Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104) was the fourth operational
space shuttle used in the NASA Space Shuttle Program and the last
planned shuttle to launch, ending the program with STS-135.
Atlantis was first launched on October 3, 1985 on the
STS-51-J mission where it is believed that she deployed two
DSCS-III (Defense Satellite Communications System) satellites into
stationary orbit. Later, she deployed the Magellan probe (bound for
Venus) and the Galileo probe (bound for Jupiter). Atlantis
was also the vehicle which made the first historich shuttle docking
with space station Mir on the same mission that was the 100th U.S.
manned space flight (STS-71). Atlantis's journey comes to an
end in 2011 with the end of the shuttle program. As of the posting
of this cache, STS-135 will be the last mission on a NASA Space
Shuttle, and Atlantis will be there to the last.
The Shuttles in the fleet were named Enterprise,
Columbia, Challenger, Discovery,
Atlantis, and Endeavor (and we'll include the Russian
Buran in the list as well).
The Puzzle:
With a doppelganger in your midst, instinct kicks in. It's like
playing hide and seek, but the phantoms win. The Daedalus
variations betray the misbegotten as you watch your childhood's
end. Adrift, you sail into no man's land, where whispers ring out
like thunder. And now you part from this mortal coil after
poisoning the well, for the seer is the queen.
