STS-129
STS-129 (ISS assembly flight ULF3) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Atlantis was launched on November 16, 2009, at 14:28 EST, and landed at 09:44 EST on November 27, 2009, on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. It was also the last Shuttle mission of the 2000s.
Bresnik (left) and Foreman (center) working on Columbus' exterior during the mission's second EVA | |
| Names | Space Transportation System-129 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | ISS logistics |
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 2009-062A |
| SATCAT no. | 36094 |
| Mission duration | 10 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes, 13 seconds |
| Distance travelled | 7,226,177 kilometres (4,490,138 mi) |
| Orbits completed | 171 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Atlantis |
| Launch mass | 120,848 kilograms (266,424 lb) |
| Dry mass | 93,063 kilograms (205,168 lb) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 6 up 7 down |
| Members | |
| Landing | |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | November 16, 2009, 19:28:09 UTC |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | November 27, 2009, 14:44:22 UTC |
| Landing site | Kennedy SLF Runway 33 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee altitude | 343 kilometres (213 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 356 kilometres (221 mi) |
| Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
| Period | 91 minutes |
| Docking with ISS | |
| Docking port | PMA-2 (Harmony forward) |
| Docking date | November 18, 2009, 16:51 UTC |
| Undocking date | November 25, 2009, 09:53 UTC |
| Time docked | 6 days, 17 hours, 2 minutes |
|
Front row (l–r) are Hobaugh and Wilmore. Back row (l–r) are Melvin, Foreman, Satcher and Bresnik. | |
STS-129 focused on staging spare components outside the station. The 11-day flight included three spacewalks. The payload bay carried two large ExPRESS Logistics Carriers holding two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly, a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm, a spare trailing umbilical system for the Mobile Transporter, and a high-pressure gas tank. STS-129 was the first flight of an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. The completion of this mission left six Space Shuttle flights remaining until the end of the Space Shuttle program, after STS-135 was approved in February 2011.