STS-132 (Atlantis / ISS Rassvet)

Background

Space Shuttle Atlantis had accumulated a storied career by the time STS-132 was manifest, but the flight carried particular emotional weight: it was planned to be the orbiter's final mission before retirement. The broader Space Shuttle Program was winding down, and NASA had scheduled only a handful of remaining flights to complete assembly of the International Space Station. STS-132 had a concrete and consequential job to do — deliver the Russian-built Rassvet module to the ISS — and it would do so under the quiet understanding that Atlantis was, in all likelihood, flying for the last time.

Rassvet, whose name translates from Russian as "dawn," was a small but functionally significant addition to the station's Russian segment. Designed as a multipurpose laboratory and docking module, it would serve as an additional berthing port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft while providing valuable pressurized storage volume. The module had been years in development and represented a continuing symbol of the cooperative relationship between NASA and Roscosmos that had defined ISS assembly throughout the post-Cold War era. Its delivery was the primary objective around which the entire STS-132 mission was structured.

Crew and Preparation

Command of STS-132 fell to Kenneth Ham, a veteran naval aviator making his second shuttle flight, with Dominic Antonelli serving as pilot. The mission specialist roster brought together a team of experienced astronauts: Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Stephen Bowen, and Piers Sellers. Between them, the crew represented a broad cross-section of NASA's astronaut corps, with several members having previously logged time aboard the ISS or conducted prior spacewalks. Reisman had in fact lived aboard the station during an earlier long-duration stay, giving him particular familiarity with ISS operations.

Training for the mission emphasized the robotics and spacewalking work that would be necessary to transfer and attach Rassvet to the station's Zarya module. The crew also prepared for three planned extravehicular activities intended to transfer equipment, replace hardware on the station's truss, and carry out other maintenance tasks in support of ongoing ISS operations.

The Flight

Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on May 14, 2010, rising through a clear Florida sky and reaching orbit approximately eight and a half minutes after launch. The standard two-day rendezvous sequence brought Atlantis alongside the International Space Station, and after the customary approach and inspection procedures, the orbiter docked with the station.

The centerpiece operation of the mission came at roughly 55 hours and 33 minutes after launch, when the Rassvet module was transferred from Atlantis's payload bay and mated to the nadir port of Zarya, the station's foundational Russian module. The attachment was accomplished using the station's robotic arm in coordination with the crew, a methodical and demanding procedure given the module's mass and the precision required for a successful docking interface connection. With Rassvet firmly in place, the ISS gained both an additional pressurized compartment and a new active docking port — meaningful enhancements to the Russian segment's operational flexibility.

The three planned spacewalks proceeded across the docked phase of the mission. Good and Bowen conducted two of the EVAs, with Sellers joining for the third. Their work outside the station included the transfer of cargo, maintenance on the station's power systems, and the replacement of aging components on the integrated truss structure. The spacewalks logged collectively substantial hours of extravehicular time and were considered largely successful by mission managers.

The docked period concluded and Atlantis undocked from the station at approximately 222 hours and 13 minutes into the mission. The orbiter conducted the standard post-undocking inspection of its thermal protection system before the crew began preparations for reentry.

Return and Legacy

After a mission of just over eleven and a half days, Atlantis executed its deorbit burn at roughly 281 hours and 49 minutes elapsed time, committing the vehicle to reentry. The orbiter touched down at Kennedy Space Center approximately 40 minutes later, completing a flight that had proceeded closely to plan and achieved all of its primary objectives.

The return of Atlantis sparked considerable reflection within NASA and among observers of human spaceflight. The orbiter had been expected to retire following STS-132, and the landing drew an outpouring of attention from employees and space enthusiasts who anticipated it would be their last opportunity to see Atlantis glide to a runway stop. In an unexpected turn, however, NASA later decided that a contingency mission — designated STS-135 — was warranted to deliver a final logistics resupply load to the station, and Atlantis was recalled from impending retirement to fly once more in July 2011. STS-132 thus became not the final chapter it was meant to be, but the penultimate one.

Rassvet itself proved to be a durable and useful addition to the station. As a docking port it absorbed routine Soyuz traffic and, as a storage module, it relieved pressure on the station's other pressurized volumes. Its delivery also closed out a significant phase of Russian segment construction that had been planned since the station's early design. For STS-132, the mission stands as a clean example of late-program shuttle operations at their most practiced: a compact, well-executed flight that accomplished tangible construction goals while simultaneously marking a threshold in the long wind-down of an era. The six crew members returned the vehicle safely, the module was in place, and the partnership that built the International Space Station had added one more piece to a structure that would continue operating long after the shuttle itself was gone.