This week in 2009, space shuttle Atlantis launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Flight Center on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. STS-129’s primary payload was the ExPRESS Logistics Carriers ELC-1 and ELC-2. The ELCs provide mechanical mounting surfaces, electrical power and command and data handling services for science experiments conducted on the space station. The Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is the primary space station science command post. The payload operations team coordinates all U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian scientific and commercial experiments on the station, synchronizes payload activities of international partners, and directs communications between station crewmembers and researchers around the world with onboard experiments. The NASA History Program documents and preserves NASA’s remarkable history through a variety of products — photos, press kits, press releases, mission transcripts and administrators’ speeches. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the History Program’s Web page.
Image credit: NASA