Special Report: Launch of
Atlantis
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A NASA TV video grab shows the Space Shuttle
Atlantis' nose and cargo bay September 19, 2006. NASA on Tuesday delayed
shuttle Atlantis' homecoming by a day due to bad weather expected at the
Florida landing site and because it wanted time to examine video of an
object seen falling out of the craft. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo
Gallery
>>> | WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- NASA delays space
shuttle Atlantis' landing until Thursday, mainly due to bad weather at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to U.S. media reports on Monday.
"The mission management team has decided to keep
Atlantis 24 more hours in orbit," NASA spokesman Doug Peterson said.
The weather was expected to improve on Thursday and
Friday. Atlantis has enough supplies to stay in space for two extra days and
could also land at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In addition, an object was observed by Mission
Control near the orbiter following standard tests of Atlantis' reaction control
system about 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 GMT) Monday.
The baffling object may have accidentally flown out
of its cargo bay. "It's something that we didn't expect, but it's something that
we're taking a real close look at," Peterson said. NASA ordered Atlantis to keep
the camera inside the cargo bay running all night instead of stowing it ahead of
the planned landing attempt as usual. Flight controllers continue to analyze the
situation, according to NASA Mission Control updates on Monday. Enditem
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In this view from NASA TV,
the space shuttle Atlantis is seen from a window of the International
Space Station as it performs a 360-degree fly-around of the orbiting
laboratory after undocking September 17, 2006. The black strips at the top
and bottom of the image are due to the 16:9 aspect ratio of the hand-held
high definition video cameras used to record the event from on board the
station.Photo Gallery
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 17
(Xinhua) -- The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International
Space Station (ISS) at 8:50 a.m. EDT (1250 GMT)Sunday after astronauts had
finished the installation of new solar panels to the orbiting outpost, NASA TV
reported.
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Two Atlantis astronauts
successfully completed the mission's third and final spacewalk.
(Xinhua/AFP Photo)Photo Gallery
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 15
(Xinhua) -- Two Atlantis astronauts successfully completed the mission's third
and final spacewalk Friday morning, according to a report from NASA's mission
control center.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13
(Xinhua) -- Two astronauts finished on Wednesday morning the second spacewalk of
a shuttle mission critical to completion of the half-finished orbital
outpost.
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Astronaut Joe Tanner works to make the
P3/P4 truss operational during his extravehicular excursion from the
International Space Station in this view from NASA TV, September 12,
2006.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)Photo Gallery
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Atlantis
mission specialists Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper smoothly
finished the first of three spacewalks Tuesday morning, preparing the new truss
for operation, according to NASA TV.
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