Atlantis Space Shuttle Missions
By: Cameron Wadlington
About Atlantis
- Has orbited Earth 4,848 times
- Has traveled 126,000,000 miles in space (more than 525 times than Earth to Moons distance)
- Weight: 176,613
- Height: 56.58 ft
- Wingspan: 78.06 ft
- Length: 122.17 ft
- Max Speed: 17,580 mph
What was Atlantis used for?
Atlantis carried suppies, logistics,and spare parts to the space station, and they also flew a system to investigate the potential for robotically refueling spacecraft. They also returned a failed ammonia pump model to help NASA better understand the failure.
What was Atlantis named after?
Atlantis was named after RV Atlantis, a two masted sailing ship that operated as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1930 to 1966.
What problems did Atlantis face?
One problem that Atlantis faced was composite over wrapped pressure vessels. NASA announced in 2007 that 24 helium and nitrogen gas tanks in Atlantis were older than their designed lifetime. These were designed for a 10 year life and later cleared for an additional 10 years; they went over this life in 2005. Failure of these vessels could cause destroy parts of the Shuttle or even destroy personnel ground. There was another problem in the ship and the windows were damaged.
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