Das Rheingold

Das Rheingold (; The Rhinegold), WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, (English: The Ring of the Nibelung). It was performed, as a single opera,  at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, on 13 August 1876.

Wagner wrote the Ring librettos in reverse order, so that Das Rheingold was the last of the texts to be written; it was, however, the first to be set to music. The score was completed in 1854, but Wagner was unwilling to sanction its performance until the whole cycle was complete; he worked intermittently on this music until 1874. The 1869 Munich premiere of Das Rheingold was staged, much against Wagner's wishes, on the orders of his patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Following its 1876 Bayreuth premiere, the Ring cycle was introduced into the worldwide repertory, with performances in all the main opera houses, in which it has remained a regular and popular fixture.

In his 1851 essay Opera and Drama, Wagner had set out new principles as to how music dramas should be constructed, under which the conventional forms of opera (arias, ensembles, choruses) were rejected. Rather than  providing word-settings, the music would interpret the text emotionally, reflecting the feelings and moods behind the work, by  using a system of recurring leitmotifs to represent people, ideas and situations. Das Rheingold was Wagner's first work that adopted these principles, and his most rigid adherence to them, despite a few deviations – the Rhinemaidens frequently sing in ensemble.

As the "preliminary evening" within the cycle, Das Rheingold gives the background to the events that drive the main dramas of the cycle. It recounts Alberich's theft of the Rhine gold after his renunciation of love; his fashioning of the all-powerful ring from the gold and his enslavement of the Nibelungs; Wotan's seizure of the gold and the ring, to pay his debt to the giants who have built his fortress Valhalla; Alberich's curse on the ring and its possessors; Erda's warning to Wotan to forsake the ring; the early manifestation of the curse's power after Wotan yields the ring to the giants; and the gods' uneasy entry into Valhalla, under the shadow of their impending doom.

Background and context

Having completed his opera Lohengrin in April 1848, Richard Wagner chose as his next subject Siegfried, the legendary hero of Germanic myth. In October of that year he prepared a prose outline for Siegfried's Death, which during the following months he developed into a full libretto. After his flight from Dresden and relocation in Switzerland, he continued to develop and expand his Siegfried project, having decided meantime that a single work would not suffice for his purposes; in his enlarged concept, Siegfried's Death would be the culmination of a series of musical dramas incorporating a network of myths from his sources and imagination, each telling a stage of the story. In 1851 he outlined his purpose in his essay "A Communication to My Friends": "I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel)". Each of these dramas would, he said, constitute an independent whole, but would not be performed separately. "At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening".

In accordance with this  scheme Siegfried's Death, much revised from its original form, eventually became Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods). It was preceded by the story of Siegfried's youth, Young Siegfried, later renamed Siegfried, itself preceded by Die Walküre (The Valkyrie). Finally, to these three works Wagner added a prologue  which he named Das Rheingold.

Roles

Synopsis

Scene 1
At the bottom of the Rhine, the three Rhinemaidens, Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Floßhilde, play together.   Alberich,  a Nibelung dwarf, appears from a deep chasm and tries to woo them. The maidens mock his advances and he grows angry – he chases them, but they elude, tease and humiliate him. A sudden ray of sunshine pierces the depths, to reveal the Rhinegold. The maidens rejoice in the gold's gleam. Alberich asks what it is. They explain that the gold, which their father has ordered them to guard, can be made into a magic ring which gives power to rule the world, if its bearer first renounces love. The maidens think they have nothing to fear from the lustful dwarf, but Alberich, embittered by their mockery, curses love, seizes the gold and returns to his chasm, leaving them screaming in dismay.

Scene 2

 Wotan, ruler of the gods, is asleep on a mountaintop, with a magnificent castle behind him. His wife,  Fricka, wakes Wotan, who salutes their new home. Fricka reminds him of his promise to the giants Fasolt and Fafner, who  built the castle, that he would give them Fricka's sister Freia, the goddess of youth and beauty, as payment. Fricka is worried for her sister, but Wotan trusts that Loge, the demigod of fire, will find an alternative payment.

Freia enters in a panic, followed by Fasolt and Fafner. Fasolt demands that Freia be given up. He points out that Wotan's authority is sustained by the treaties carved into his spear, including his contract with the giants, which Wotan therefore cannot violate.  Donner, god of thunder, and Froh, god of sunshine, arrive to defend Freia, but Wotan cannot permit the use of force to break the agreement. Hoping that Loge will arrive with the alternative payment he has promised, Wotan tries to stall.

When Loge arrives, his initial report is discouraging: nothing is more valuable to men than love, so there is apparently no possible alternative payment besides Freia.  Loge was able to find only one instance where someone willingly gave up love for something else: Alberich the Nibelung has renounced love, stolen the Rhine gold and made a powerful magic ring out of it. A  discussion of the ring and its powers ensues, and everyone finds good reasons for wanting to own it. Fafner makes a counter-offer: the giants will accept the Nibelung's treasure in payment, instead of Freia. When Wotan tries to haggle, the giants depart, taking Freia with them as hostage and threatening to keep her forever unless the gods ransom her by obtaining, and giving them the Nibelung's gold by the end of the day.

Freia's golden apples had kept the gods eternally young, but in her absence they begin to age and weaken. In order to redeem Freia, Wotan resolves to travel with Loge to Alberich's subterranean kingdom to obtain the gold.

Scene 3
In Nibelheim, Alberich has enslaved the rest of the Nibelung dwarves with the power of the ring. He has forced his brother Mime, a skillful smith, to create a magic helmet, the Tarnhelm. Alberich demonstrates the Tarnhelm's power by making himself invisible, the better to torment his subjects.

Wotan and Loge arrive and happen upon Mime, who tells them of the dwarves' misery under Alberich's rule. Alberich returns, driving his slaves to pile up a huge mound of gold.   He boasts to the visitors about his plans to  conquer the world using the power of the ring. Loge asks how he can protect himself against a thief while he sleeps. Alberich replies the Tarnhelm will hide him, by allowing him to turn invisible or change his form. Loge expresses doubt and requests a demonstration. Alberich complies by transforming himself into a giant snake; Loge acts suitably impressed, and then asks whether Alberich can also reduce his size, which would be very useful for hiding. Alberich transforms himself into a toad. Wotan and Loge seize him, tie his hands, and drag him up to the surface.

Scene 4
Back on the mountaintop, Wotan and Loge force Alberich to exchange his wealth for his freedom.  He summons the Nibelungen, who bring up the hoard of gold. He then asks for the return of the Tarnhelm, but Loge says that it is part of his ransom. