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Don Boyd | all galleries >> People, Family and Friends Photo Galleries >> Friends Gallery #2 - 2000 to 2017 > March 2011 - Suresh Atapattu during the payload transfer into the Space Shuttle Endeavor
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MAR-2011 ©Suresh Atapattu

March 2011 - Suresh Atapattu during the payload transfer into the Space Shuttle Endeavor

Launch Pad 39A, Cape Canaveral, Florida


Suresh explains the photo: "The square white box over my right shoulder contains the payload- the AMS ($1.5 billion experiment to help figure out the beginning of the Universe). It was taken to the pad in the night and then hoisted up into the Rotating Service Structure (RSS). Then the payload is taken out of the white box into the clean room there. The white box is lowered back on to the funny truck at the bottom which drives off. Then, the RSS rotates back to envelope the orbiter. Note the yellow bumpers placed around the orbiter cargo doors. Once enveloped,the cargo doors are open while maintaining the clean room atmosphere. The payload is transferred from the clean room of the RSS into the clean room like payload bay of the orbiter. Unfortunately, it is such a clean operation, that even pictures are not allowed of it. This was the best I could get!"

The Endeavor is scheduled to be launched on April 19th, 2011 on the STS-134 mission that will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-3 (ELC-3) and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station.


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