STS-129 Space Shuttle Mission on Track for Monday Launch
Space Shuttle Atlantis remains on track for launch on Monday at 2:28 pm EST. The STS-129 mission will deliver spare parts to the International Space Station (ISS). Only five more shuttle flights remain after this one and NASA wants to get as many spare parts aboard the ISS as it can while it still has the “upmass” capability of the shuttle. Once the shuttle is terminated, only much smaller spacecraft (Russia’s Progress, Europe’s ATV and Japan’s HTV) will be available to take parts, equipment, supplies, and experiments up to the ISS. Only Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft will be able to bring anything back to Earth; Progress, ATV and HTV are not designed to survive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The Soyuz will be used to ferry astronauts back and forth, but with three astronauts in the Soyuz only about 50 kilograms of other cargo can be accommodated.
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