[12] The experimental findings will benefit better understanding, development and to test new materials suitable to better withstand the rigors of space environments with applications in the design of future spacecraft.

The SASA boom assembly consists of a mast, an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) handle, a harness, a connector panel, a mounting surface for the RFG and a baseplate fitting.

In a middeck stowage locker, Atlantis carried the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Communication Unit (CUCU) developed by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in collaboration with NASA to the ISS.

[29] One hundred members of the general public, representing Morocco, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and 21 U.S. states, in addition to the District of Columbia, attended the two-day event and, for a time, the #nasatweetup hashtag reached #3 on Twitter's trending topics.

However, an issue with a crane that was being used to transfer Atlantis for attachment to its external fuel tank and two solid rocket boosters caused a delay in operations forcing the shuttle managers to add extra 24-hours to the rollout preparations.

[36] The final flight readiness review (FRR) meeting for the STS-129 mission took place at Kennedy Space Center during the last week of October 2009.

Final launch preparations commenced at Pad 39A with technicians closing Atlantis' payload bay doors during the morning hours on November 13, 2009.

On the evening at about 5.30 pm the Rotating Service Structure that protects the shuttle from adverse weather conditions was rolled back anticipating next day's launch.

At the post-launch news conference, NASA officials reported that three foam events were seen in the external fuel tank (ET) video camera footage.

Flight day 1 on-orbit operations included, opening of both payload bay doors of Atlantis at 21:12 GMT, deploying the radiators, deploying Ku-Band antenna to gain favorable communications, opening of the protective doors covering the star trackers on the nose of the shuttle, setting up the onboard computer network, downlinking imagery and data collected during the flight into orbit, getting out of their launch and entry spacesuits and stowing away the mission specialists' seats.

The crew also completed a thorough checkout of the shuttle's robotic arm earlier in preparation for the survey of Atlantis' wing leading edge panels and nose cap on flight day 2.

After releasing its grasp on the inspection boom, the robotic arm grappled the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 (ELC1) as a preparatory step for installation on Flight Day 3.

During the day's Mission Management Team (MMT) briefing, chairman LeRoy Cain noted that a preliminary assessment of ascent imagery and data beamed down during the thermal protection inspection showed no signs of any significant heat shield damage.

Before the shuttle docked STS-129 Commander Charles Hobaugh performed what is known as the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver (RPM)[44] beginning at 15:52 UTC above the Atlantic Ocean, while Station astronauts Nicole Stott and Jeffrey Williams photographed Atlantis' underside with handheld digital cameras equipped with 400- and 800-millimeter lenses as part of post-launch inspections of the heat shield.

After the hatch opening, astronaut Nicole Stott's tenure as a station Expedition 21 flight engineer came to an end as she joined the Atlantis crew.

[46] Mission Specialists Michael Foreman and Robert Satcher spent the night in the Quest airlock as part of the overnight "campout" procedure to help them get prepared for next day's spacewalk.

Earlier in the morning, Mission Control also radioed commander Charles Hobaugh with the news that the crew won't need to perform follow-up inspections on Atlantis' heat shield during a period of time set aside on flight day 5.

They routed a slew of cables, hoses and fluid lines to prepare for the arrival of the Tranquility node aboard STS-130, the next scheduled shuttle mission.

Again, for the second night in a row, fire and depressurization alarms tripped inside the European Columbus Module and the Quest airlock woke the Atlantis astronauts.

[60] Just before the beginning of Saturday's spacewalk, at 14:14 UTC Mission Specialists Leland Melvin and Nicole Stott operating Canadarm2 mated the Carrier to the Outboard Payload Attachment System (PAS) on the S3 segment of the space station's main truss.

[65][66] Astronauts Wilmore and Melvin, Satcher and Stott talked with reporters from WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C., Bay News 9 in Tampa, Fla., and WBBM Radio in Chicago.

Station Commander De Winne and STS-129 Mission Specialist Melvin shut down and packed the broken Urine Processor Assembly/Distillation Assembly (UPA DA) and then transferred it to the shuttle for stowage on the Middeck.

Mission Control in Houston concluded that stirred up dust particles due to transfer operations aboard the station might have sounded the alarm.

Once the flyaround was completed, Atlantis performed separation burns to increase the distance between the shuttle and the ISS and left the Space Station complex area at about 10:36 UTC.

After setup on the mid-deck of a recumbent seat for Nicole Stott and stowage of the Ku-band antenna used for high data rate communications during the mission at 19:34 UTC.

[89] With weather looking good at the Kennedy Space Center, and nothing standing in the way of landing, Flight Director Bryan Lunney gave the "go" signal to close the payload bay doors at 10:52 UTC.

NASA operators gave the "go" for the deorbit burn and at 13:37 UTC, flying upside down and backwards above the southern Indian Ocean just west of Indonesia, Atlantis fired its orbital maneuvering system (OMS) engines for 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

CAPCOM Christopher Ferguson replied the crew, "Roger, wheels stopped, Atlantis, that was a picture-perfect end to a top-fuel mission to the space station.

Later in the afternoon around 14:00 pm EST, a service convoy started towing Atlantis from the runway back to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 1.

The insignia incorporates a number of design elements not typically incorporated into a single patch: the Sun, Moon, Mars, NASA's astronaut symbol (ascending on red, white and blue stripes symbolizing the all-U.S. crew), the ISS, the Shuttle orbiter and the continental United States (representing the major U.S. centers supporting the Space Shuttle Program).