are excited to engage in this final rendezvous with the International Space Station. It'll be a great day, and I think we'll get some great imagery of the shuttle on its final approach."

Waiting to welcome Ferguson, Walheim, pilot Douglas Hurley and Sandra Magnus aboard will be Expedition 28 commander Andre Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev, Sergei Volkov, Ronald Garan, Michael Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa.

"This is the 37th flight of a shuttle to the space station, and the first flight was back in 1998 when Endeavour delivered the first U.S. element and attached it to the first Russian element that had been launched," said station Flight Director Chris Edelen. "So here we are 13 years later, the space station is now over 900,000 pounds, it's bigger than a football field from end to end, it's home to a multi-national crew of six doing cutting edge research in biology and medical science, astronomy, physics, fluid and materials science.

"Space station largely has been lifted into orbit by the space shuttle," he said. "It's been assembled by spacewalking crews from the space shuttle and its been resupplied by the space shuttle over the years. The space station literally would not have been possible without the contribution of the space shuttle."

But keeping the station supplied after the shuttle fleet is retired will be a major challenge for NASA and its international partners. Two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, are building unmanned cargo ships to take over U.S. logistics deliveries after a series of test flights late this year and early in 2012.

Atlantis' mission was added to the shuttle manifest earlier this year to deliver a final load of supplies and equipment as a hedge against problems that might delay the commercial cargo ships. The supplies and equipment delivered by Atlantis, along with provisions delivered by unmanned European, Japanese and Russian cargo ships, will support normal station operations through 2012.

"The main purpose of STS-135 is logistics, bringing up supplies to provision the space station through 2012," Edelen said. "That's a key date because our commercial cargo providers are going to be coming on line in early 2012 and by providing the supplies we need to get through all of next year that will provide a little bit of breathing room as those companies enter the challenging flight test phase."

After a brief post-docking safety briefing, the combined crews will get to work transferring equipment from the shuttle to the station and using the lab's robot arm to pull Atlantis' heat shield inspection boom out of the cargo bay so it can be handed off to the shuttle's arm. The boom is being moved to provide extra clearance when Atlantis' main payload, an Italian-built cargo module, is pulled from the bay Monday and attached to the forward Harmony module's Earth-facing port for unloading.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day three (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision B of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/10
03:29 AM...01...16...00...00...Crew wakeup
05:19 AM...01...17...50...00...Group B computer powerup
05:34 AM...01...18...05...00...ISS rendezvous ops
07:01 AM...01...19...32...22...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing
08:29 AM...01...21...00...00...Ti rendezvous rocket firing
09:05 AM...01...21...36...00...Sunset
09:27 AM...01...21...58...36...Range = 10,000 ft
09:36 AM...01...22...07...16...Range = 5,000 ft
09:39 AM...01...22...10...53...Sunrise
09:41 AM...01...22...12...45...Range = 3,000 ft
09:45 AM...01...22...16...54...MC-4 burn
09:49 AM...01...22...20...00...Begin final approach timeline
09:49 AM...01...22...20...54...Range = 1,500 ft
09:52 AM...01...22...23...36...RPM Start Window Open
09:54 AM...01...22...25...54...Range = 1,000 ft
09:57 AM...01...22...28...54...KU to LO (800 ft)
09:58 AM...01...22...29...54...Shuttle directly below station (725 ft)
10:04 AM...01...22...35...06...Range = 600 ft
10:06 AM...01...22...37...00...Start pitch-around maneuver
10:08 AM...01...22...39...38...Noon
10:14 AM...01...22...45...00...End pitch maneuver
10:16 AM...01...22...47...36...Initiate pitch up to velocity vector (575 ft)
10:16 AM...01...22...47...40...RPM full photo window close
10:25 AM...01...22...56...10...RPM start window close
10:28 AM...01...22...59...06...Shuttle directly in front of station (310 ft)
10:29 AM...01...22...59...56...Range = 300 ft
10:33 AM...01...23...04...06...Range = 250 ft
10:37 AM...01...23...08...16...Range = 200 ft
10:37 AM...01...23...08...23...Sunset
10:39 AM...01...23...10...46...Range = 170 ft
10:41 AM...01...23...12...26...Range = 150 ft
10:45 AM...01...23...16...36...Range = 100 ft
10:48 AM...01...23...19...36...Range = 75 ft
10:52 AM...01...23...23...46...Range = 50 ft
10:56 AM...01...23...27...06...Range (30 ft) -- start stationkeeping
11:01 AM...01...23...32...06...Push to dock
11:05 AM...01...23...36...26...Range = 10 ft
11:07 AM...01...23...38...07...DOCKING
11:12 AM...01...23...43...15...Sunrise
11:34 AM...02...00...05...00...Leak checks
11:41 AM...02...00...11...59...Noon
12:04 PM...02...00...35...00...Orbiter docking system prepped for ingress
12:09 PM...02...00...40...43...Sunset
12:14 PM...02...00...45...00...Group B computer powerdown
12:34 PM...02...01...05...00...Hatch open
01:19 PM...02...01...50...00...Welcome aboard!
01:24 PM...02...01...55...00...Safety briefing
01:30 PM...02...02...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
02:04 PM...02...02...35...00...SRMS OBSS handoff
04:00 PM...02...04...31...00...MMT briefing on NASA TV
04:14 PM...02...04...45...00...ISS evening planning conference
06:29 PM...02...07...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
06:59 PM...02...07...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
09:00 PM...02...09...31...00...Flight day 3 highlights on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The Atlantis astronauts inspected the shuttle's heat shield Saturday and fine tuned the shuttle's approach to the International Space Station, setting their sights on docking at the lab's forward port around 11:07 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Sunday.

Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho told reporters that Atlantis, making its 33rd and final flight, is operating in near flawless fashion, allowing the crew to work at peak efficiency.

"On this, the last shuttle mission of the program, I'm very grateful the spacecraft is behaving as well as it is so we can finish strong, finish safely," he said. "My team's number one focus is on ending this mission and ending the program as safely as we have flown past missions. The great condition of the spacecraft is really helping us to do that so far."

Space shuttles normally fly with crews of six or seven, but just four are flying aboard Atlantis -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim -- to minimize rescue scenarios in case of a major problem that might prevent a safe re-entry. But on the flip side, there are fewer hands available to do the same amount of work.

"It will be challenging to get through that inspection with a reduced crew complement," said Alibaruho said before launch. "But this crew has practiced considerably to be able to develop a flow or a routine, if you will, to where even though they have fewer hands available in the shuttle they'll be able to get through these inspections in the timeframe that's been allotted."

The crew did better than that, finishing well ahead of schedule.

The goal was to inspect the shuttle's heat-resistant nose cap and wing leading edge panels, which experience the most extreme heating during re-entry, to make sure no damage was incurred during launch Friday. Using an instrumented boom attached to the end of Atlantis' 50-foot-long robot arm, the astronauts inspected the right wing first, followed by the nose cap and then the left wing.

"We did not see anything, so far, that gave us great pause, nothing that was immediately visible to the naked eye," Alibaruho said after the inspection was complete. "Now of course, the process of analyzing the data we get from the sensor package on the OBSS (orbiter boom sensor system) takes several hours and we do expect that process to go normally. So we'll hear official word concerning the condition of the reinforced carbon carbon components of the thermal protection system, we'll probably hear that late tomorrow, maybe early in the morning depending on how the engineers are doing. But there was nothing that immediately gave us pause or that we were concerned about going into the inspection."

Based on a preliminary assessment of photographs and video taken during Atlantis' climb to space Friday, "we also saw very good debris performance from the tank on the way up hill," he said. "That also was very encouraging to us. We were extremely happy with the launch yesterday as you can imagine."

All in all, he said, "this is certainly one of the better starts (to a shuttle mission) that we have seen."

"The absence of anomalies also equals the relative absence of distraction," he said. "Even though we haven't had really serious problems with the shuttle in a while, when you do have the random heater failure, a sensor bias, or some other little thing, we go through a fairly rigorous process to try to ... make sure they are not symptoms of more serious problems.

"So examining every failure or every anomaly we have does take a considerable mental resources on the part of our flight control team. The relative absence of that, I think, has allowed our team to focus more on executing the nominal timeline."

Along with the heat shield inspections, Ferguson and Hurley the first of two rendezvous rocket firings early Saturday to refine Atlantis' approach to International Space Station and planned a second later in the day. The astronauts also planned to check out the rendezvous tools that will be used during final approach to the station Sunday.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for Saturday and Sunday (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision B of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/09
03:24 PM...01...03...55...00...Rendezvous tools checkout
03:29 PM...01...04...00...00...Centerline camera install
03:59 PM...01...04...30...00...Orbiter docking system ring extension
04:00 PM...01...04...31...00...MMT briefing on NASA TV
04:39 PM...01...05...10...00...Airlock prep
05:27 PM...01...05...58...19...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing
07:29 PM...01...08...00...00...Crew sleep begins
09:00 PM...01...09...31...00...Flight day 2 highlights on NASA TV
11:00 PM...01...11...31...00..."Launching Our Dreams" replay on NASA TV

07/10
03:29 AM...01...16...00...00...Crew wakeup
05:19 AM...01...17...50...00...Group B computer powerup
05:34 AM...01...18...05...00...ISS rendezvous ops
07:01 AM...01...19...32...22...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing
08:29 AM...01...21...00...00...Ti rendezbvous rocket firing
09:05 AM...01...21...36...00...Sunset
09:27 AM...01...21...58...36...Range = 10,000 ft
09:36 AM...01...22...07...16...Range = 5,000 ft
09:39 AM...01...22...10...53...Sunrise
09:41 AM...01...22...12...45...Range = 3,000 ft
09:45 AM...01...22...16...54...MC-4 burn
09:49 AM...01...22...20...00...Begin final approach timeline
09:49 AM...01...22...20...54...Range = 1,500 ft
09:52 AM...01...22...23...36...RPM Start Window Open
09:54 AM...01...22...25...54...Range = 1,000 ft
09:57 AM...01...22...28...54...KU to LO (800 ft)
09:58 AM...01...22...29...54...Shuttle directly below station (725 ft)
10:04 AM...01...22...35...06...Range = 600 ft
10:06 AM...01...22...37...00...Start pitch-around maneuver
10:08 AM...01...22...39...38...Noon
10:14 AM...01...22...45...00...End pitch maneuver
10:16 AM...01...22...47...36...Initiate pitch up to velocity vector (575 ft)
10:16 AM...01...22...47...40...RPM full photo window close
10:25 AM...01...22...56...10...RPM start window close
10:28 AM...01...22...59...06...Shuttle directly in front of station (310 ft)
10:29 AM...01...22...59...56...Range = 300 ft
10:33 AM...01...23...04...06...Range = 250 ft
10:37 AM...01...23...08...16...Range = 200 ft
10:37 AM...01...23...08...23...Sunset
10:39 AM...01...23...10...46...Range = 170 ft
10:41 AM...01...23...12...26...Range = 150 ft
10:45 AM...01...23...16...36...Range = 100 ft
10:48 AM...01...23...19...36...Range = 75 ft
10:52 AM...01...23...23...46...Range = 50 ft
10:56 AM...01...23...27...06...Range (30 ft) -- start stationkeeping
11:01 AM...01...23...32...06...Push to dock
11:05 AM...01...23...36...26...Range = 10 ft
11:07 AM...01...23...38...07...DOCKING
11:12 AM...01...23...43...15...Sunrise
11:34 AM...02...00...05...00...Leak checks
11:41 AM...02...00...11...59...Noon
12:04 PM...02...00...35...00...Orbiter docking system prepped for ingress
12:09 PM...02...00...40...43...Sunset
12:14 PM...02...00...45...00...Group B computer powerdown
12:34 PM...02...01...05...00...Hatch open
01:19 PM...02...01...50...00...Welcome aboard!
01:24 PM...02...01...55...00...Safety briefing
01:30 PM...02...02...01...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
02:04 PM...02...02...35...00...SRMS OBSS handoff
04:00 PM...02...04...31...00...MMT briefing on NASA TV
04:14 PM...02...04...45...00...ISS evening planning conference
06:29 PM...02...07...00...00...ISS crew sleep begins
06:59 PM...02...07...30...00...STS crew sleep begins
09:00 PM...02...09...31...00...Flight day 3 highlights on NASA TV

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The Atlantis astronauts are working through a busy day of heat shield inspections, docking preparations and rendezvous rocket firings to fine tune the orbiter's approach to International Space Station. Docking is targeted for 11:07 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Sunday.

