NASA Selects Astronaut Crew for Possible Extra Shuttle Flight

[ErnstBlofeld]

NASA has announced the four astronauts who would fly the last-ever space shuttle mission next summer, should Congress approve the extra flight.

 

Currently, only two shuttle missions remain: the STS-133 mission aboard Discovery, which is scheduled to launch this November, and STS-134 on Endeavour in February 2011. However, NASA approved a final mission, STS-135, which would fly to the International Space Station on Atlantis next June. Congress is still mulling whether to approve the extra flight.

If Congress gives the thumbs-up to STS-135, the shuttle Atlantis would be commanded by Chris Ferguson, a retired U.S. Navy captain and veteran of two previous shuttle missions. Astronaut and U.S. Marine Col. Doug Hurley would serve as pilot, and astronauts Sandy Magnus and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Rex Walheim would be the mission specialists.

 

Space shuttle fleet retiring

 

This final shuttle mission would carry supplies and huge spare parts for the space station, pieces that are so large only NASA's space shuttles can carry them.

 

Atlantis last flew to the space station in May of this year on what NASA planned to be its final mission. If Congress approves one extra space trek for the orbiter, the STS-135 mission would be the 135th flight of NASA's space shuttle fleet, formally known at NASA as the Space Transportation System. The shuttles have been launching into space since April 1981.

 

NASA is retiring its three-shuttle fleet to make way for a new space exploration plan aimed at sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025. Plans to retire the space shuttles were initially laid in 2004 by former President George W. Bush in the wake of the tragic 2003 loss of space shuttle Columbia and its seven-astronaut crew.

 

In August of this year, the Senate approved plans for the additional flight on Atlantis as part of its NASA authorization bill, but a House version of that bill has yet to be finalized.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/final-space-shuttle-crew-selected-100914.html[/article]

Edited September 16, 2010 by sonofstrangelove