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Atlantis launch coverage

Shuttle Atlantis blasted off Friday evening on its mission to the space station.

 Full Coverage

Atlantis date set

NASA leaders hold this news briefing to announce shuttle Atlantis' launch date and recap the Flight Readiness Review.

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Phoenix: At the Cape

NASA's Mars lander named Phoenix has arrive at Kennedy Space Center to begin preparations for launch in August.

 Full coverage

STS-63: A rendezvous with space station Mir

As a prelude to future dockings between American space shuttles and the Russian space station Mir, the two countries had a test rendezvous in Feb. 1995.

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"Apollo 17: On The Shoulders of Giants"

Apollo's final lunar voyage is relived in this movie. The film depicts the highlights of Apollo 17's journey to Taurus-Littrow and looks to the future Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and shuttle programs.

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Atlantis returns to pad

Two months after rolling off the launch pad to seek repairs to the hail-damaged external fuel tank, space shuttle Atlantis returns to pad 39A for mission STS-117.

 Part 1 | Part 2

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Second spacewalk of Atlantis' mission concludes
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: June 13, 2007

Astronauts Pat Forrester and Steve Swanson wrapped up a grueling seven-hour and 16-minute spacewalk today after partially retracting a solar array blanket and setting up a powerful rotary joint needed to turn another set of arrays to follow the sun. When the spacewalk ended, Forrester was getting alarms for high carbon dioxide levels in his suit but NASA officials said he was never in any danger.

The astronauts did not fully activate the starboard solar alpha rotary joint, or SARJ, as originally planned after flight controllers discovered two drive motors apparently were wired backward. Commands sent to drive lock assembly No. 1 actually went to DLA-2 and vice versa.

Playing it safe, flight controllers told Swanson and Forrester to leave one launch lock engaged to make sure the newly installed S4 solar array blankets, which stretch 240 feet from tip to tip, can't inadvertently move while engineers make sure they understand the operation of the starboard SARJ.

Otherwise, Forrester and Swanson accomplished all of their primary objectives, helping ground controllers retract the 115-foot-long P6-2B solar array blanket some 45 feet, installing internal braces to stiffen the S3 segment and removing a variety of launch locks and restraints from the SARJ to get it ready for operation.

"Very nice job today, guys," astronaut Jim Reilly radioed from inside the station. "Excellent work."

"Thanks for the help, you and the ground," one of the spacewalkers replied.

"Houston concurs, you guys did a great job today," astronaut Megan McArthur chimed in from mission control.

This was the 85th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998 and the second for Atlantis' crew. Astronauts Jim Reilly and Danny Olivas spent six hours and 15 minutes attaching the S3/S4 solar array truss Monday while Swanson and Forrester logged seven hours and 16 minutes today, for a cumulative mission total of 13 hours and 31 minutes. Total station spacewalk time through 85 EVAs now stands at 522 hours and 36 minutes.

Reilly and Olivas plan to stage a third spacewalk Friday. Among other tasks, the astronauts plan to repair a pulled-up insulation blanket on the shuttle's left-side Orbital Maneuvering System rocket pod. Anchored to the shuttle's robot arm, one of the spacewalkers will push the 4-inch by 6-inch blanket back in place and use a surgical stapler to secure it for re-entry.

A fourth spacewalk, by Swanson and Forrester, is scheduled Sunday to accomplish any unfinished tasks, to perform "get aheads" for future assembly work and to finish the P6-2B solar array retraction, if necessary.

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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: SECOND SOLAR WING FULLY DEPLOYED PLAY
VIDEO: SECOND SOLAR WING DEPLOYED HALF-WAY PLAY
VIDEO: FIRST SOLAR WING FULLY DEPLOYED PLAY
VIDEO: FIRST SOLAR WING DEPLOYED HALF-WAY PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: POST-SPACEWALK STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON MISSION EXTENSION PLANS PLAY

VIDEO: SPACEWALK No. 1 BEGINS PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF THE SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW WELCOMED ABOARD STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS DOCKS WITH THE SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: WATCH THE RENDEZVOUS BACKFLIP MANUEVER PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VIEW FROM COMPLEX 41 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: THE VAB ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: THE PRESS SITE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD FRONT CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA AT THE BEACH PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH OF ATLANTIS! PLAY
VIDEO: FULL LENGTH MOVIE OF ASCENT TO ORBIT PLAY
VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK ONBOARD VIDEO CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: POST-LAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DEPART QUARTERS FOR THE PAD PLAY
VIDEO: PAD'S ROTATING SERVICE STRUCTURE RETRACTED PLAY
VIDEO: HIGHLIGHTS FROM ATLANTIS' LAUNCH CAMPAIGN PLAY
VIDEO: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAYLOAD'S LAUNCH CAMPAIGN PLAY

MORE: STS-117 VIDEO COVERAGE
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