Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-122

Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-122 mission is the 24th shuttle flight to the International Space Station and will deliver the European built Columbus Science Laboratory. It will be the first launch of the 2008 for the shuttle fleet. Previous launch date was December 6, 2007. January 24 is the planned date at the moment.

STS-122 is the 121st space shuttle flight, the 29th flight for space shuttle Atlantis and the 24th flight to the station.

Mission

The mission will have a duration of 11 days.

The primary objectives of STS-122 is to deliver the European built Columbus Science Laboratory to the station and to return Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani to Earth. STS-122 will mark the final scheduled visit by Atlantis to the International Space Station.

STS-122 will be the ISS Assembly Flight 1E, bringing the European Columbus Module to the station, along with the Biolab, Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), European Drawer Rack (EDR), and European Physiology Modules (EPM) payloads.

STS-122 will also carry the Solar Monitoring Observatory (SOLAR), and European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) payloads, which are mounted in the cargo bay on an ICC-Lite payload rack. A malfunctioning Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) that was swapped out with a new one on STS-118 will be returned to Earth with STS-122.

After Atlantis lands, the orbiter will be prepared for STS-125, the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. The completion of the mission will leave ten flights remaining in the Space Shuttle program until its end in 2010, excluding two as-yet-unconfirmed Contingency Logistic Flights.

History

The original target launch date for STS-122 was December 6, but due to engine cut-off sensor reading errors, the launch was postponed to December 9, 2007. During the second launch attempt, the sensors failed again and the launch was stopped. NASA announced that the next attempt would occur no earlier than January 2, 2008. On Thursday 13th, December 2007 NASA postponed yet again the launch date for its Atlantis shuttle mission to deliver a European space laboratory to an orbiting station, pushing it back by a week to January 10.

Did you know?

* Space Shuttle Atlantis STS122 is the 8th mission after the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster and is the is the eighth time space shuttle Atlantis has visited the International Space Station. The last flight of Atlantis was STS-117 in June 2007.

* The last mission to the ISS was STS-120 which delivered the Harmony module in October 20, 2007. The next mission will be STS-123 targeted for no earlier than February 14, 2008 on Endeavour. STS-124 targeted for no earlier than April 24, 2008, on Discovery and STS-125 is targeted for September 10, 2008.

Related:

• Space Program

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• Space Shuttle Books

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• Space Shuttle Video and DVD:
  
   - Hail Columbia (IMAX) (1982) from Amazon.com (dvd, vhs) and Amazon.co.uk dvd
   - First U.S. Space Shuttle Mission Video (1981) from Amazon.com