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Mission Status Center
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts135/status.html

0030 GMT (8:30 p.m. EDT)
With forecasters predicting near ideal weather, entry Flight Director Tony Ceccacci said Wednesday he’s optimistic about bringing the shuttle Atlantis back to a pre-dawn landing in Florida Thursday to close out NASA’s 135th and final shuttle mission.


12 posted on 07/20/2011 6:40:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Obama: Epic Fail or Bust!!!)
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The official embroidered crew patch for STS-135, the final mission of the space shuttle program.


14 posted on 07/20/2011 6:42:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Obama: Epic Fail or Bust!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge
From your link (Spaceflightnow.com), an interesting sequence:

0749 GMT (3:49 a.m. EDT) Now one hour from the deorbit burn.

0743 GMT (3:43 a.m. EDT) The crew has been given a "go" to start the "fluid loading" protocol. That involves drinking large amounts of liquids and salt tablets to assist in the readaptation to Earth's gravity.

0740 GMT (3:40 a.m. EDT) The shuttle's toilet has been deactivated for landing as the crew marches through the final steps to ready the spacecraft to fly home. Next, the astronauts will complete one more alignment of the inertial measurement units in the orbiter's navigation system.

What are the G-forces experienced during re-entry? (I'm sure the suits have plenty of capacity...)

:-)

53 posted on 07/21/2011 1:27:05 AM PDT by Paul R. (We are in a break in an Ice Age. A brief break at that...)
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