Space shuttles normally fly with crews of six or seven, but just four are flying aboard Atlantis -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim -- to minimize rescue scenarios in case of a major problem that might prevent a safe re-entry. But on the flip side, there are fewer hands available to do the same amount of work.

"It will be challenging to get through that inspection with a reduced crew complement," said Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho. "But this crew has practiced considerably to be able to develop a flow or a routine, if you will, to where even though they have fewer hands available in the shuttle they'll be able to get through these inspections in the timeframe that's been allotted."

The astronauts planned to spend most of their day Saturday inspecting the shuttle's heat-resistant nose cap and wing leading edge panels to make sure no damage was incurred during launch Friday. Using an instrumented boom attached to the end of Atlantis' 50-foot-long robot arm, the astronauts planned to inspect the right wing first, followed by the nose cap and then the left wing.

"The orbiter boom sensor system, the OBSS, will be maneuvered into position to start survey of the starboard wing," said Alibaruho. "There, the various sensor packages on the OBSS, which include a high-resolution still camera, a laser range imager as well as a video camera, will sweep over the critical surfaces of Atlantis' thermal protection system, looking for any imperfections, any damage that might have been caused by ascent debris or anything that might compromise Atlantis' capability to perform a safe re-entry.

"After inspecting the wing leading edge and also areas of the (right-side) payload bay door, the OBSS will inspect the nose cap, which is also made of the same reinforced carbon carbon material that's on the leading edge of the wings. Once that inspection is complete, the OBSS will move to the port wing and conduct similar inspections there, again, looking for imperfections, orbital debris damage, ascent debris damage and anything we might need to go address.

"We'll conclude by inspecting the port payload bay door as well as some of the areas where umbilicals were attached prior to launch."

Along with the heat shield inspections, Ferguson and Hurley planned to carry out two rendezvous rocket firings to refine Atlantis' orbit and approach to International Space Station. The astronauts also planned to check out laser range finders and other rendezvous tools that will be used during final approach to the station Sunday.

A mission status briefing is planned at 2 p.m., followed by a mission management team briefing at 4 p.m. to review launch and any issues that might be under discussion.

Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day five (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision B of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font):

DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT

07/09
03:59 AM...00...16...30...00...Crew wakeup
06:11 AM...00...18...42...02...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing
07:04 AM...00...19...35...00...OBSS unberth
07:29 AM...00...20...00...00...Ergometer setup
08:19 AM...00...20...50...00...OBSS starboard wing survey
10:14 AM...00...22...45...00...Crew meals begin
11:14 AM...00...23...45...00...OBSS nose cap survey
11:49 AM...01...00...20...00...Middeck transfer preps
12:04 PM...01...00...35...00...OBSS port wing survey
02:00 PM...01...02...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
02:19 PM...01...02...50...00...SRMS berths OBSS
02:34 PM...01...03...05...00...Laser scan data downlink
02:39 PM...01...03...10...00...Spacewalk equipment preps
03:24 PM...01...03...55...00...Rendezvous tools checkout
03:29 PM...01...04...00...00...Centerline camera install
03:59 PM...01...04...30...00...Orbiter docking system ring extension
04:00 PM...01...04...31...00...MMT briefing on NASA TV
04:39 PM...01...05...10...00...Airlock prep
05:27 PM...01...05...58...19...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing
07:29 PM...01...08...00...00...Crew sleep begins
09:00 PM...01...09...31...00...Flight day 2 highlights on NASA TV
11:00 PM...01...11...31...00..."Launching Our Dreams" replay on NASA TV

=================================

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--After a cliff-hangar countdown, the space shuttle Atlantis thundered to life and majestically rocketed into history Friday, putting on one last sky show for spectators jamming area roads and beaches to witness NASA's 135th and final shuttle launch.

With commander Christopher Ferguson and pilot Douglas Hurley monitoring the computer-orchestrated countdown, Atlantis' three hydrogen-fueled main engines flashed to life at 120 millisecond intervals, followed 6.6 seconds later by ignition of the shuttle's twin-solid fuel boosters at 11:29:04 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

At that same instant, explosive charges in four massive bolts at the base of each booster detonated, freeing the 4.5-million-pound shuttle "stack" from its mobile launch platform.

Riding atop a torrent of flame jetting from the towering boosters, Atlantis instantly vaulted skyward on nearly 7 million pounds of thrust, trailing a churning cloud of dirty brown exhaust.

Accelerating to 100 mph -- straight up -- in just eight seconds, Atlantis climbed above the launch pad gantry, wheeled about and arced away on a northeasterly trajectory, disappearing from view in a deck of clouds as it set off after the International Space Station.

The weather was an issue all morning, with forecasters predicting a 70 percent chance of low clouds and rain that could cause a delay. Conditions improved as the morning wore on, but concern about rain showers near the space center resulted in an official "no-go" forecast for an emergency return to the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle runway.

After discussing the potential for rain and electrical activity, NASA's mission management team waived a flight rule requirement and Atlantis was cleared for launch.

"OK, Fergie, we're starting to feel pretty good here on the ground about this one today so on behalf of the greatest team in the world, good luck to you and your crew on the final flight of this true American icon," Launch Director Mike Leinbach radioed a few moments earlier. "And so for the final time, Fergie, Doug, Sandy and Rex, good luck, Godspeed and have a little fun up there."

"Hey, thanks to you and your team, Mike and until the very end, you all made it look easy," Ferguson replied. "The shuttle's always going to be a reflection of what a great nation can do when it dares to be bold and commits to follow through.

"We're not ending the journey today, Mike, we're completing a chapter of a journey that will never end. You and the thousands of men and women who gave their hearts, souls and their lives to the cause of exploration ... let's light this fire one more time, Mike, and witness this nation at its best."

And so, running two minutes and 18 seconds behind schedule, Atlantis finally roared to life and headed for orbit for the last time, just 58 seconds before the end of the launch window.

"What a truly awesome day today," said Bill Gerstenmaier, chief of space operations at NASA Headquarters. "We got to witness something really, really special and something really amazing. ... I'm really talking about the teams and the people who supported the launch that just occurred.

"What you saw is the finest launch team and shuttle preparation teams in the world. ... The vehicle had a tremendous launch, the teams worked flawlessly, even the last-minute hold at 31 seconds, they worked through that with tremendous professionalism and got this launch off today."

After Atlantis slipped into orbit, Leinbach said the launch team lingered in the firing room, reluctant to bid each other farewell.

"A lot of us walked around and shook everybody's hand," he said. "It seemed like we didn't want to leave, it was like the end of a party and you just don't want to go, you just want to hang around a little bit longer and relish our friends and what we accomplished. It was very special, lots of pats on the back today."

Joining Ferguson and Hurley for the last shuttle flight were Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim, making up the first four-person shuttle crew since the program's sixth launch in 1983.

Without a second shuttle available for a rescue mission -- Atlantis used NASA's final external tank and last set of boosters -- mission managers limited the crew to four to make sure the astronauts can get home aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft in case of a Columbia-class problem that might prevent a safe re-entry.

The early moments of the flight appeared normal and a camera mounted on the side of the external tank showed no obvious signs of any major problems as the shuttle climbed away. But as usual, analysts at the Johnson Space Center will spend the next few days reviewing imagery and radar data to make sure no debris struck Atlantis' fragile heat shield.

Debris poses the biggest threat during the first two minutes or so of flight, when the twin solid-fuel boosters are powering the shuttle out of the dense lower atmosphere. But that critical phase of flight went smoothly, and after two minutes and five seconds, the boosters were jettisoned, falling back to the Atlantic Ocean some 30 miles below.

Three-and-a-half minutes later, Atlantis rolled about its long axis to put the shuttle on top of the external tank to improve communications through a NASA satellite. Three minutes after that, the main engines shut down and Atlantis slipped into orbit for the 33rd and final time.

"Booster officer confirms main engine cutoff," reported mission control commentator Rob Navias. "For the last time, the space shuttle's main engines have fallen silent, as the shuttle slips into the final chapter of a storied 30-year adventure."

After opening the shuttle's payload bay doors, the astronauts began rigging the ship for orbital flight. Astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore radioed the crew from mission control in Houston, reporting that a preliminary analysis found no signs of any significant debris during the climb to space.

Flight Director Richard Jones then passed along congratulations from the flight control team.

"Fergie, just wanted to say congratulations to you, Chunky, Sandy and Rex, on a spectacular ascent," Jones said. "The ascent team is signing off right now and we just wanted to wish you all of our best and that we are with you as you accomplish your historic flight. It's been a pleasure."

"Hey Richard, I tell you, the honor has been all ours," Ferguson replied. "We're some of the fortune few who get a chance to see the world from this perspective. And I want to thank you guys. And boy, I cannot wait to hear the story, both A, coming out of the T-minute nine (minute) hold and B, at T-minus 31 seconds. I'm sure there were a few folks on the edge of their seats down there."

If all goes well, Ferguson will guide Atlantis to a docking at the space station's forward port at 11:10 a.m. Sunday. The next day, an Italian-built cargo module will be attached to the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module and the combined 10-member shuttle-station crew will begin a hectic week of work to move five tons of equipment and supplies into the lab complex.

The supplies packed into the Raffaello module are critical to the space station program. Two companies, Space Exploration Technologies -- SpaceX -- and Orbital Sciences Corp., are building unmanned cargo ships to take over from the shuttle after the fleet is retired with initial test flights expected later this year or early next.

Atlantis' mission was added to the shuttle manifest to deliver enough supplies to keep the station provisioned through 2012 as a hedge against development problems that might delay the commercial cargo ships.

"Some folks look at this flight and perhaps don't see the excitement because we don't have a piece of our assembly hardware going up," said Michael Suffredini, the space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"But we've got the (cargo module) as full as we've ever had it, we've got the middeck. All of these supplies are going to be the lifeline to help us extend the period of time we can go on orbit before our commercial providers start flying regularly to ISS. That's critical to us, to give them the time they need to make sure their vehicles are ready to go fly, finish their development and get their test fights behind them and then start servicing ISS.

"From our perspective, although it doesn't look very sexy, it's one of the most important fights that we've ever had come to ISS."

With a reduced crew of four, only one spacewalk is planned during Atlantis' visit, a six-and-a-half-hour excursion by station flight engineers Ronald Garan and Michael Fossum. Their primary objectives are to move an experimental robotic refueling package from Atlantis to the station and to mount a failed ammonia coolant pump in the shuttle's cargo bay for return to Earth.

With an on-time launching Friday, NASA managers are expected to extend the mission one day to give the crew more time to pack up the cargo module with no-longer-needed equipment and trash. But a final decision will not be made until engineers make sure the shuttle's fuel cells have enough hydrogen and oxygen to support the extra day.

As of this writing, the flight plan calls for the astronauts to undock from the station around 2 a.m. on July 18. Landing back at the Kennedy Space Center is expected around 7 a.m. on July 20, the 42nd anniversary of Apollo 11's touchdown on the moon.

