spacetoday.net: Final shuttle mission extended a day

Final shuttle mission extended a day

Posted: Tue, Jul 12, 2011, 7:09 AM ET (1109 GMT)

NASA has granted the final space shuttle mission an extra day in orbit to complete their work at the International Space Station. Shuttle managers determined there were enough consumables on board shuttle Atlantis to allow the orbiter to remain in orbit another day, giving the four-person STS-135 crew more time to complete their transfer of supplies to the ISS. Atlantis is now scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:56 am EDT (0956 GMT) on July 21. Today two ISS astronauts will perform a spacewalk, moving a broken ammonia pump from the station to the shuttle, and installing a robotic servicing experiment carried to the station on Atlantis.