Table of Contents

Mission STS-132

Find out in 5: Space Shuttle Mission STS-132

Space Shuttle Atlantis
(Photo: NASA/Jim Grossmann)

Shuttle:	Atlantis
Launch:	May 14, 2010 at 2:20 p.m. EDT
Duration:	12 days

How's Canada involved in the mission?

Radical Robotics

• The Shuttle's Canadarm and Canadarm2 will work together on Flight Day 5 to install the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1), which will mark the first time the Station's robotic arm installs a Russian module on the International Space Station.

  MRM-1 will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. Also known as Rassvet ("dawn" in Russian), MRM-1 will be permanently attached to the bottom port of the Station's Zarya module. MRM-1 will carry important hardware on its exterior including a radiator, airlock and a spare elbow for the European robotic arm (to be launched in December 2011).

Watch in high resolution (56.9Mb)
(Credit: CSA)

• On Flight Day 3, Canadarm2 will remove a cargo carrier from Atlantis's payload bay and place it on the Mobile Base System. The carrier will hold 6 batteries, a space-to-ground communications antenna (built by MDA in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, under contract with Boeing), and a work storage platform for Dextre. During the second and third spacewalks of the mission, Canadarm2 will also hold the cargo carrier near the worksite so the astronauts can remove the old batteries and swap them for the new ones.

Watch in high resolution (49.1Mb)
(Credit: CSA)

• Dextre, the ISS's Canadian robotic handyman, will be fitted with a new work platform. Known as an Enhanced Orbital Replacement Unit Temporary Platform (EOTP), the three-sided platform will give the highly sophisticated robot more space to put down objects in order to free up its "hands" while it works. The platform was built by MDA of Brampton, Ontario, for NASA.

  Spacewalkers will install the platform on Flight Day 4, with NASA Astronaut Garrett Reisman riding the end of Canadarm2. This will be Reisman's second time working on Dextre, since he was one of the spacewalkers that installed the two-armed robot on the ISS.

• The Shuttle's Canadarm will scan the Shuttle with its inspection boom to ensure that it is ship-shape after launch.

Cutting-edge Science

• Touching the "soles" of astronauts: Scientists will put the Shuttle astronauts through a "tickle test" to learn more about how the skin sensitivity of the soles of our feet affect our balance. It might sound out-of-this-world, but the science behind Hypersole has serious Earthly benefits for elderly Canadians and people who suffer from balance problems.

• Sprucing up in space: Samples from Canadian white spruce seedlings will return to Earth after having grown for about 30 days in space. Scientists will analyze their DNA to help understand how trees make wood to benefit the forestry industry.

The International Space Station in 2010
(Photo: NASA/Jim Grossmann)

Adieu Atlantis

STS-132 is Atlantis' 32^nd flight and its 11^th flight to the ISS. Named after a two-masted sailing ship, Atlantis lifted off on its maiden voyage on Oct. 3, 1985, on mission 51-J. Later missions included the launch of the Magellan probe to Venus on STS-30 in May 1989, Galileo interplanetary probe to Jupiter on STS-34 in October 1989, the first Shuttle docking to the Mir Space Station on STS-71 in June1995 and the final Hubble servicing mission on STS-125 in May 2009.

Canadian Astronauts Chris Hadfield and Steve MacLean are the only two Canadians to have flown on board Atlantis.