See Space Shuttle Atlantis Final Launch at Oregon Attraction

See Space Shuttle Atlantis Final Launch at Oregon Attraction

Published 05/02/2010

(Portland, Oregon) - The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) will offer space exploration enthusiasts a front-row seat on Friday, May 14, to watch the final launch of NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis. OMSI will be showing the lift-off in the planetarium live via satellite on NASA TV beginning at 10:30 a.m., with the shuttle’s launch scheduled at 11:19 a.m. PDT. Admission for the televised launch is free and seating is on first-come-first-served basis. Space shuttle Atlantis, along with shuttles Discovery and Endeavour, is one of the three currently operational orbiters in NASA’s space shuttle fleet.

Space shuttle Atlantis’ mission STS-132 is scheduled to be the next shuttle to visit the International Space Station carrying the Russian Rassvet Mini-Research Module and an Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable (ICC-VLD) as its primary payload. Three spacewalks are planned to stage spare components outside the station.

In May 2009 Atlantis flew a seven-member crew to the Hubble Space Telescope for its Servicing Mission 4, STS-125. The mission was a success, with the crew completing five space walks to install new cameras, batteries, a gyroscope, and other components to the telescope.

Atlantis was the fourth operational shuttle built and was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in April 1985.  The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off on its maiden voyage on October 3, 1985. It flew one other mission, the second night launch in the shuttle program, before the space shuttle Challenger disaster temporarily grounded the shuttle fleet in 1986. Atlantis was used for ten flights between 1988 and 1992, two of which deployed the planetary probes Magellan to Venus and Galileo to Jupiter. During another mission in 1991, Atlantis deployed the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Beginning in 1995, Atlantis made seven straight flights to the former Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle-Mir Program. Shuttle Atlantis has also delivered several vital components for the construction of the International Space Station (ISS) between 2001 and 2008.

For more information about the STS-132 mission, including images and interviews with the crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/. There will be just a few sighting opportunities over Portland of both the shuttle and ISS during the 12-day scheduled mission. 

The sighting times can be located at this link on NASA's site. 

OMSI officials say it’s important to note that the shuttle lift-off date and time is subject to change by NASA.