If the flight is extended, however, undocking would occur around 1:30 a.m. on July 19, setting up a pre-dawn landing at the Florida spaceport around 6 a.m. on July 21.

For tens of thousands of past and present shuttle workers, including more than 3,000 expecting layoffs July 22, the traditional "wheels stopped" call from Ferguson will signal the end of an era, bringing the curtain down on three decades of shuttle operations.

"After the wheels have stopped and the displays go blank and the orbiter is unpowered for the final time ... there will be a rush of emotion when we all finally realize that's it, that it's all over, the crowning jewel of our space program, the way we got back and forth from low-Earth orbit for 30 years ... we'll realize that's all over," Ferguson said before launch. "That's going to take a little while to deal with."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--NASA managers evaluating threatening weather have decided to press ahead with an attempt to launch the shuttle Atlantis today on the program's 135th and final mission. Liftoff is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m. EDT.

Because of expected large crowds and heavy traffic, NASA Launch Director Mike Leinbach had held open the option of calling off today's attempt at the launch-minus-four-hour mark, depending on the forecast, to make sure the team could get home and make it back in time for a second attempt Saturday.

While the forecast remains 70 percent "no go," NASA's mission management team opted to press ahead for an attempt today in hopes of catching a break in the cloud cover. If the flight is scrubbed late in the countdown, NASA likely will be forced to delay another attempt to Sunday, at 10:38:31 a.m.

The updated forecast for Saturday calls for a 60 percent chance of stormy weather, improving slightly to 50-50 on Sunday. The outlook for Monday calls for another 60 pecent chance for unacceptable weather.

The forecast aside, there are no technical problems of any significance at pad 39A and the countdown is proceeding smoothly toward the opening of the launch window.

Here is a list of major remaining countdown events (in EDT):

HH...MM...SS...EDT...........EVENT

03...15...00...08:06 AM......Crew ingress
02...25...00...08:56 AM......Astronaut comm checks
02...00...00...09:21 AM......Hatch closure
01...30...00...09:51 AM......White room closeout

01...10...00...10:11 AM......Begin 10-minute built-in hold (T-minus 20m)
01...00...00...10:21 AM......NASA test director countdown briefing
01...00...00...10:21 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 20m)

00...59...00...10:22 AM......Backup flight computer loads OPS 1 software
00...55...00...10:26 AM......KSC area clear to launch

00...49...00...10:32 AM......Begin final built-in hold (T-minus 9m)
00...24...00...10:57 AM......NTD launch status verification
00...09...00...11:17:46 AM...Resume countdown (T-minus 9m)

00...07...30...11:19:16 AM...Orbiter access arm retraction
00...05...00...11:21:46 AM...Launch window opens
00...05...00...11:21:46 AM...Hydraulic power system (APU) start
00...04...55...11:21:51 AM...Terminate LO2 replenish
00...04...00...11:22:46 AM...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic system test
00...04...00...11:22:46 AM...Inertial measurement units to inertial
00...03...55...11:22:51 AM...Aerosurface movement checks
00...03...30...11:23:16 AM...Main engine steering test
00...02...55...11:23:51 AM...LO2 tank pressurization
00...02...35...11:24:11 AM...Fuel cells to internal reactants
00...02...30...11:24:16 AM...Clear caution-and-warning memory
00...02...00...11:24:46 AM...Crew closes visors
00...01...57...11:24:49 AM...LH2 tank pressurization
00...00...50...11:25:56 AM...SRB joint heater deactivation
00...00...31...11:26:15 AM...Shuttle computers take control of countdown
00...00...21...11:26:25 AM...SRB steering test
00...00...07...11:26:39 AM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds)
00...00...00...11:26:46 AM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Despite a dismal forecast, NASA managers early Friday cleared engineers to load the shuttle Atlantis with more than a half-million gallons of rocket fuel and to press ahead for an attempt to launch the orbiter on the program's 135th and final mission. Liftoff is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

But with a 70 percent chance of stormy weather, mission managers held open the option of standing down later this morning depending on actual conditions.

"Mike Moses, the mission management team chair, said some people might call it silly to try and play in the rain this morning, but he said we're going to absolutely try for tanking," said countdown commentator Allard Beutel. "The shuttle launch director, Mike Leinbach, was in 100 percent agreement with him, that trying for tanking was the right option to do.

"But throughout the overnight and closer to the dawn early morning hours, between six and seven o'clock, they'll keep their eyes on the forecast, of course, all night long, but around that time, they'll start getting a very focused look on the weather and see whether it's the right thing to proceed towards launch or whether the forecast really is getting worse. We'll look at perhaps standing down at that point. But at least at the moment, tanking operations are set to begin momentarily."

Hoping for the best, engineers began pumping supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen through transfer lines to pad 39A at 2:01 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). Routed through Atlantis' main engine plumbing to condition the hardware to cryogenic temperatures, the propellants then flowed into oxygen and hydrogen reservoirs in the shuttle's huge external tank. Three hours later, at 4:58 a.m., the tank was full and engineers transitioned to "stable replenish" mode.

There are no technical problems of any significance at the launch pad. A hydrogen valve installed on main engine No. 3 after a leak was detected during a fueling test last month is operating normally, as are the shuttle's external tank and other major components.

Commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim plan to begin strapping in at 8:06 a.m. to await launch.

The updated forecast improves to 60 percent "go" Saturday with a 50 percent chance of acceptable weather Sunday. Going into the final launch campaign, NASA managers said Atlantis had to be off the ground by Sunday to avoid a conflict with the launch next week of an Air Force navigation satellite.

But agency officials said Thursday it might be possible to extend the shuttle launch window through Monday if the Air Force agreed to delay the satellite launch by one day. But no final decisions have been made.

Here is a list of major remaining countdown events (in EDT):

HH...MM...SS...EDT...........EVENT

06...20...00...05:01 AM......Begin 2-hour 30-minute built-in hold (T-minus 3 hours)
06...20...00...05:01 AM......Closeout crew to white room
06...20...00...05:01 AM......External tank in stable replenish mode
06...17...00...05:04 AM......Ascent flight control team on console
06...05...00...05:16 AM......Astronaut support personnel comm checks
05...35...00...05:46 AM......Pre-ingress switch reconfig
04...51...00...06:30 AM......NASA TV launch coverage begins
04...25...00...06:56 AM......Final crew weather briefing
04...15...00...07:06 AM......Crew suit up begins
03...50...00...07:31 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 3 hours)

03...45...00...07:36 AM......Crew departs O&C building
03...15...00...08:06 AM......Crew ingress
02...25...00...08:56 AM......Astronaut comm checks
02...00...00...09:21 AM......Hatch closure
01...30...00...09:51 AM......White room closeout

01...10...00...10:11 AM......Begin 10-minute built-in hold (T-minus 20m)
01...00...00...10:21 AM......NASA test director countdown briefing
01...00...00...10:21 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 20m)

00...59...00...10:22 AM......Backup flight computer loads OPS 1 software
00...55...00...10:26 AM......KSC area clear to launch

00...49...00...10:32 AM......Begin final built-in hold (T-minus 9m)
00...24...00...10:57 AM......NTD launch status verification
00...09...00...11:17:46 AM...Resume countdown (T-minus 9m)

00...07...30...11:19:16 AM...Orbiter access arm retraction
00...05...00...11:21:46 AM...Launch window opens
00...05...00...11:21:46 AM...Hydraulic power system (APU) start
00...04...55...11:21:51 AM...Terminate LO2 replenish
00...04...00...11:22:46 AM...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic system test
00...04...00...11:22:46 AM...Inertial measurement units to inertial
00...03...55...11:22:51 AM...Aerosurface movement checks
00...03...30...11:23:16 AM...Main engine steering test
00...02...55...11:23:51 AM...LO2 tank pressurization
00...02...35...11:24:11 AM...Fuel cells to internal reactants
00...02...30...11:24:16 AM...Clear caution-and-warning memory
00...02...00...11:24:46 AM...Crew closes visors
00...01...57...11:24:49 AM...LH2 tank pressurization
00...00...50...11:25:56 AM...SRB joint heater deactivation
00...00...31...11:26:15 AM...Shuttle computers take control of countdown
00...00...21...11:26:25 AM...SRB steering test
00...00...07...11:26:39 AM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds)
00...00...00...11:26:46 AM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Despite a dismal forecast, NASA managers decided early Friday to load the shuttle Atlantis with rocket fuel and to press ahead for an attempt to launch the orbiter on the program's 135th and final mission. Liftoff is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

But with a 70 percent chance of stormy weather, mission managers held open the option of standing down later this morning depending on actual conditions.

"Mike Moses, the mission management team chair, said some people might call it silly to try and play in the rain this morning, but he said we're going to absolutely try for tanking," said countdown commentator Allard Beutel. "The shuttle launch director, Mike Leinbach, was in 100 percent agreement with him, that trying for tanking was the right option to do.

"But throughout the overnight and closer to the dawn early morning hours, between six and seven o'clock, they'll keep their eyes on the forecast, of course, all night long, but around that time, they'll start getting a very focused look on the weather and see whether it's the right thing to proceed towards launch or whether the forecast really is getting worse. We'll look at perhaps standing down at that point. But at least at the moment, tanking operations are set to begin momentarily."

Hoping for the best, engineers began pumping supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen through transfer lines to pad 39A at 2:01 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). Routed through Atlantis' main engine plumbing to condition the hardware to cryogenic temperatures, the propellants then flowed into oxygen and hydrogen reservoirs in the shuttle's huge external tank. The three-hour fueling procedure should be complete by around 5 a.m.

Commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim plan to begin strapping in at 8:06 a.m. to await launch.

The updated forecast improves to 60 percent "go" Saturday with a 50 percent chance of acceptable weather Sunday. Going into the final launch campaign, NASA managers said Atlantis had to be off the ground by Sunday to avoid a conflict with the launch next week of an Air Force navigation satellite.

But agency officials said Thursday it might be possible to extend the shuttle launch window through Monday if the Air Force agreed to delay the satellite launch by one day. But no final decisions have been made.

