Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!news.samoylyk.net!peer.alt119.net!news.alt119.net!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Internetado <internetado@alt119.net>
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: 40 Years Ago: Space Shuttle Atlantis Makes its Public Debut
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2025 22:30:03 -0300
Organization: [fanless][news][peer].ALT119.NET
Message-ID: <vqnp75.730.1@hamster.alt119.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15"; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Info: news.alt119.net;
	logging-data="772155"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@news.alt119.net"
User-Agent: Hamster-Pg/1.25.2.0
X-Newsreader: MesNews/1.08.06.00-gb
Bytes: 4453
Lines: 65

On March 6, 1985, NASA's newest space shuttle, Atlantis, made its 
public debut during a rollout ceremony at the Rockwell International 
manufacturing plant in Palmdale, California. Under construction for 
three years, Atlantis joined NASA's other three space-worthy orbiters, 
Columbia, Challenger, and Discovery, and atmospheric test vehicle 
Enterprise. Officials from NASA, Rockwell, and other organizations 
attended the rollout ceremony. By the time NASA retired Atlantis in 
2011, it had flown 33 missions in a career spanning 26 years and flying 
many types of missions envisioned for the space shuttle. The Visitor 
Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has Atlantis on 
display. 

On Jan. 25, 1979, NASA announced the names of the first four 
space-worthy orbiters - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. 
Like the other vehicles, NASA named Atlantis after an historical vessel 
of discovery and exploration - the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's 
two-masted research ship Atlantis that operated from 1930 to 1966. On 
Jan. 29, NASA signed the contract with Rockwell International of 
Downey, California, to build and deliver Atlantis. Construction began 
in March 1980 and finished in April 1984. Nearly identical to Discovery 
but with the addition of hardware to support the cryogenic Centaur 
upper stage then planned to deploy planetary spacecraft in 1986, plans 
shelved following the Challenger accident. After a year of testing, 
workers prepared Atlantis for its public debut. 

Three days after the rollout ceremony, workers trucked Atlantis 36 
miles overland to NASA's Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center 
at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert, for final 
preparations for its cross-country ferry flight. In the Mate Demate 
Device, workers placed Atlantis atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a 
modified Boeing 747, to begin the ferry flight. The duo left Edwards on 
April 12, the fourth anniversary of the first space shuttle flight. 
Following an overnight stop at Houston's Ellington Air Force Base, now 
Ellington Field, Atlantis arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in 
Florida on April 13. 

Four months later, on Aug. 12, workers towed Atlantis from the 
processing facility to the assembly building and mated it to an 
external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. The entire stack rolled 
out to Launch Pad 39A on Aug. 30 in preparation for the planned Oct. 3 
launch of the STS-51J mission. As with any new orbiter, on Sept. 13 
NASA conducted a 20-second Flight Readiness Firing of Atlantis' three 
main engines. On Sept. 16, the five-person crew participated in a 
countdown demonstration test, leading to an on time Oct. 3 launch. 
Atlantis had joined the shuttle fleet and begun its first mission to 
space. 

Over the course of its 33 missions spanning more than 26 years, 
Atlantis flew virtually every type of mission envisioned for the space 
shuttle, including government and commercial satellite deployments, 
deploying spacecraft to visit interplanetary destinations, supporting 
scientific missions, launching and servicing scientific observatories 
such as the Hubble Space Telescope, performing crew rotations and 
resupplying the Mir space station, and assembling and maintaining the 
International Space Station. Atlantis flew the final mission of the 
shuttle program, STS-135,  in July 2011. The following year, NASA 
transported Atlantis to the Kennedy Visitor Center for public 
display.  


https://www.nasa.gov/history/40-years-ago-space-shuttle-atlantis-makes-its-public-debut/

-- 

Eduardo.M - Brasil
=================