The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis this morning successfully packed up the vehicle's cargo bay in preparation for the journey home—the last time a NASA shuttle will depart from the International Space Station.
Just before 8am this morning, astronauts Sandy Magnus and Doug Hurley used the robotic arm aboard the ISS to deposit the 21-foot long Raffaello storage bin (left) back on Atlantis. It arrived at the ISS stuffed with 9,403 pounds of spare parts, equipment, and other supplies—including 2,677 pounds of food that will sustain the ISS crew in the coming year.
Unloading Raffaello was a complex process that required the crew to remove the bin from the shuttle and attach it to the ISS before transferring its contents to the space station. When it was empty, the crew loaded it back up with 5,700 pounds of supplies, including faulty parts, and a good amount of trash that had accumulated on the ISS, all of which will return to Earth with the shuttle crew.
Early this morning, the astronauts started depressurizing a vestibule that connected Raffaello to the ISS, a 90-minute process. Magnus and Hurley then grabbed Raffaello with the robotic arm at 6:09am, detached it from the ISS at 6:46am, and deposited it into the shuttle's cargo bay at 7:48am.
At 9:19am this morning, the Atlantis crew said goodbye to the station astronauts and closed the hatches between the shuttle and the ISS.
The Atlantis journey wasn't all about unpacking and trash removal. The crew brought with them a U.S. flag, which flew aboard the shuttle Columbia during the first shuttle mission in 1981. Commander Chris Ferguson presented the station crew with the flag as a symbol that the U.S. is committed to space exploration. It will remain at the ISS until the next crew launched from the U.S. arrives.
"That crew will bring the flag back to Earth, until it once again is carried into space with the first crew to launch from the United States on a journey of exploration beyond Earth orbit," NASA said.
The Atlantis journey brings NASA's space shuttle program to a close; the agency will focus on deep-station exploration (like Mercury and the Vesta asteroid via Dawn), while missions to the ISS will be handled by other nations and commercial spacecrafts.
To that end, NASA on Friday announced a commercial crew development agreement with United Launch Alliance, a joint Boeing-Lockheed Martin venture. That comes about three months after NASA awarded about $270 million to four companies to develop commercial rockets and spacecraft that can fly to the ISS. That included $92.3 million to Boeing, $75 million to SpaceX, $80 million to Sierra Nevada Corp., and $22 million to Blue Origin.
For more on NASA's shuttle program, see the slideshow above.