The space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center Friday, July 8, 2011, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis is the 135th and final space shuttle launch for NASA. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Onlookers in Titusville, Fla., watch from the roadside on Friday, July 8, ... more >The astronauts also will perform experiments and bring back some cargo, most notably an ammonia pump that recently failed on the space station. Astronauts Ron Garan and Mike Fossum, who flew to the ISS in April and June, respectively, aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, will perform a spacewalk during Atlantis’ visit.
Atlantis is scheduled to return home to Kennedy Space Center and land on the morning of July 20 — the 42nd anniversary of the day Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon — but officials are considering whether to extend the mission an extra day.
“There’s still a lot of work in front of us,” said Gerstenmaier, “but what a great start to the mission today.”
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Marc Lancaster has covered Major League Baseball for the Tampa Tribune and the Cincinnati Post and served as an editor at FanHouse.com and SportsIllustrated.com. A University of Georgia graduate, he began his career as a sportswriter at the Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald. He can be reached at mlancaster@washingtontimes.com.
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