NASA launched the Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-135, its final mission, and the final mission of the 30 year long shuttle program at 11:29 ET. The mission was delayed with an unexpected hold at T-31 seconds when an error indicated that the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm had not fully retracted. Visual examination showed the error was a computer glitch and the countdown continued. Originally, Atlantis was supposed to have flown its last mission in May, 2010, but the current mission was added on October 11, 2010. The first shuttle launch, of Columbia, occurred on April 12, 1981.
Asteroid 2011 MD is expected to pass less than 8,000 miles above Earth’s surface on Monday, June 27. Closest approach will take place off the coast of Antarctica, but the asteroid may be visible from the Americas, the Pacific, and eastern Asia prior to its passage.
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A 7 meter long asteroid, 2009 BD, passed within 346,000 kilometers of the Earth on June 2, coming inside the Moon’s orbit. Because 2009 BD is a co-orbital object, it will remain relatively close to the Earth for the next month or so, generally about 3,850,000 km away.
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NASA sent the shutdown command to the Mars Spirit Rover on May 25, seven years after the exploration vehicle landed. Spirit was scheduled to operate for approximately three weeks and cover a distance of a couple hundred yards. Instead, it operated for more than five years and covered almost five miles. Spirit made its last transmission on March 22, 2010. Spirit‘s sister craft, Opportunity, is still operating.
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The final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour occurred at 8:56 ET on May 16. The mission, Endeavour‘s twenty-fifth, is being commanded by Mark Kelly and is expected to last 16 days, with a landing scheduled on May 24.
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NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft has achieved Hermian orbit and has sent back the first photograph of Mercury from Orbit, an image that shows an Debussy crater with ejecta rays. In the first six hours after orbital insertion, MESSENGER took more than 360 images. It will be photographing portions of Mercury not captured by three previous flyby missions. MESSENGER main science mission, which includes a complete surface mapping, is expected to begin on April 4.
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The Stardust probe, which was launched in 1999 to study the asteroid 5535 Annefrank and Comet Wild 2, was shut down by NASA on March 24. In addition to its primary mission, which ended when a capsule of dust from Comet Wild were returned to Earth, Stardust had a flyby of Comet Tempel 1 earlier this year to follow-up on the mission of the 2005 Deep Impact probe. Before shutting down, Stardust notified NASA of its remaining fuel to help gauge consumption of future missions and then burned off 146 seconds worth of fuel.
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The Space Shuttle Discovery completed its final mission at 11:57 AM ET on March 9, 2011. Discovery has flown 39 missions since it was first launched at 12:41 PM on August 30, 1984. Discovery has spent 365 days in space traveling 148,221,665 miles in 5,830 orbits. On its final mission, Discovery was crewed by Alvin Drew, Nicole Stott, Eric Boe, Steven Lindsey, Michael Barratt, and Steve Bowen
NASA has cleared Discovery for its final launch on Thursday, February 24 at 4:50 pm. Discovery is the most traveled manned spacecraft in history, having traveled nearly 143 million miles in its 38 missions since its first launch in 1984. This mission will take Discovery to the International Space Station.
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The Stardust-NExT probe flew to within 112 miles of Comet Tempel I on February 14, taking a series of photos of the comet. Comet Tempel had previously been visited by a NASA spacecraft in 2005, when Deep Impact collided with the comet. This is the first time a comet has been revisited after a complete orbit. Photos have shown that erosion has changed the face of the comet, but the impact crater left by Deep Impact appears to have partially healed itself.
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