space shuttle The 12-day STS-135 mission will be launched at 17:26 CEST (15:26 GMT), and on Sunday 10 July, Atlantis will dock with the Station, where currently the ISS Expedition 28 crew consisting of two American and one Japanese astronauts and 3 Russian cosmonauts permanently live and work in space. The Italian-built Raffaello pressurized logistics module module will be berthed at the Node-2 port of the orbital outpost for the crew to unload its precious cargo and install various items for return.
Two ISS astronauts, Michael Fossum and Ron Garan will make a spacewalk on Tuesday 12 July to recover a Station ammonia pump that recently failed. It will be returned to Earth for engineers to probe the causes. Raffaello will be returned to the Shuttle’s cargo bay on Sunday 17 July and Atlantis will leave the Station for the last time on Monday 18 July at 07:59 CEST (05:59 GMT). The final Shuttle landing at the Kennedy Space Center is planned for Wednesday 20 July at 13:06 CEST (11:06 GMT). During the mission, the Atlantis crew will also test tools and techniques for the robotic refuelling of satellites in space.
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