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4|Roundup LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER

Endeavour leaves behind a legacy withSTS-134

Centuriesago, humans were hoping to observeand understand Venus infrequent orbitbetween the Earth and the sun to determine the distance between

them. To accomplish this, a few courageous explorers braved the

waters of the South Pacific in search of answers about the universe.Weve come a long way since then. Named after the first ship

that 18th century explorer, navigator and astronomer James Cook

commanded, Space Shuttle Endeavourmade its 25th and final flight

to space for STS-134.

Endeavourset sail for the skies on May 16. Her crew of

Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory Johnson and Mission

Specialists Michael Fincke, Andrew Feustel, Gregory Chamitoff and

the European Space Agencys Roberto Vittori, perfectly executed a

16-day mission.

One highlight included the veteran crew successfully delivering the

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, a particle physics detector designedto operate from the station and search for various types of unusual

matter such as dark matter and antimatter, to the orbiting laboratory.

Also aboard were station spare parts on the ExPRESS Logistics

Carrier 3, including robotics components and communications

hardware.

As the last shutt le assembly flight in support of the station, the

crew made four spacewalks that focused on station maintenance and

experiment swap outthe final four that will be conducted by shuttle

crew members.

During the first spacewalk, Feustel and Chamitoff retrieved and

installed experiments involving materials exposed to the harsh

environs of space and worked together to install and connect an

antenna for the External Wireless Communication System. Feustel

and Fincke continued outfitting the space station complex during

the second spacewalk, and before the third excursion, tested a new

preparation procedure involving light exercise designed to increasemetabolic rate and purge nitrogen from the bloodstream. Chamitoff

and Fincke performed the final spacewalk, continuing maintenance

and transferring Endeavours orbiter boom sensor system to

the station. That historic trek also marked the 1,000th hour of

spacewalking for assembly and maintenance of the space station.

Midway through the mission, Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry

Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli

departed for Earth. This was the first Soyuz departure in history that

took place while a space shuttle was docked to the station.

After more than 11 days of joint docked operations, Endeavour

undocked from station and simulated re-docking within about

950 feet using the Sensor Test for Orion Relative-navigation Risk

Mitigation, or STORRM, that NASA will use to develop the next crewed

space vehicle.

STS-134 returned home for a smooth, early morning landing at

Kennedy Space Center on June 1. Though Endeavourwill not again

use her exploring namesake, she leaves behind a spaceflight legacy

that will continue to enrich the future.

By Jonathan Laxmi

NASA/PHOTO

Attired in training versions of their shuttle launch-and-entrysuits, these six astronauts take a break from training to pose

for the STS-134 crew portrait. Pictured clockwise are NASAastronauts Mark Kelly (bottom center), commander; GregoryH. Johnson, pilot; Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, AndrewFeustel and European Space Agencys Roberto Vittori, allmission specialists.

Photographed from a shuttle training aircraft, Space ShuttleEndeavourand its six-member STS-134 crew head towardEarth orbit and rendezvous with the International SpaceStation on May 16.

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8 |Roundup LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER

Expedition 28:A sky-high inheritance

By Jonathan Sunny Laxmi

Ifyou had newfound wealth and could spend in the present, invest inyour future or even help the world, which would you choose? Butwhat if you want to do all three?

Then youll have to land a spot on an expedition to the InternationalSpace Station.

On June 7, the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome shook

as Expedition 28 crew members, NASAs Mike Fossum, the Japan

Aerospace Exploration Agencys Satoshi Furukawa and Russias Sergei

Volkov rocketed to the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-02M. After a two-

day journey, they joined the rest of the crew already aboard the orbiting

lab: Russian Commander Andrey Borisenko, NASA Flight Engineer Ron

Garan and Russian Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev.

Expedition 28 will continue world-class research while preparing the

station for a future without the payload capability of space shuttles.

The Progress 43 resupply craft docked with the station on June

23 to deliver about two tons of supplies, equipment, fuel and other

consumables. In July, the crew received a visit from STS-135, the final

space shuttle mission. The voyage provisioned the station with enoughsupplies, food and spare parts to support the orbiting outpost for a full

year. Progress 44 should arrive at station in late summer.

During their stay, the crew members will continue installing

infrastructure upgrades to the stations command and control

computers and its communications systems. They will work with

some 111 experiments involving approximately 200 researchers

across a variety of fields, including human life sciences, physical

sciences and Earth observation. The crew will also conduct technology

demonstrations ranging from recycling to robotics.

One such experiment getting attention is the Sleep-Wake Actigraphy

and Light Exposure During Spaceflight-Long investigation, or Sleep-

Long. This study examines the sleep-wake patterns of the crew while

aboard the space station. Potential benefits of the experiment include

learning when additional measures are needed to minimize the risks of

sleep deprivation in orbit. Such a discovery will help the performance offuture space explorers, as the quality and duration of slumber impacts

human health, attitude and the ability to focusall very important

elements of working in the cosmos.

Later this year, crew members will see Dragon, a flight of the new

commercial resupply vehicles designed and tested for station support

by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX.

Once the test flights demonstrate commercial spacecraft capabilities,

there will be routine cargo missions to the station.

Borisenko, Garan and Samokutyaev are scheduled to land in

September as the remaining three take on their positions as Expedition29 members. Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov are slated to return

to Earth in November, passing on their good fortunes to the next

expedition crew.

NASA/CARLA

CIOFFI

201

106080003HQ

The Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft launches from the Baikonur

Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 7, carrying cosmonaut

and Expedition 28 Soyuz commander Sergei Volkov, NASA

astronaut Mike Fossum and Japan Aerospace Exploration

Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa to the International

Space Station.

The Space ShuttleAtlantis

is seen over the Bahamas

prior to a perfect docking

with the space station on July

10 during Expedition 28.

Part of a Russian Progress

spacecraft, which is docked

to the station, is in the

foreground. This is the last

time a shuttle will ever visitthe orbiting outpost.

NASA astronauts Ron Garan (left) and Mike Fossum, both

Expedition 28 flight engineers, remove samples from

the General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment

Refrigerator and insert in the Minus Eighty Degree

Laboratory Freezer for ISS in the Kibo laboratory.