After a nearly 10-day stay at the international space station that included construction work and a computer meltdown, space shuttle Atlantis was cleared to begin its return trip to Earth.
The shuttle was scheduled to undock from the space station at 1440GMT yesterday, with a planned return to Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday.
Atlantis might have stayed an extra day if engineers had not been happy with a test to see how well the Russian computers that crashed last week can control the orbiting outpost's orientation.
"Monday's test was a success," said Phil Engelauf, chief of the flight directors' office.
"Yes, we think we're back to where we're supposed to be in terms of normal routine operations and reliability," he said.
The shuttle and space station crews said their farewells on Monday before closing the hatches between the two spacecraft in preparation for departure.
"Have a good, safe landing. Until we see you again," International Space Station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin said before the hatches were closed.
During the test, the space shuttle's thrusters maneuvered the joined craft before the space station's computers commanded thrusters on the Russian side of the outpost to take control. US computers then sent commands to the Russian thrusters before the station's gyroscopes took over control.
The computers, which were revived during the weekend, had not commanded the Russian thrusters since last Tuesday, when six computer processors in the two systems started crashing. During the meltdown, Atlantis' thrusters helped maintain the station's orientation.
NASA and Russian managers wanted to make sure Atlantis wasn't needed at the station before leaving.
The computers also control life support systems such as an oxygen generator, temperature and a carbon dioxide scrubber. Except for the oxygen generator, all the space station systems were turned back on during the weekend.
Oxygen for the crews has come from other sources, such as a cargo ship on the Russian side of the station.
Engelauf said engineers were still trying to pinpoint the cause of the computer failure.
Sunita Williams, whose more than six months on the space station set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, is returning on the space shuttle.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
RSS