Here is a list of major remaining countdown events (in EDT; best viewed with fixed-width font):

HH...MM...SS...EDT...........EVENT

09...31...00...01:50 AM......NASA TV fueling coverage begins
09...20...00...02:01 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 6 hours)

09...20...00...02:01 AM......Propellant transfer line chilldown
09...10...00...02:11 AM......Main propulsion system chill down
09...10...00...02:11 AM......Liquid hydrogen (LH2) slow fill
08...40...00...02:41 AM......Liquid oxygen (LO2) slow fill
08...35...00...02:46 AM......Hydrogen engine cutoff (ECO) sensors go "wet"
08...30...00...02:51 AM......LO2 fast fill
08...20...00...03:01 AM......LH2 fast fill
06...25...00...04:56 AM......LH2 topping
06...20...00...05:01 AM......LH2 replenish
06...20...00...05:01 AM......LO2 replenish

06...20...00...05:01 AM......Begin 2-hour 30-minute built-in hold (T-minus 3 hours)
06...20...00...05:01 AM......Closeout crew to white room
06...20...00...05:01 AM......External tank in stable replenish mode
06...17...00...05:04 AM......Ascent flight control team on console
06...05...00...05:16 AM......Astronaut support personnel comm checks
05...35...00...05:46 AM......Pre-ingress switch reconfig
04...51...00...06:30 AM......NASA TV launch coverage begins
04...25...00...06:56 AM......Final crew weather briefing
04...15...00...07:06 AM......Crew suit up begins
03...50...00...07:31 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 3 hours)

03...45...00...07:36 AM......Crew departs O&C building
03...15...00...08:06 AM......Crew ingress
02...25...00...08:56 AM......Astronaut comm checks
02...00...00...09:21 AM......Hatch closure
01...30...00...09:51 AM......White room closeout

01...10...00...10:11 AM......Begin 10-minute built-in hold (T-minus 20m)
01...00...00...10:21 AM......NASA test director countdown briefing
01...00...00...10:21 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 20m)

00...59...00...10:22 AM......Backup flight computer loads OPS 1 software
00...55...00...10:26 AM......KSC area clear to launch

00...49...00...10:32 AM......Begin final built-in hold (T-minus 9m)
00...24...00...10:57 AM......NTD launch status verification
00...09...00...11:17:46 AM...Resume countdown (T-minus 9m)

00...07...30...11:19:16 AM...Orbiter access arm retraction
00...05...00...11:21:46 AM...Launch window opens
00...05...00...11:21:46 AM...Hydraulic power system (APU) start
00...04...55...11:21:51 AM...Terminate LO2 replenish
00...04...00...11:22:46 AM...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic system test
00...04...00...11:22:46 AM...Inertial measurement units to inertial
00...03...55...11:22:51 AM...Aerosurface movement checks
00...03...30...11:23:16 AM...Main engine steering test
00...02...55...11:23:51 AM...LO2 tank pressurization
00...02...35...11:24:11 AM...Fuel cells to internal reactants
00...02...30...11:24:16 AM...Clear caution-and-warning memory
00...02...00...11:24:46 AM...Crew closes visors
00...01...57...11:24:49 AM...LH2 tank pressurization
00...00...50...11:25:56 AM...SRB joint heater deactivation
00...00...31...11:26:15 AM...Shuttle computers take control of countdown
00...00...21...11:26:25 AM...SRB steering test
00...00...07...11:26:39 AM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds)
00...00...00...11:26:46 AM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--As predicted, thunderstorms rumbled across the Kennedy Space Center Thursday and two lightning bolts struck on or near launch pad 39A where the shuttle Atlantis is being prepared for takeoff Friday on NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission.

Magnetic field readings at the pad exceeded normal limits in four locations, prompting engineers to review telemetry to make sure no sensitive systems were affected. Officials said a preliminary assessment found no major problems and while additional data reviews were planned, engineers did not expect to need any time-consuming system re-tests.

Regardless of the lightning strike, forecasters predicted a 70 percent chance of stormy weather that could trigger a launch delay Friday. The forecast improves slightly to 60 percent "no go" Saturday and 60 percent go on Sunday, the final day in the shuttle's current launch window. But NASA managers may be able to get an additional launch opportunity Monday if the Air Force agrees to delay launch of a navigation satellite.

If so, and assuming the lightning assessment remains positive, NASA's mission management team could opt to press ahead for a Friday launch or stand down in favor of two attempts between Saturday and Monday when the weather should be improving.

"Weather is not looking good for launch," shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters told reporters during a morning briefing. "As you can see outside, the clouds have rolled in, we're starting to see some showers. We even had a thunderstorm show up this morning. So we are expecting more of this for the next couple of days."

Later in the day, another thunderstorm pounded the space center, bringing torrential rain and lightning. Telemetry in the launch control center indicated two lightning strikes, one on the pad and another a little more than a half mile away, triggering inspections and a data review to make sure systems that were powered up at the time were not affected.

Running about 45 minutes behind schedule, engineers began rolling a huge protective gantry away from Atlantis Thursday afternoon, exposing the shuttle to view and setting the stage for fueling early Friday. NASA's mission management team planned to meet at 1:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Friday to assess the weather and any unresolved technical issues. Assuming managers decide to proceed, engineers will begin loading a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel into Atlantis' external tank at 2:01 a.m.

The three-hour fueling procedure should be complete by around 5 a.m. and if all goes well, commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim will begin strapping in for launch around 8:06 a.m. Liftoff is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m.

Between 500,000 and 750,000 spectators are expected to turn out for NASA's final shuttle launch, complicating NASA's scrub-turnaround plans. If the weather or some other problem triggers a delay in the last four hours of the countdown, Launch Director Mike Leinbach likely will order a 48-hour delay because of concern the launch team would not be able to make it home through expected heavy traffic and get back to the space center in time for a launch try the next day.

As a result, a launch scrub Friday likely would delay a second attempt to Sunday.

Going into the launch campaign, NASA managers said Atlantis had to be off the ground by Sunday or the flight would slip to July 16 to make way for launch of a military navigation satellite from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. But if the Air Force agrees to a one-day slip, NASA could get a fourth launch opportunity Monday. How that might play into the decision to proceed with a Friday launch try remains to be seen.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--As predicted, thunderstorms rumbled across the Kennedy Space Center Thursday and at least one lightning bolt struck launch pad 39A where the shuttle Atlantis is being prepared for takeoff Friday on NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission.

Magnetic field readings at the pad exceeded normal limits in four locations, sources said, prompting engineers to schedule a review board meeting at 4:30 p.m. to make sure no sensitive systems were affected. How long the review might take and what impact, if any, it might have on launch preparations was not immediately clear.

Regardless of the lightning strike, forecasters are continuing to predict a 70 percent chance of stormy weather that could trigger a launch delay Friday. The forecast improves slightly to 60 percent "no go" Saturday and 60 percent go on Sunday, the final day in the shuttle's current launch window. But NASA managers may be able to get an additional launch opportunity Monday if the Air Force agrees to delay launch of a navigation satellite next week.

If so, and assuming no damage from the lightning strike, NASA's mission management team could opt to press ahead for a Friday launch or stand down in favor of two attempts between Saturday and Monday when the weather should be improving.

"Weather is not looking good for launch," shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters told reporters during a morning briefing. "As you can see outside, the clouds have rolled in, we're starting to see some showers. We even had a thunderstorm show up this morning. So we are expecting more of this for the next couple of days."

Later in the day, another thunderstorm pounded the space center, bringing torrential rain and lightning. Telemetry in the launch control center indicated a lightning strike at or very close to the launch pad at 12:31 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), triggering inspections and a data review to make sure no sensitive systems were affected.

Running about 45 minutes behind schedule, engineers began rolling a huge protective gantry away from Atlantis Thursday afternoon, exposing the shuttle to view and setting the stage for fueling early Friday. NASA's mission management team planned to meet at 1:30 a.m. Friday to assess the weather and any unresolved technical issues. Assuming managers decide to proceed, engineers will begin loading a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel into Atlantis' external tank at 2:01 a.m.

The three-hour fueling procedure should be complete by around 5 a.m. and if all goes well, commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim will begin strapping in for launch around 8:06 a.m. Liftoff is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m.

Between 500,000 and 750,000 spectators are expected to turn out for NASA's final shuttle launch, complicating NASA's scrub-turnaround plans. If the weather or some other problem triggers a delay in the last four hours of the countdown, Launch Director Mike Leinbach likely will order a 48-hour delay because of concern the launch team would not be able to make it home through expected heavy traffic and get back to the space center in time for a launch try the next day.

As a result, a launch scrub Friday likely would delay a second attempt to Sunday.

Going into the launch campaign, NASA managers said Atlantis had to be off the ground by Sunday or the flight would slip to July 16 to make way for launch of a military navigation satellite from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. But if the Air Force agrees to a one-day slip, NASA could get a fourth launch opportunity Monday. How that might play into the decision to proceed with a Friday launch try remains to be seen.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Forecasters are predicting a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday that could delay launch of the shuttle Atlantis on the program's 135th and final flight. But barring a dramatic change for the worse, the chairman of NASA's mission management team says he plans to press ahead with flight preparations.

"I only know of one way to make it a 100 percent no-go forecast, and that's to not put propellant in the tank," Mike Moses told reporters at a launch-minus-two-day news conference. "So I'll leave it at that. ... We've tanked at 90 percent no go and launched that day. We've also tanked at 20 percent (no) go and scrubbed that day. So, the forecast is a forecast, and even 12 hours out, it's still a forecast."

Weather permitting, engineers will roll a protective gantry away from Atlantis at 2 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) Thursday, exposing the shuttle to view and setting the stage for fueling. Moses and the mission management team will meet at 1:30 a.m. Friday to assess the weather and to decide whether or not to load Atlantis' external tank with a half-million gallons of rocket fuel.

"Before we go load propellants into the tank, we'll take a look at the weather and make sure it's really a good day to try that," Moses said. "And so at that point, we'll be making a decision."

The three-hour fueling procedure is scheduled to begin at 2:01 a.m. Friday. If all goes well, Atlantis' crew -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim -- will begin strapping in around 8:06 a.m. to await liftoff on NASA's final shuttle mission. Liftoff is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m., the middle of a 10-minute window centered on the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit.

Launch Director Mike Leinbach said local law enforcement authorities are expecting between 500,000 and 750,000 spectators, even more if launch slips into the weekend. Because of heavy traffic, Leinbach is reserving the option to skip a Saturday launch try if the weather triggers a scrub late in the countdown Friday out of concern the launch team could not get home and make it back to the spaceport in time for a 24-hour turnaround.

As it now stands, Atlantis must get off the ground by Sunday or the flight will slip to July 16 to make way for launch of a military navigation satellite from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Shuttle managers may be able to make an attempt Monday, if necessary, without impacting the AIr Force launch, but no formal discussions have been held.

"Everybody's already asking do we have plans to make them move and all that, and the bottom line is nothing happens until we can't launch, right?" Moses said. "We'll wait until we get there and see what we get."

Winters said conditions should improve somewhat this weekend, with a 40 percent chance of good weather Saturday and a 60 percent chance Sunday. All in all, Moses said, the forecast leaves room for optimism.

"If it's just cumulus clouds and rain showers, as long as we get a hole over the pad, which means we aren't going to fly through any (rain) and there's nothing in a 20-mile circle heading toward the pad, that'll be a 'go' day for us," he said. "It could be pouring rain everywhere else in the county, and if we get that hole in the right spot at the right time, we can go. So from that standpoint, right now I'm feeling pretty good about trying Friday. But we're not at Friday yet, so I'm not going to commit to anything until we get to Friday."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Forecasters are now predicting a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday that could delay launch of the shuttle Atlantis. The forecast improves slightly to 60 percent "no-go" Saturday with a 40 percent chance of bad weather Sunday.

Launch is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) on Friday. If Atlantis is not off the ground by Sunday, the flight will slip to July 16 to make way for launch of a military navigation satellite from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Atlantis' countdown is proceeding smoothly and there are no technical problems of any significance at pad 39A. But the weather likely will be a factor.

"High clouds are streaming into the area from the southwest associated with convection in the Southeast Gulf of Mexico caused by an upper level low," forecasters wrote in a morning update. "Easterly flow continues today which will cause any developing weather to remain inland. A tropical wave in the Bahamas is moving west-northwest and will impact Florida on Thursday, increasing moisture and bringing scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms by Thursday afternoon and evening.

"By Friday, the wave will merge over Florida with an upper level trough, causing the wave to stall over the Florida area. This will bring significant cloud cover with embedded showers and isolated thunderstorms causing concerns for launch weather.

"Our primary concerns for launch are showers and thunderstorms within 20 nautical miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility, flight through precipitation, and cumulus clouds. Due to the launch time moving earlier and a slightly dryer atmosphere each day, the threat of weather decreases each day; therefore, the probability of Kennedy Space Center (KSC) weather prohibiting launch decreases as well."

Senior NASA managers will provide an update later this morning after a launch-minus-two-day review.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

A detailed 7,500-word preview of the shuttle Atlantis' upcoming mission has been posted on the CBS News space updates page:

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/spacenews1.html

This story also is included in the CBS News Space Reporter's Handbook posted earlier today. Comments, suggestions and corrections welcome.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Countdown clocks began ticking Tuesday for the shuttle Atlantis' launch Friday on NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission, a flight to deliver more than 8,000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.

