MISSION COMPLETE, HOUSTON. ATLANTIS HAS EARNED ITS PLACE IN HISTORY. FINAL WHEELS STOP.

chapeau!

Impressive! Great collection.

Here is a new piece for my collections signed by European Space Agency (ESA) Head Astronaut Colonel Luca Parmitano.



In February 2011, Parmitano was assigned as a flight engineer to Italian space agency’s first long-duration mission on the International Space Station. He was launched on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on May 23, 2013. Parmitano spent 166 days in space and took part in two spacewalks and the docking of four spacecraft during his mission. Parmitano again launched to the International Space Station for his second mission in the Russian Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft on July 20, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the first human lunar landing. His 201-day mission saw him take on the role of Space Station commander for Expedition 61, becoming the third European and first ever Italian International Space Station commander. He also conducted a series complex spacewalks to repair the cosmic-particle-hunting Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument, AMS-02. In total, Parmitano carried out four spacewalks, totaling 25 hours and 30 minutes. He has now conducted six spacewalks in his career, totaling 33 hours and 9 minutes.

Grazie Mille Colonel Parmitano

I heard from a cosmonaut and astronaut that Luca cried during the chute deployment due to the severe angular momentum caused by the unwinding of the chute cords. 😀 Based on how Chris Cassidy's description of how hard the chute deployment was (for a former Navy Seal), it would probably make us all cry.

Wow, what collection!

After a bit of a break from my collection I have finally been able to add a long sought after addition to mark the end of the Space Shuttle program. (Photo Credit: NASA)

Here is the new X-33 piece added to the collection signed by STS-135 Mission Commander Chris Ferguson. (CREDIT: NASA)

Chris Ferguson is a retired NASA astronaut and former U.S. Navy captain who has had a distinguished career in space exploration. He flew on three Space Shuttle missions, including STS-115 as a pilot in 2006, and STS-126 as commander in 2008. Ferguson is most famous for commanding STS-135 in 2011, which was the final mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle program.

Thank you. This one was a long time coming. Now that the collection sabbatical is over it's onto the SpaceX commercial missions. Let the hunt begin!!