Mission Control Center
Houston, Texas

STS-135 MCC Status Report No. 25
Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 3:30 p.m. CDT

Deployment of a small satellite, checkout of Atlantis' flight flaps and
rudder, and packing up for their return home kept shuttle crew members busy
Wednesday.

Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandra
Magnus and Rex Walheim are scheduled to land Atlantis a little before 5 a.m.
CDT Thursday at Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters are calling for good
weather.

That last landing of the shuttle program will bring Atlantis to its final
home. It is to be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex.

The crew began cabin stowage -- packing up in preparation for Thursday's
landing -- early in its workday. Ferguson, Hurley and Walheim spent a little
over an hour beginning around 1:15 a.m. with a checkout of the flight
control surfaces, the rudder and flaps with which they will guide the
shuttle through the atmosphere. Subsequently they hot fired reaction control
system jets, the thrusters that control Atlantis' orientation before the
flight control surfaces become effective as the shuttle descends into the
atmosphere.

Springs pushed the PicoSat from Atlantis' cargo bay at 2:49 a.m. It is
designed to evaluate the performance of a variety of solar cells mounted on
it. The eight-pound, 5- by 5- by 10-inch satellite could lead to development
of improved solar cells for use in space.

It was the 180th payload deployed by a space shuttle.

Shuttle crew members got one last chance to talk from space with news media
representatives on the ground. A little before 4 a.m., the crew answered
questions from ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News.

The Empire State Building in New York City -- instantly recognizable just as
the NASA space shuttle is -- will pay tribute to, and celebrate, the Space
Shuttle Program Wednesday night by lighting the way home for Atlantis and
its crew. To honor 30 years of shuttle flights on 135 missions, the Empire
State Building will glow Red, White and Blue throughout the night Wednesday
as Atlantis prepares to return home ending the last shuttle flight. The ESB
lighting schedule is at:
http://www.esbnyc.com/

A graphic depicting the tribute is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ire_state.html

The next status report will be issued after crew wakeup, scheduled for 8:29
p.m. Wednesday or earlier if warranted.