There are no technical problems of any significance at pad 39A, but forecasters are predicting a 60 percent chance of showers and possible thunderstorms that could trigger a delay.

"I wish I had a better weather briefing for you, but it does look like we are going to have some weather, at least potential for weather, in the area at launch time," said Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer at the Kennedy Space Center. "Right now, we're going with a 60 percent chance of KSC weather prohibiting launch due to the potential for showers and isolated thunderstorms in the area."

Launch is targeted for 11:26:46 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Friday, the middle of a 10-minute window centered on the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. Winters said conditions should improve to 60 percent acceptable on Saturday and to 70 percent "go" on Sunday. If Atlantis isn't off the pad by then, the flight will be delayed to July 16 to make way for launch of a military navigation satellite from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"The next few days we're going to have some good weather, then an easterly wave comes into the area on Thursday, bringing a lot of shower activity in with it," Winters said. "Usually with easterly waves, we get a lot of showers, not necessarily a lot of thunderstorm activity, but some isolated activity. As it pushes in, it's going to really moisten up our atmosphere.

"So by Friday, we do expect the sea breeze to be developing around the time of the launch window and showers and even potentially an isolated storm to develop along that sea breeze as it forms. So our primary concern for launch will be showers and thunderstorms within 20 nautical miles of the shuttle landing facility ... and also cumulus cloud development within 10 nautical miles of the launch pad."

Weather aside, NASA Test Director Jeremy Graeber said Brevard County officials are expecting between 500,000 and 750,000 spectators Friday, a crowd that could have an impact on NASA's launch plans.

NASA managers have said the expected crowds could make it difficult for launch personnel to get home and then make it back to the spaceport in time for a second launch attempt Saturday. If the expected crowds actually materialize, and if Friday's launch attempt is called off within four hours of the planned liftoff, NASA managers may opt to delay a second attempt to Sunday.

"That launch-minus-four (-hour) timeframe is our decision point," Graeber said. "Again, it really is all dependent on what we see that day and the types of issues that come up, how the weather is developing and again, we'll talk will all the right folks and make that decision on launch day."

Countdown clocks began ticking backward at 1 p.m. Tuesday, setting the stage for NASA's last shuttle launch. Early Wednesday, engineers will pump liquid oxygen and hydrogen aboard Atlantis to power the ship's three electricity producing fuel cells, a remotely controlled procedure that should be completed by around 3:30 p.m.

Engineers then will move into detailed checks of the shuttle's three hydrogen-fueled main engines, the ship's communications gear and other critical systems. If all goes well, a protective gantry will be pulled away from the shuttle at 2 p.m. Thursday, exposing Atlantis to view and setting the stage for fueling early Friday.

Working by remote control, engineers plan to begin pumping a half-million gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen into the ship's external tank starting at 2:01 a.m. Friday, a three-hour procedure that should be complete by 5:01 a.m.

Hoping for the best, Atlantis' crew -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim -- plans to begin strapping in around 8:06 a.m. to await liftoff.

"Our teams here at the Kennedy Space Center and all the NASA centers across the country have been working for over a year to prepare Atlantis, the external tank our solid rocket boosters, the payload and all of our ground systems for the STS-135 mission," Graeber said. "All of our vehicle and ground systems are ready, the STS-135 crew, Atlantis and the launch team are all ready to proceed and we're looking forward to ... a spectacular launch on Friday morning."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The crew of the shuttle Atlantis celebrated the July Fourth holiday Monday by flying to Florida aboard sleek T-38 jet trainers to prepare for launch Friday on the 135th and final shuttle mission.

After a brief stop in Mobile, Ala., to refuel, commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim touched down at the 3-mile-long shuttle runway around 2:32 p.m. EDT (GMT-4).

"We are just delighted to be here after a very arduous nine-month training flow, we're thrilled to finally be here in Florida for launch week," Ferguson told reporters. "This is a day that's decidedly American, a day where we kind of reflect on our independence and all the wonderful things that we really have as part of being the United States of America. I think it's wonderful you've all come out to join us when I know, and I certainly hope, you'll have an opportunity to go home when this is all done and enjoy some barbecue, some fireworks and some apple pie.

"We have a very event-filled mission ahead of us, we have 12 days, we'll be very, very busy," he said. "When it's all over, we'll be very proud to put the right-hand bookend on the space shuttle program."

Said Hurley: "On behalf of the crew, we'd really like to thank the folks here at Kennedy Space Center. This is where we come to fly the vehicles and ideally where we come back to. Especially, we want to thank the team that processed Atlantis for her last flight. They've worked very hard, they've had a very short flow and we can't thank them enough. We're so very proud to be here, sharing our nation's birthday with you all and the folks here at Kennedy. We just want to honor the entire Kennedy team that has worked on these magnificent machines over the past 30-plus years."

The shuttle's countdown is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday, setting up a launch attempt at 11:26:46 a.m. Friday, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries launch complex 39A into the plane of the International Space Station's orbit. The astronauts have until Sunday to get off the ground or launch will slip to July 16 to give the Air Force time to launch a navigation satellite aboard a Delta 4 rocket.

Assuming an on-time liftoff, Ferguson will guide Atlantis to a docking at the station's forward port around 11:09 a.m. Sunday. A cargo module loaded with more than 8,000 pounds of supplies and equipment will be attached to the station the next day, followed by a spacewalk Tuesday with station astronauts Ronald Garan and Michael Fossum.

If all goes well, Atlantis will undock around 1:51 a.m. July 18 and land back at the Kennedy Space Center around 6:56 a.m. on July 20 to close out the orbiter's thirty-third and final flight.

"It's such a pleasure to come down here when you have a rocket on the pad and it's got your stuff loaded on it," Walheim said on the shuttle runway. "So we're really excited to be here. I thank you all for coming out and I hope you have a happy Fourth of July."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Engineers carrying out X-ray inspections of 50 rib-like "stringers" in the shuttle Atlantis' external tank are running ahead of schedule and so far, officials said Wednesday, there are no signs of any temperature-induced cracks in the wake of a fueling test last week.

Working in parallel, another team replaced a leaking hydrogen valve in main engine No. 3 on Tuesday. Reassembly and closeout should be complete by this weekend, clearing the way for tests to make sure the valve is leak free and working properly for launch July 8.

Atlantis crew, meanwhile -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, flight engineer Rex Walheim and cargo loadmaster Sandra Magnus -- is at the Kennedy Space Center this week to review launch pad emergency procedures and to participate in a dress-rehearsal countdown Thursday, a major milestone on the road to launch.

"We're very honored to be in this position," Ferguson told reporters at the base of the launch pad Wednesday. "There are many people who could be here ... so we consider ourselves fortunate. I think each of us feels a little, perhaps, extra burden to make sure we put on the best possible face forward for the last go around of this, and the crew's very prepared."

Said Magnus: "We feel very honored to be on this flight and we've been very focused to make sure that we preform it well in honor of all the people who have been involved, not just in this mission but all the missions."

"We're just the tip of the iceberg of a huge group of people who plan, get the hardware ready and prepare our procedures and then watch over the vehicle while we're on board," she said. "And we feel very, very strongly that we have to be as prepared as possible to perform the mission to the extent that they're expecting of us. I think when it's all done, we can celebrate together, not only the mission, but the whole program."

The terminal countdown demonstration test, or TCDT, is valuable to the astronauts because "you're working with the whole team down here and actually going through a launch count right up to T-zero," Hurley said. "You've got your suit, you've got your suit techs, you're doing all the motions you go through on launch day, all the way out to the pad."

The astronauts have participated in fire training, inspected the launch pad's emergency slidewire escape system, inspected a safety bunker and practiced driving an armored personnel carrier stationed near the pad for an emergency evacuation.

The training is "invaluable," Hurley said. "You can do all the simulators in the world, but until you get in that real vehicle, touch the vehicle, see what you can reach, see the different switches, everything's just a little different when you're in the real vehicle. So it's a great way to get you ready for launch day, when it counts."

The primary goal of the 135th and final shuttle mission is to deliver 9,600 pounds of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station to support a six-person crew through 2012 as hedge against problems that might delay commercial unmanned cargo ships being built to replace lost shuttle capability. Atlantis also will deliver experimental robotic satellite refueling gear and bring back to Earth an ammonia coolant system pump that failed last year.

NASA managers plan to meet at the Kennedy Space Center next Tuesday to review Atlantis' ground processing and to set an official launch date. As of this writing, the shuttle appears on track for liftoff at 11:26:46 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) on July 8. NASA will be able to make two launch attempts in three days before standing down for the launch of an unmanned Delta 4 rocket July 14. The next shuttle launch window opens July 16 and extends through the end of the month.

An on-time launch assumes the fuel valve replacement and retest go smoothly and that no problems are found with the stringers making up the external tank's central compartment. The ribbed intertank section separates the tank's liquid hydrogen and oxygen tanks, with the upper dome of the hydrogen tank fitting into the bottom of the intertank and the lower dome of the oxygen tank fitting in the top.

During an attempt to launch the shuttle Discovery on its final flight last year, engineers discovered stress-relief cracks in several of the stringers making up the intertank.

After an exhaustive investigation, NASA determined that the lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy used to make the stringers in question came from a lot that was more susceptible to fractures than normal. When the tank was loaded with propellants, and the contraction of the oxygen tank pulled the tops of the intertank stringers inward, cracks developed.

NASA installed structural stiffeners called radius block doublers on the top few inches of the stringers to add additional strength, preventing cracks that might compromise the tank's structural integrity or cause foam insulation to pop off during ascent. Discovery's tank performed normally during the shuttle's eventual launch last February.

Because the stringers in Atlantis' tank had a similar pedigree, NASA managers ordered installation of radius block doublers and ordered a fueling test last week to subject the system to cryogenic conditions. Engineers began X-ray inspections of the stringers facing Atlantis on Monday and by Wednesday, the upper sections of the 50 stringers on the side of the tank facing Atlantis had been inspected.

"So far, they've seen nothing amiss," said a NASA spokesman.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--The crew of the final shuttle mission flew to Florida Monday to review emergency procedures and to participate in a dress-rehearsal countdown Thursday, a major milestone on the road to launch July 8.

"I think I speak on behalf of the crew, everyone in the astronaut office and I'm sure everybody here at KSC, we're just trying to savor the moment," commander Christopher Ferguson told reporters at the shuttle runway. "As our children and our children's children ask us, we want to be able to say we remember when there was a space shuttle and like I said, we're savoring every moment, trying to take it all in and looking forward to an incredible mission."

Engineers at pad 39A worked Monday to install Atlantis' payload -- an Italian-built module packed with supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station -- into the orbiter's cargo bay amid the start of X-ray inspections of the ship's external tank. Engineers want to make sure structural stiffeners riveted onto rib-like stringers in the tank did not develop any temperature-induced stress-relief cracks during a fueling test Wednesday.

At the same time, engineers are starting work to replace a hydrogen valve in main engine No. 3 that showed signs of a leak during the fueling test. The X-ray inspections and the valve replacement work are expected to take the rest of the week.

NASA managers plan to meet at the Florida spaceport June 28 to review processing and to set an official launch date. As of this writing, Atlantis appears to be on track for blastoff July 8 as planned.

Flying in T-38 jet trainers, Atlantis' crew -- Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, flight engineer Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus -- landed at the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle runway Monday afternoon for a traditional terminal countdown demonstration test, or TCDT.

During the three-day exercise, the astronauts will review emergency procedures before strapping in aboard Atlantis for a dress-rehearsal countdown Thursday. Ferguson and Hurley also will practice landing procedures in a NASA business jet that has been modified to handle like a space shuttle on final approach.

