NASA STS 129Crew Return Event, Johnson Space Center
Derrick Lewis, Mission Specialist Dr. Robert Satcher, Rebecca Briscoe, Mission Specialist Leland Melvin, and Necauje Turner
By Rebecca M. Briscoe
On Thursday, December 17th , 2009 Johnson Space Center hosted a reception for the six astronauts that returned from the STS 129 mission. The STS 129 crew left on the Atlantis embarking on an historical eleven day flight mission November 16 – November 27.
Of the six astronauts aboard the Atlantis, two were African American : Leland Melvin, Mission Specialist I on his second mission, and Dr. Robert Satcher, Mission Specialist IV embarking on his first. Other crew members are: Commander Charles “Scorch” O. Hobaugh, Pilot Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Mission Specialist II, Randolph “Komrade” Bresnick, and Mission Specialist III, Michael J. Foremen.
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 leaves five space shuttle flights remaining until the end of the program.
Some of the scientific experiments conducted on the space shuttle were from our very own Texas Southern University. Students from TSU conducted the microbe experiment to see how microbes (Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis) grow under weightless conditions in space. Another experiment was the Butterflies in Space Program. The Atlantis carried a suitcase sized payload holding larvae of Painted lady butterflies and Monarch butterflies to the space station. Researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder expect to compare the space caterpillars with butterfly larvae raised on Earth by students from 100 U.S. elementary and middle schools.
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