STS-129

One of the few last missions into space for the Atlantis space shuttle just occurred at 1:28 CST. Atlantis was launched for a 11 day mission which includes three space walks and carries spare parts for the International Space Station (ISS). The shuttle is manned by Commander Charlie Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore, Leland Melvin, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher, and Randy Bresnik. The mission will end with the return to Earth after the spare parts, including many important parts such as a gyroscope, have been put on the station and they will return Nicole Stott who has been aboard the ISS since August. After this mission there are only 4 other space shuttle launches scheduled before the space shuttle design is decommissioned in 2010 to make way for the Ares experimental rocket that will hopefully be fully functional by 2012. It will be sad to see the shuttle go, but the new Ares rocket looks pretty neat. Just as the Saturn V was replaced by the Space Transportation System (STS Shuttle), so will the Ares rockets replace the Shuttle.