US President Barack Obama Friday vowed to the crew of NASA’s final shuttle mission, Atlantis, that the US would push “new frontiers in human space flight” even as the shuttle programme ends.
“I’ve tasked NASA with the ambitious new mission (of exploration) beyond Earth, and ultimately to Mars, which is no small feat,” Mr. Obama said.
Atlantis’ four—person crew is the smallest to visit the orbiting International Space Station, where they have been busy unloading a year’s worth of food for the six resident astronauts.
Shuttle fans fear that the end of the shuttle programme signals a long period where the US has no presence in space. New private initiatives are being developed for near—Earth transport while federal efforts concentrate on more far—reaching missions.
Earlier Friday, a faulty computer sounded an alarm that roused the Atlantis team just after they fell asleep. Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson switched the computer’s tasks to a backup computer and went back to sleep 45 minutes later, NASA said. NASA was investigating what went wrong.
To make up for the sleep interruption, the crew got an extra half hour of sleep before being awakened by the Paul McCartney song “Good Day Sunshine.” “Good morning guys. Wake up! And good luck on this, your last mission. Well done,” a headquarters official told them.
The crew has been given a much—needed break after spending the last days in heavy work transferring goods from the shuttle.
“We are making a rather large delivery,” astronaut Sandy Magnus told reporters in a news conference Friday.
Magnus and Ferguson said the crew had transferred about three—quarters of the delivery, which also includes a year’s worth of items for the crew other than food and about 500 kilograms of scientific equipment.
“This is one of the first days we’ve had a chance to take a deep breath,” Ferguson said.
Magnus, who had visited the orbiting station on an earlier mission, said she was amazed by what has been built since than, especially by the large cupola which gives large windows onto space.
“It’s almost like being on a spacewalk without a suit,” she said.
“It feels like home.” Some of the US shuttles more than 20 years old, but they were kept in service in order to do the heavy lifting needed to build out the station.
Atlantis’ return next Thursday, when it will carry a full load of trash back to Earth, will mark the end of NASA’s 30—year shuttle programme.
In the near future, US astronauts will travel to the station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft as private US companies work on a new spacecraft to explore the frontiers.
