Not quite the end? NASA holds out hope for Atlantis (News Feature)

By Anne K Walters May 27, 2010, 3:51 GMT

Washington - It's hard to say goodbye.

After 25 years of flight and more than 190 million kilometres, the wheels of space shuttle Atlantis touched down for what could be the last time Wednesday.

But shuttle officials and astronauts aren't yet ready to send the spacecraft packing to the museum it will eventually call home.

Though the just-completed mission was the last scheduled flight for the orbiter, NASA will get to work within hours preparing Atlantis to fly again, replacing damaged heat shield tiles and conducting other maintenance work.

The repairs are necessary to prepare Atlantis to serve as a possible rescue craft for the final planned shuttle flight set for November. The space agency has kept an extra rescue shuttle on the pad during each mission since the Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in 2003.

Beyond the unlikely rescue mission, shuttle managers still hope their plea for just one more flight will be approved by administration officials.

The astronauts who flew on Atlantis' mission said they would love to do it again and hope it is not the end for the shuttle.

'She is so ready to get stacked and back out to the launch pad,' despite the many kilometres logged on the orbiter, astronaut Tony Antonelli told reporters. 'You can tell that's where she wants to be.'

Only two further missions, the last planned each for the Endeavour and Discovery shuttles, have been scheduled by the US space agency NASA before those vessels are also taken out of service.

'We're all struck by the fact that that might have been the last landing of Atlantis,' said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director, noting all the work that goes into preparing the reusable spacecraft and the joy of seeing it sitting on the runway. 'We've been doing this for 30 years. We all have an emotional tie to that.'

The two upcoming missions will likely have more finality, but Leinbach and other officials seemed reluctant to write the obituary of the Atlantis just yet. They said a decision will be made next month on whether it makes financial sense to add another mission to the end of the launch manifest.

'You have to look at downsides of costs and budget,' said Mike Moses, shuttle launch manager. 'We're going to say, 'Yeah we'd like to fly that mission,' but it's going to cost the agency something. But that's not our decision to make.'

The logistics of such a plan, including the 200 million dollars a month it costs to run the shuttle programme, are at issue. But shuttle programme officials think it would benefit the International Space Station to have another visit by the shuttle, which serves as a space truck to haul large cargo that cannot be hauled aloft by any other spacecraft.

A decision would be made next month to allow ground crews to take the appropriate steps and get the planning process out of limbo, said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of space operations for NASA.

The flight would have to be scheduled for prior to February, when the current budget runs out and funding for the shuttle dries up, but fitting in another mission is possible, he said.

Since its first launch in October 1985, Atlantis has made 32 flights. It played a crucial role in building the International Space Station, launched valuable probes to Jupiter and Venus and was the first US spacecraft to dock with the Russian Mir space station. The last mission continued to advance that international cooperation with the delivery of a Russian laboratory to the ISS.

The retirement of the shuttle fleet has long been planned but has come under increased scrutiny after President Barack Obama cancelled Bush-era plans to return to the moon in a next-generation spacecraft.

That plan was deemed impossibly over budget and behind schedule. Obama has instead chosen to promote commercial spaceflight to nearby destinations and to focus NASA on long-term goals, such as reaching Mars.

The shuttles will be headed to museums for a reduced cost of 28.8 million dollars each, but NASA has not yet decided which museums will be able to acquire one.

In the meantime, Atlantis at least faces uncertainty.

'It's kind of emotional,' Leinbach said of walking around the shuttle shortly after it landed. 'You saw some people look up at her and say, 'Is this really the end of Atlantis' mission or not?''