Ferguson said the crew was "incredibly proud" to serve aboard NASA"s final shuttle mission. As for what comes next -- commercial spacecraft and, eventually, a NASA deep space exploration vehicle -- Ferguson said "you can be absolutely sure of one thing. And that is, if you take the fact that we have been sustaining a human presence on the International Space Station for the last 10 years ... regardless of what transpires over the next several years, and we'll go through, I'm sure, a few gyrations, we're going to have a nice, solid program in place to go back and forth to the space station and then hopefully beyond low-Earth orbit."

After the fueling test last week, NASA moved the Rafaello cargo module to the launch pad for installation into Atlantis' cargo bay Monday. While a protective gantry was pulled away from the spacecraft, reporters and photographers were allowed to visit the pad Friday for a final chance to photograph a space shuttle from the pad gantry and the surface of its mobile launch platform. Photos are available with the web version of this story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/spacenews1.html

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--A hydrogen fuel valve in one the shuttle Atlantis' three main engines that appeared to leak during an external tank fueling test Wednesday will be replaced next week in parallel with work to X-ray structural stiffeners in the tank's central compartment, officials said Thursday. The valve replacement work is not expected to impact Atlantis' July 8 target launch date.

Engineers at launch complex 39A drained the huge external tank overnight Wednesday, clearing the way for installation of an Italian-built cargo module into the pad gantry's payload handling room Friday. If all goes well, the protective gantry will be rolled back in place around the shuttle Saturday, the ship's cargo bay doors will be opened Saturday night and the cargo module will be installed in Atlantis' payload bay Monday.

While the payload transfer work is underway, engineers plan to begin X-ray inspections Saturday to verify the performance of so-called radius block doublers that were installed over the tops of vertical rib-like stringers that form the backbone of the external tank's central "intertank" compartment. The ribbed intertank separates the upper liquid oxygen tank from the larger liquid hydrogen tank below.

Work to beef up Atlantis' tank, ET-138, was ordered in the wake of stringer cracks that developed in a tank used for the shuttle Discovery's final mission. After an exhaustive analysis, engineers concluded the lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy used in the stringers was from a lot that was more brittle than usual.

When supercold liquid oxygen was loaded, the bottom of the "LOX" tank contracted, pulling the tops of the intertank stringers inward. The tank was designed with that contraction in mind, but the more brittle alloy used in Discovery's tank resulted in several stress relief fractures. That raised concerns about the tank's structural integrity and the possibility of cracks developing in flight that might cause foam insulation to break away.

NASA managers ultimately ordered doublers installed over the top few inches of 105 of the 108 stringers used in the intertank section of Discovery's tank to make them less susceptible to stress-relief cracks.

Because the stringers in Atlantis' external tank were made from the same lot of suspect alloy, engineers earlier this year installed radius block doublers around the circumference of ET-138's intertank. The tank was loaded with a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel Wednesday to subject the components to cryogenic temperatures.

Starting Saturday, engineers will carry out X-ray inspections of the tops of the stringers on the side of the tank facing Atlantis to make sure no cracks developed when the tank was loaded with frigid rocket fuel. None are expected, but the work will take several days to complete.

Working in parallel, engineers plan to remove the main fuel valve on main engine No. 3, which showed signs of a downstream temperature drop indicative of a small leak during the fueling test Wednesday.

The main fuel valve, located downstream of the engine's high-pressure fuel turbopump, is used to route hydrogen to the main combustion chamber walls for cooling, to help drive a low-pressure turbopump, to help pressurize the external tank and to cool the engine nozzle before before. The fuel flow is recombined as part of the combustion process.

If no problems develop, engineers expect to replace and retest the valve with no impact to Atlantis' planned July 8 launch target.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--After confirming no problems with the shuttle Atlantis in the wake of overnight thunderstorms, engineers pumped a half-million gallons of supercold rocket fuel into the orbiter's external tank Wednesday to verify the integrity of structural stiffeners intended to prevent cracks during the countdown and climb to space July 8.

The initial stages of the three-hour fueling procedure went smoothly but as liquid hydrogen and oxygen circulated through Atlantis' main propulsion system and into the external tank, engineers noticed lower-than-expected temperatures downstream of main engine No. 3's main fuel valve. Such temperature drops can indicate a leak and during a 1995 launch campaign, liftoff of the shuttle Columbia was delayed a week to replace a leaking main fuel valve.

Engineers do not yet know whether the temperature readings seen Wednesday indicate an actual leak or some other problem. In any case, there appears to be enough contingency time left in Atlantis' processing schedule to accommodate a replacement without impacting the July 8 target date, officials said, if engineers conclude the 75-pound valve is actually leaking.

But engineers will not gain access to the shuttle's engine compartment until Thursday and it's too early to say what, if anything, might need to be done. For the fueling test, the valve was isolated after the low temperatures were noticed, the engine hardware warmed to normal levels and the fueling test continued.

Originally scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), the start of the test was delayed to 12:15 p.m. because of work to check out the shuttle's electrical systems after three nearby lightning strikes and troubleshooting to determine the impact of a lost launch pad power circuit. The tank was topped off shortly after 3 p.m. and two hours later, engineers began draining operations.

The test was ordered to make sure vertical rib-like "stringers" in Atlantis' external tank are able to endure exposure to ultra-low temperatures before launch and during the climb to space without developing cracks like those blamed for delaying the shuttle Discovery's final launching late last year.

The lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy used to make the stringer's in Discovery's tank came from the same batch used in Atlantis' tank. It took engineers months to figure out what the problem was with Discovery's tank and to come up with a fix that eventually cleared the way for launch last Feb. 24.

For Atlantis' tank, ET-138, NASA managers opted to implement the same repair, installing so-called radius block doublers to the tops of the stringers making up the structural ribs of the intertank compartment that separates the huge tank's liquid oxygen and hydrogen sections. The doublers provide additional strength, resisting the contraction that tends to pull the tops of the stringers away from the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank.

Before Discovery's ultimately successful launch, NASA carried out a full-scale tanking test, installing scores of strain gauges to measure the actual stresses acting on the stringers as the components responded to the low-temperature rocket propellants. After the test, Discovery was hauled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for X-ray inspections around the circumference of the intertank to make sure no new cracks formed and to install radius doublers all the way around the upper end of the intertank.

For Atlantis, NASA managers opted to forego the instrumentation. The tank was loaded with a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel and then maintained in "stable replenish" mode for another two hours while the propellants are continuously topped off.

At the same time, engineers made sure a 7-inch gaseous hydrogen vent line attached to the side of the tank was leak free. Trouble with internal seals, coupled with alignment issues, caused problems during Discovery's initial launch campaign last November. The vent line worked normally during Discovery's February launch and the shuttle Endeavour's two countdowns on April 29 and May 16.

After Atlantis' tank is drained overnight, engineers will load a cargo module into the shuttle's payload bay late Thursday before a protective gantry is rolled back in place Friday to protect the shuttle from the elements. Starting this weekend, the upper sections of the stringers on the side of the tank facing the shuttle will be X-rayed to make sure no cracks developed during the fueling test. The work is expected to take about a week to complete.

Atlantis' crew -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim -- plans to fly to the Kennedy Space Center Monday for NASA's final "terminal countdown demonstration test," or TCDT. After reviewing emergency procedures at the launch pad, the astronauts will strap in Thursday for a dress-rehearsal countdown to clear the way for launch.

Shuttle program managers plan to review Atlantis' launch processing June 21, followed one week later by an executive-level flight readiness review to assess any unresolved problems and set an official launch date.

As of this writing, there are at least two "unexplained anomalies" from Endeavour's flight that have yet to be resolved, although neither is expected to result in a launch delay.

During Endeavour's climb to space, a camera on the shuttle caught a glimpse of a cylindrical piece of debris falling away around the time the shuttle's twin solid-fuel boosters separated. The debris has not yet been identified. The second issue is what triggered a brief landing gear brake fire that appeared to flare up shortly after touchdown. An inspection found no damage to the brakes or landing gear and engineers do not yet understand what happened.

Atlantis' external tank was beefed up in the wake of problems with Discovery's tank that were discovered after a Nov. 5 launch delay due to a hydrogen vent line leak. After the countdown was scrubbed, small cracks were found in two of the stringers used in the wall of the external tank's central intertank section.

The cracks were repaired, but work to understand what caused their formation required exhaustive tests and analyses. The analysis had to address two major questions: issues: the structural integrity of the tank and the likelihood of small cracks to cause foam insulation to pop off during ascent.

Engineers ultimately concluded the cracks were caused by temperature-induced stress near the tops of the stringers as the upper liquid oxygen tank, exposed to minus 297-degree propellant, contracted during fuel loading. That contraction causes the tops of the stringers to pull inward. The tank is designed to accommodate that contraction, but a manufacturing review found that the aluminum-lithium alloy used in the stringers was from a lot that was more brittle than usual and more susceptible to fractures.

To provide additional strength, radius-block doublers were riveted into place over the top few inches of 105 of the 108 stringers used in the intertank section to make them less susceptible to stress-relief fractures. There were no problems during Discovery's eventual launch.

The shuttle Endeavour's tank had a different heritage and while radius block doublers were installed as a precaution, engineers decided a tanking test was not necessary.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--After confirming no problems with the shuttle Atlantis in the wake of overnight thunderstorms, engineers pumped a half-million gallons of supercold rocket fuel into the orbiter's external tank Wednesday to verify the integrity of structural stiffeners intended to prevent cracks during the countdown and climb to space July 8.

The initial stages of the three-hour fueling procedure went smoothly but as liquid hydrogen and oxygen circulated through Atlantis' main propulsion system and into the external tank, engineers noticed lower-than-expected temperatures downstream of main engine No. 3's main fuel valve.

Such temperature drops can indicate a leak and during a 1995 launch campaign, liftoff of the shuttle Columbia was delayed a week to replace a leaking main fuel valve. But engineers do not yet know whether the temperature readings seen Wednesday indicate an actual leak or some other problem. In any case, the valve was isolated, temperatures returned to normal levels and the fueling test continued. The engine valve will be assessed in detail later.

The fueling test originally was scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Wednesday. Because of work to check out the shuttle's electrical systems after three nearby lightning strikes -- and troubleshooting to determine the impact of a lost launch pad power circuit -- the fueling procedure got underway at 12:15 p.m. Shuttle forecasters predicted a 60 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

The test was ordered to make sure vertical rib-like "stringers" in Atlantis' external tank are able to endure exposure to ultra-low temperatures before launch and during the climb to space without developing cracks like those blamed for delaying the shuttle Discovery's final launching late last year.

The lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy used to make the stringer's in Discovery's tank came from the same batch used in Atlantis' tank. It took engineers months to figure out what the problem was with Discovery's tank and to come up with a fix that eventually cleared the way for launch last Feb. 24.

For Atlantis' tank, ET-138, NASA managers opted to implement the same repair, installing so-called radius block doublers to the tops of the stringers making up the structural ribs of the intertank compartment that separates the huge tank's liquid oxygen and hydrogen sections. The doublers provide additional strength, resisting the contraction that tends to pull the tops of the stringers away from the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank.

Before Discovery's ultimately successful launch, NASA carried out a full-scale tanking test, installing scores of strain gauges to measure the actual stresses acting on the stringers as the components responded to the low-temperature rocket propellants. After the test, Discovery was hauled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for X-ray inspections around the circumference of the intertank to make sure no new cracks formed and to install radius doublers all the way around the upper end of the intertank.

For Atlantis, NASA managers opted to forego the instrumentation. The tank was loaded with a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel and then maintained in "stable replenish" mode for another two-and-a-half hours while the propellants are continuously topped off.

At the same time, engineers will make sure a 7-inch gaseous hydrogen vent line attached to the side of the tank is leak free. Trouble with internal seals, coupled with alignment issues, caused problems during Discovery's initial launch campaign last November. The vent line worked normally during Discovery's February launch and the shuttle Endeavour's two countdowns on April 29 and May 16.

