Atlantis Space Shuttle Undocks from ISS
NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station in preparation for its return trip home. After nine days in space, delivering and installing ESA’s Columbus science laboratory, the crew took pictures of the newly attached lab as they flew around the ISS, admiring their “handiwork” of the new configuration.
Later on today the Atlantis crew will take laser surveys of the damaged area on the wings of the space shuttle, checking for any micrometeorite damage occurring while in orbit. Early pictures found the thermal blanket near the tail of the spaceship having a torn corner, so NASA is presently rechecking the same area for safety reasons.
One of the crew members, Daniel Tani, is onboard the Atlantis after a delayed trip in December of the Atlantis prevented him from coming home at that time. It was during this delay that his mother, 90-year old Rose Tani, was hit by a train and died. The family plans to have a private service when he returns, as the “famous son” of an even more famous mother.
Over 600 people attended Rose Tani’s funeral, and even though she had spent years in a U.S. government internment camp during WWII and later on becoming widowed with five children, she had raised her children to speak their minds and be strong, which is demonstrated in the astronaut Daniel Tani. Well loved and highly respected, our country owes this woman a huge debt for loaning us her son to conquer our dreams in space.
Replacing Daniel Tani was Flight Engineer Leopold Eyharts, a French cosmonaut from the European Space Agency. Decorated with the French Légion d’Honneur, the Ordre National du Mérite and Médaille d’Outre Mer, along with the Russian medals of Friendship and Courage, he participated in the second European Space Agency 1992 astronaut selection. Assigned by the ESA to train at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, he became part of the international astronauts August 1998 team.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 6:11 am and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
