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Find out more about Patricia: An award-winning journalist, author, and former NASA spokesman, Patricia Phillips has written about space for international markets since the 1970's. She's a skilled platform speaker, anthologized poet, and popular Native American story teller. Her love for space began when she watched Sputnik sail overhead and thought the whole idea was as magical as anything she could ever imagine. She still does. |
After almost 16 days in space, four spacewalks, and a successful space station "home improvement" mission, the STS-126 crew aboard Endeavour is safely back home at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) in California.
The landing was switched to Edwards from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) because of bad weather in Florida. During the 15 day, 20 hour and 45 minute mission, Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough and Greg Chamitoff hit all mission objectives.
The STS-26 crew, which originally included Sandra Magnus, hauled up the first-ever space refrigerator, plus an entire Leonardo module full of supplies and equipment. The mission also included four spacewalks to fix a balky solar array joint on the International Space Station (ISS) and the set-up of equipment designed to recycle urine into usable water on the station.
Magnus stayed behind to begin her tour of duty on the space station, while Chamitoff hitched a ride home on Endeavour after his several months stay in space.
Ironically, despite the hard work of this mission, it will most likely be remembered as the flight when astronaut Piper lost a tool bag while working in space.
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