If all goes well, Atlantis' tank will be drained overnight and engineers will load a cargo module into the shuttle's payload bay late Thursday before a protective gantry is rolled back in place Friday to protect the shuttle from the elements. Starting this weekend, the upper sections of the stringers on the side of the tank facing the shuttle will be X-rayed to make sure no cracks developed during the fueling test. The work is expected to take about a week to complete.

Atlantis' crew -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim -- plans to fly to the Kennedy Space Center Monday for NASA's final "terminal countdown demonstration test," or TCDT. After reviewing emergency procedures at the launch pad, the astronauts will strap in Thursday for a dress-rehearsal countdown to clear the way for launch.

Shuttle program managers plan to review Atlantis' launch processing June 21, followed one week later by an executive-level flight readiness review to assess any unresolved problems and set an official launch date.

As of this writing, there are at least two "unexplained anomalies" from Endeavour's flight that have yet to be resolved, although neither is expected to result in a launch delay.

During Endeavour's climb to space, a camera on the shuttle caught a glimpse of a cylindrical piece of debris falling away around the time the shuttle's twin solid-fuel boosters separated. The debris has not yet been identified. The second issue is what triggered a brief landing gear brake fire that appeared to flare up shortly after touchdown. An inspection found no damage to the brakes or landing gear and engineers do not yet understand what happened.

Atlantis' external tank was beefed up in the wake of problems with Discovery's tank that were discovered after a Nov. 5 launch delay due to a hydrogen vent line leak. After the countdown was scrubbed, small cracks were found in two of the stringers used in the wall of the external tank's central intertank section.

The cracks were repaired, but work to understand what caused their formation required exhaustive tests and analyses. The analysis had to address two major questions: issues: the structural integrity of the tank and the likelihood of small cracks to cause foam insulation to pop off during ascent.

Engineers ultimately concluded the cracks were caused by temperature-induced stress near the tops of the stringers as the upper liquid oxygen tank, exposed to minus 297-degree propellant, contracted during fuel loading. That contraction causes the tops of the stringers to pull inward. The tank is designed to accommodate that contraction, but a manufacturing review found that the aluminum-lithium alloy used in the stringers was from a lot that was more brittle than usual and more susceptible to fractures.

To provide additional strength, radius-block doublers were riveted into place over the top few inches of 105 of the 108 stringers used in the intertank section to make them less susceptible to stress-relief fractures. There were no problems during Discovery's eventual launch.

The shuttle Endeavour's tank had a different heritage and while radius block doublers were installed as a precaution, engineers decided a tanking test was not necessary.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--After confirming no problems with the shuttle Atlantis in the wake of overnight thunderstorms, NASA managers cleared engineers to carry out a critical fueling test Wednesday to verify the integrity of structural stiffeners in the ship's external tank. A launch pad power circuit was knocked off line because of the storms, but engineers concluded they could safely proceed despite lost redundancy.

The fueling test originally was scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). Because of work to check out the shuttle's electrical systems after three nearby lightning strikes -- and troubleshooting to determine the impact of the lost power circuit -- the three-hour fueling procedure was expected to get underway around 12:30 p.m., assuming final preparations can be completed in time. If the start of fueling is delayed past 1 p.m., the test likely will slip to Thursday.

Shuttle forecasters predicted a 60 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

The fueling test was ordered to make sure vertical rib-like "stringers" in Atlantis' external tank are able to endure exposure to ultra-low temperatures before launch and during the climb to space without developing cracks like those blamed for delaying the shuttle Discovery's final launching late last year.

The lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy used to make the stringer's in Discovery's tank came from the same batch used in Atlantis' tank. It took engineers months to figure out what the problem was with Discovery's tank and to come up with a fix that eventually cleared the way for launch last Feb. 24.

For Atlantis' tank, ET-138, NASA managers opted to implement the same repair, installing so-called radius block doublers to the tops of the stringers making up the structural ribs of the intertank compartment that separates the huge tank's liquid oxygen and hydrogen sections. The doublers provide additional strength, resisting the contraction that tends to pull the tops of the stringers away from the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank.

Before Discovery's ultimately successful launch, NASA carried out a full-scale tanking test, installing scores of strain gauges to measure the actual stresses acting on the stringers as the components responded to the low-temperature rocket propellants. After the test, Discovery was hauled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for X-ray inspections around the circumference of the intertank to make sure no new cracks formed and to install radius doublers all the way around the upper end of the intertank.

For Atlantis, NASA managers opted to forego the instrumentation. The tank will be loaded with a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel and then maintained in "stable replenish" mode for another two-and-a-half hours while the propellants are continuously topped off.

At the same time, engineers will make sure a 7-inch gaseous hydrogen vent line attached to the side of the tank is leak free. Trouble with internal seals, coupled with alignment issues, caused problems during Discovery's initial launch campaign last November. The vent line worked normally during Discovery's February launch and the shuttle Endeavour's two countdowns on April 29 and May 16.

If all goes well, Atlantis' tank will be drained and engineers will load a cargo module into the shuttle's payload bay before a protective gantry is rolled back in place to protect the shuttle from the elements. Starting this weekend, the upper sections of the stringers on the side of the tank facing the shuttle will be X-rayed to make sure no cracks developed during the fueling test. The work is expected to take about a week to complete.

Atlantis' crew -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim -- plans to fly to the Kennedy Space Center Monday for NASA's final "terminal countdown demonstration test," or TCDT. After reviewing emergency procedures at the launch pad, the astronauts will strap in Thursday for a dress-rehearsal countdown to clear the way for launch.

Shuttle program managers plan to review Atlantis' launch processing June 21, followed one week later by an executive-level flight readiness review to assess any unresolved problems and set an official launch date.

As of this writing, there are at least two "unexplained anomalies" from Endeavour's flight that have yet to be resolved, although neither is expected to result in a launch delay.

During Endeavour's climb to space, a camera on the shuttle caught a glimpse of a cylindrical piece of debris falling away around the time the shuttle's twin solid-fuel boosters separated. The debris has not yet been identified. The second issue is what triggered a brief landing gear brake fire that appeared to flare up shortly after touchdown. An inspection found no damage to the brakes or landing gear and engineers do not yet understand what happened.

Atlantis' external tank was beefed up in the wake of problems with Discovery's tank that were discovered after a Nov. 5 launch delay due to a hydrogen vent line leak. After the countdown was scrubbed, small cracks were found in two of the stringers used in the wall of the external tank's central intertank section.

The cracks were repaired, but work to understand what caused their formation required exhaustive tests and analyses. The analysis had to address two major questions: issues: the structural integrity of the tank and the likelihood of small cracks to cause foam insulation to pop off during ascent.

Engineers ultimately concluded the cracks were caused by temperature-induced stress near the tops of the stringers as the upper liquid oxygen tank, exposed to minus 297-degree propellant, contracted during fuel loading. That contraction causes the tops of the stringers to pull inward. The tank is designed to accommodate that contraction, but a manufacturing review found that the aluminum-lithium alloy used in the stringers was from a lot that was more brittle than usual and more susceptible to fractures.

To provide additional strength, radius-block doublers were riveted into place over the top few inches of 105 of the 108 stringers used in the intertank section to make them less susceptible to stress-relief fractures. There were no problems during Discovery's eventual launch.

The shuttle Endeavour's tank had a different heritage and while radius block doublers were installed as a precaution, engineers decided a tanking test was not necessary.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Thunderstorms pounded the Kennedy Space Center overnight Tuesday and at least three lightning strikes were recorded near launch pad 39A where the shuttle Atlantis is poised for liftoff July 8. There were no obvious signs of trouble with the shuttle's electrical systems, but a planned fueling test to check the performance of structural stiffeners in Atlantis' external tank, originally scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), has been held up to give engineers time to complete storm-related troubleshooting.

An engineering review board was scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. to assess the troubleshooting and work to recover a launch pad power circuit that went offline during the storm. NASA managers will review progress at a 10 a.m. status meeting before deciding whether to press ahead with the tanking test or delay it to Thursday.

The fueling test was ordered to make sure vertical rib-like "stringers" in Atlantis' external tank are able to endure exposure to ultra-low temperatures before launch and during the climb to space without developing cracks like those blamed for delaying the shuttle Discovery's final launching late last year.

The lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy used to make the stringer's in Discovery's tank came from the same batch used in Atlantis' tank. It took engineers months to figure out what the problem was with Discovery's tank and to come up with a fix that eventually cleared the way for launch last Feb. 24.

For Atlantis' tank, ET-138, NASA managers opted to implement the same repair, installing so-called radius block doublers to the tops of the stringers making up the structural ribs of the intertank compartment that separates the huge tank's liquid oxygen and hydrogen sections. The doublers provide additional strength, resisting the contraction that tends to pull the tops of the stringers away from the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank.

Before Discovery's ultimately successful launch, NASA carried out a full-scale tanking test, installing scores of strain gauges to measure the actual stresses acting on the stringers as the components responded to the low-temperature rocket propellants. After the test, Discovery was hauled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for X-ray inspections around the circumference of the intertank to make sure no new cracks formed and to install radius doublers all the way around the upper end of the intertank.

For Atlantis, NASA managers opted to forego the instrumentation. The tank will be loaded with a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel and then maintained in "stable replenish" mode for another two-and-a-half hours while the propellants are continuously topped off.

At the same time, engineers will make sure a 7-inch gaseous hydrogen vent line attached to the side of the tank is leak free. Trouble with internal seals, coupled with alignment issues, caused problems during Discovery's initial launch campaign last November. The vent line worked normally during Discovery's February launch and the shuttle Endeavour's two countdowns on April 29 and May 16.

If all goes well, Atlantis' tank will be drained and engineers will load a cargo module into the shuttle's payload bay before a protective gantry is rolled back in place to protect the shuttle from the elements. Starting this weekend, the upper sections of the stringers on the side of the tank facing the shuttle will be X-rayed to make sure no cracks developed during the fueling test. The work is expected to take about a week to complete.

Atlantis' crew -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim -- plans to fly to the Kennedy Space Center Monday for NASA's final "terminal countdown demonstration test," or TCDT. After reviewing emergency procedures at the launch pad, the astronauts will strap in Thursday for a dress-rehearsal countdown to clear the way for launch.

Shuttle program managers plan to review Atlantis' launch processing June 21, followed one week later by an executive-level flight readiness review to assess any unresolved problems and set an official launch date.

As of this writing, there are at least two "unexplained anomalies" from Endeavour's flight that have yet to be resolved, although neither is expected to result in a launch delay.

During Endeavour's climb to space, a camera on the shuttle caught a glimpse of a cylindrical piece of debris falling away around the time the shuttle's twin solid-fuel boosters separated. The debris has not yet been identified. The second issue is what triggered a brief landing gear brake fire that appeared to flare up shortly after touchdown. An inspection found no damage to the brakes or landing gear and engineers do not yet understand what happened.

Atlantis' external tank was beefed up in the wake of problems with Discovery's tank that were discovered after a Nov. 5 launch delay due to a hydrogen vent line leak. After the countdown was scrubbed, small cracks were found in two of the stringers used in the wall of the external tank's central intertank section.

The cracks were repaired, but work to understand what caused their formation required exhaustive tests and analyses. The analysis had to address two major questions: issues: the structural integrity of the tank and the likelihood of small cracks to cause foam insulation to pop off during ascent.

Engineers ultimately concluded the cracks were caused by temperature-induced stress near the tops of the stringers as the upper liquid oxygen tank, exposed to minus 297-degree propellant, contracted during fuel loading. That contraction causes the tops of the stringers to pull inward. The tank is designed to accommodate that contraction, but a manufacturing review found that the aluminum-lithium alloy used in the stringers was from a lot that was more brittle than usual and more susceptible to fractures.

