Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:18:04 AM CDT

At 5:57 a.m. EDT, space shuttle Atlantis landed for the final time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after 200 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,284,862 miles on STS-135.

It was the 25th night landing, the 78th landing at Kennedy and the133rd landing in shuttle history.

Atlantis’ main gear touched down at 5:57:00 a.m. followed by the nose gear at 5:57:20 and wheels stop at 5:57:54 a.m. At wheels stop, the mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 28 minutes and 50 seconds.

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:08:07 GMT

Space shuttle Atlantis’ crew is wrapping up final preparations for its planned landing at 5:56:58 a.m. EDT Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew stowed the Ku-Band antenna, used for high-data rate communications and television from space, at 11:34 a.m. and will go to sleep at 1:29 p.m.

Mission managers have cleared Atlantis’ heat shield for entry after reviewing results of the “late inspection” survey of the shuttle’s reinforced carbon carbon.

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:36:26 AM CDT

The STS-135 crew members spent Wednesday getting themselves and space shuttle Atlantis ready for the return home. They practiced landings on a laptop application, performed the flight control system checkout and checked out the reaction control system thrusters. All checked out well.

Atlantis undocked from the station for the final time of the Space Shuttle Program at 2:28 a.m. EDT Tuesday. The first landing opportunity for Atlantis is scheduled at Kennedy Space Center at 5:56 a.m. on Thursday. The deorbit burn would occur at 4:48 a.m. during the shuttle's 200th orbit.

› Read more about STS-135 at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

ARISSat-1/KEDR Project Manager Gould Smith, WA4SXM said this week the latest status, discussed during the International ARISS teleconference Sergey Samburov, RV3DR announced the ARISSat battery will be charged late July and a test of the system will be conducted on the ISS from 1915 UTC 30 July to about 1200-1400 UTC 31 July.

During the test ARISSat-1 will be in LOW power mode, this means that it will transmit about 40 seconds and then shut down for 2 minutes and then transmit for 40 seconds, etc.
The standard ARISSat-1/KEDR 2m downlink band plan should be

HOUSTON -- After space shuttle Atlantis' scheduled landing Thursday, July 21, a welcome home ceremony for the STS-135 astronauts is planned for Friday, July 22. Journalists and the public are invited to attend the 4 p.m. CDT event at Ellington Field's NASA Hangar 990. Gates to Ellington Field will open at 3:30 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- NASA commemorates the 90th birthday of astronaut John Glenn. The pioneering explorer was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth and also was the oldest person to fly to space when he launched on the space shuttle in 1998.

Topics in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contacts
2. Ottawa Contact Successful
3. ARISS-U.S. Receives Proposals for Contacts
4. ARRL QST Posts ARISS News
5. AMSAT Provides ARISSat-1 Status
6. Amateur Radio Newsline on ARISSat-1 Deployment

1. Upcoming School Contacts

The Expedition 28 and STS-135 crew members continued their focus on cargo transfers Thursday aboard the International Space Station. They also had time for news media interviews, exercise and some welcome off-duty time.

Unloading of the multi-purpose logistics module Raffaello’s 9,400 pounds of cargo was well over half complete. Transfer of its remaining cargo to the station was expected to be finished Friday or Saturday.

A statue has been unveiled in London to celebrate the first spaceman-Yuri Gagarin.
The figure,which has been placed just off the mall next to admiralty arch,features the cosmonaut in his flight suit and standing on a globe.
Gagarin shook the world when it was announced on the 12th april 1961 that he had circled the earth in a spacecraft.
A host of dignitaries were present for the unveiling,including the cosmonaut's daughter Elena Gagarina.