To provide additional strength, radius-block doublers were riveted into place over the top few inches of 105 of the 108 stringers used in the intertank section to make them less susceptible to stress-relief fractures. There were no problems during Discovery's eventual launch.

The shuttle Endeavour's tank had a different heritage and while radius block doublers were installed as a precaution, engineers decided a tanking test was not necessary.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News/Kennedy Space Center

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--Signaling the beginning of the end for NASA's storied shuttle program, the Endeavour plunged back to Earth Wednesday, closing out its 25th and final flight and passing the baton to its sistership Atlantis, which was hauled to the launching pad a few hours earlier for blastoff July 8 on the program's final voyage.

With commander Mark Kelly and pilot Gregory Johnson at the controls, Endeavour dropped out of a moonless sky and into the glare of powerful xenon floodlights after a fiery descent from orbit, settling to a ghostly touchdown on runway 15 at 2:34:51 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

Barreling down the 300-foot-wide landing strip at more than 200 mph, Johnson deployed a large red-and-white braking parachute, Kelly brought the nose down and Endeavour coasted to a stop on the runway centerline.

"Houston, Endeavour. Wheels stopped," Kelly radioed in a traditional call to Houston.

"One-hundred-twenty-two-million miles flown during 25 challenging space flights, your landing ends a vibrant legacy for this amazing vehicle that will long be remembered," astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore replied from mission control. "Welcome home, Endeavour."

"Thank you, Houston," Kelly said. "You know, the space shuttle is an amazing vehicle, to fly through the atmosphere, hit it at Mach 25, steer through the atmosphere like an airplane, land on a runway, it is really, really an incredible ship.

"On behalf of my entire crew, I want to thank every person who's worked to get this mission going and every person who's worked on Endeavour. It's sad to see her land for the last time, but she really has a great legacy."

While engineers and technicians swarmed around the orbiter for post-flight "safing," Kelly, Johnson, European Space Agency flight engineer Roberto Vittori and spacewalkers Michael Fincke, Gregory Chamitoff and Andrew Feustel were expected to doff their pressure suits and join senior NASA managers on the runway for a traditional walk-around inspection before departing for crew quarters and reunions with friends and family.

Before leaving the orbiter, Johnson shut down the ship's three hydraulic power units and a moment later, their fiery exhaust plumes flickered out for the last time, a poignant reminder the shuttle's flying days were over.

During the course of Endeavour's 16-day mission, Kelly and his crewmates attached a $2 billion cosmic ray detector to the International Space Station, installed a pallet of spare components, staged four spacewalks to conduct needed maintenance and helped the station crew repair a U.S. oxygen generator and a carbon dioxide scrubber.

Mission duration was 15 days 17 hours 38 minutes and 23 seconds, a voyage spanning 248 complete orbits and 6.5 million miles since blastoff May 16. Over the course of its 25-mission career, Endeavour logged 122,853,853 million miles, 4,671 orbits and 299 days in space, carrying the first and last U.S. components to the International Space Station.

A few miles from the shuttle runway, a powerful Apollo-era crawler-transporter was slowly moving Atlantis into position atop pad 39A after a six-hour 3.4-mile trip from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building.

A throng of space center workers, many of them facing layoffs after Atlantis' flight, turned out to witness the last shuttle "rollout," cheering as the shuttle emerged into the light of powerful floodlights around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. Atlantis' crew -- commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus -- mingled with the crowd and chatted with reporters about the looming end of the shuttle program.

"It's going to be a long time until you see a vehicle roll out to the pad that looks as beautiful as that," Walheim said, pointing toward Atlantis. "How can you beat that? An airplane on the side of a rocket. It's absolutely stunning. So I think we lose a little bit of grace, of beauty, and also a little bit of majesty (when the shuttle fleet is retired).

"You can't watch that vehicle roll by without thinking what an amazing achievement America has, that America can build something like that, put people inside and sling them off this Earth into space. It's absolutely amazing."

With Atlantis on its way to the pad, Kelly and his crewmates closed Endeavour's 60-foot-long payload bay doors at 10:45 p.m. Two hours and 45 minutes later, at 1:29:03 a.m., Kelly and Johnson carried out a two-minute 38-second firing of the shuttle's orbital maneuvering system rockets, slowing the ship by about 201 mph to drop it out of orbit for an hourlong glide back to Florida.

After a half-hour free fall, Endeavour plunged into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of about 76 miles. A few minutes later, the orbiter entered the zone of peak heating, experiencing temperatures of more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels.

Approaching Florida from the southwest, Endeavour streaked high above the Yucatan Peninsula, across the Gulf of Mexico and then over the west coast of Florida above Naples, descending steeply toward the Kennedy Space Center.

Taking over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet, Kelly guided Endeavour through a sweeping 245-degree left overhead turn to line up on runway 15, settling to a tire-smoking touchdown a few moments later.

Over the next few months, Endeavour, like the shuttle Discovery before it, will be decommissioned and prepared for museum display.

Discovery, which completed its last flight in March, is going to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington while Endeavour is bound for the Los Angeles Science Center. Atlantis will remain in Florida and go on display at the Kennedy Space Center's visitors complex.

Engineers plan to load Atlantis' external tank with super cold propellants June 15 to make sure suspect rib-like stringers can withstand the rigors of fueling and launch. The stringers were beefed up in the wake of cracks found in a tank used by Discovery earlier this year and engineers do not expect any problems. But the fueling test was ordered to make sure.

If all goes well, Ferguson and his three crewmates will blast off at 11:38 a.m. on July 8 and dock with the International Space Station two days later.

The primary goal of the flight is to deliver critical supplies as a hedge against problems that might delay commercial cargo ships being developed to fill in for the shuttle after the fleet is retired. Combined with deliveries by Russian and European cargo ships, Atlantis will carry enough supplies to support the station's six-person crew through 2012.

Atlantis originally was intended to serve as a launch-on-need emergency rescue vehicle in case Endeavour's crew ran into problems that might prevent a safe reentry. But NASA managers ultimately decided to use the agency's final set of boosters and its last external tank to launch one last space station resupply mission.

To get around the need for a stand-by rescue shuttle, NASA decided to limit Atlantis' crew to four. If Atlantis runs into a major problem, Ferguson, Hurley, Walheim and Magnus will be able to rotate home aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, a slow-motion "rescue" that would take a full year to complete.

But Ferguson and his crew believe the shuttle workforce will do everything possible to make sure the program ends on a high note.

"This is a tried and true group of professionals and it has been nothing but ultra impressive to see a lot of people who are clearly at a crossroads in their lives ... stay so focused and motivated on the final mission," Ferguson said.

"They clearly have a vested interest in making sure that this mission goes off as successful as we do. I've seen absolutely no indication of any ill feelings toward NASA, toward the country. I think they're just elated to have been a part of this program for 30 years."

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--NASA managers Friday re-targeted the shuttle Atlantis' launch on the 135th and final shuttle mission for July 8. The date will be re-assessed at an executive-level flight readiness review June 28.

Atlantis had been scheduled for launch June 28, but the flight slipped in the wake of a two-week launch delay for the shuttle Endeavour because of an electrical glitch. NASA managers held off setting a new target date for Atlantis pending an inspection to determine the condition of pad 39A after Endeavour's takeoff Monday and work to refine a complex processing schedule that includes a fueling test to verify the integrity of the shuttle's external tank.

But the pad is in relatively good shape and NASA managers Friday decided to press ahead for a launch attempt July 8 at around 11:40 a.m. EDT.

Engineers currently are in the process of attaching Atlantis to its external tank and boosters before rollout to the pad the night of May 31. The trip should still be underway when Endeavour lands at the nearby shuttle runway to close out its 25th and final mission.

Assuming an on-time liftoff, Atlantis commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus will dock with the International Space Station around 11:24 a.m. on Sunday, July 10, to kick off NASA's final shuttle resupply flight.

One spacewalk by two station crew members is planned for July 12 and if all goes well, Atlantis will undock around 2:23 a.m. on July 18 and land back at the Kennedy Space Center around 6:15 a.m. July 20 -- the 42nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing -- to close out its 33rd and final mission.

CBS NEWS Coverage of Breaking Space News

By William Harwood CBS News Space Consultant

Veteran shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim will train for a rescue flight aboard the shuttle Atlantis if the crew of NASA's final currently planned mission, scheduled for launch in February, gets stranded in orbit, the space agency announced Tuesday. If not, and if Congress approves funding, NASA hopes to launch Ferguson and his crewmates for real next June on a final flight to deliver spare parts and supplies to the International Space Station.

But it is not yet clear when differences between the House and Senate versions of NASA's fiscal year 2011 budget will be resolved or when a decision will be made about whether or not to launch Atlantis on an actual mission. In the meantime, Ferguson, Hurley, Walheim and Magnus will begin generic training to keep the agency's options open.

"These astronauts will begin training immediately as a rescue crew as well as in the baseline requirements that would be needed to fly an additional shuttle flight," Bill Gerstenmaier, director of space operations at NASA headquarters, said in a news release. "The normal training template for a shuttle crew is about one year prior to launch, so we need to begin training now in order to maintain the flexibility of flying a rescue mission if needed, or alter course and fly an additional shuttle mission if that decision is made."

Ferguson is a veteran of two shuttle missions to the space station, serving as pilot of mission STS-115 aboard Atlantis in September 2006 and commander of Endeavour for mission STS-126 in November 2008. Walheim flew aboard Atlantis twice, in 2002 and 2008, while Hurley is a veteran of a single mission aboard Endeavour in 2009.

Magnus flew aboard Atlantis in 2002 and spent four-and-a-half months aboard the International Space Station in 2008 and 2009.

In the wake of the 2003 Columbia disaster, the Bush administration decided to finish the space station and retire the shuttle by the end of fiscal 2010. Congress subsequently promised an additional $600 million to ease concerns about schedule pressure, allowing NASA to revise and stretch out the manifest to cope with payload issues and conflicts with other missions.

As it now stands, the shuttle Discovery will blast off Nov. 1 to deliver supplies and a cargo storage module to the International Space Station. Endeavour will follow Feb. 26 to deliver a $2 billion particle physics experiment and additional high-priority supplies and spare parts.

All post-Columbia shuttle flights are orchestrated so that a second shuttle is available in case of a problem that might strand a crew in orbit. For Discovery's mission, Endeavour and its flight-deck crew are on call for rescue duty. For Endeavour, Atlantis is the designated launch-on-need vehicle.

But agency managers have been lobbying for months to convert Atlantis' mission into an actual space station resupply mission to take advantage of an external tank and boosters that otherwise would go to waste. The rescue mission -- or the actual flight, if approved -- would take off June 28.

By launching Atlantis with a crew of four, another standby rescue mission, including another set of solid-fuel boosters and an external tank, would not be needed. If a major problem stranded Ferguson and his crewmates in orbit, they could seek safe haven aboard the station and rotate back to Earth aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

It could take up to a year to get all four astronauts home. But NASA managers believe a crew rescue, while drawn out, would be safe and that the benefits of a final space station resupply mission justify the additional risk and expense.

The external tank and solid-fuel booster segments needed for the launch-on-need mission are already built, but keeping the shuttle processing and flight control teams intact for an additional few months would require several hundred million dollars.

The Senate version of NASA's fiscal 2011 budget includes funding for the additional mission, known as STS-135, while the House version includes "contingent authorization" that would allow the agency to redirect space station and exploration funds to cover the cost if NASA Administrator Charles Bolden determines the flight is necessary and safe to carry out.

But is not clear how the reconciliation process will play out, when a compromise might be reached or whether NASA would proceed with the flight if the agency had to pay for it without additional money.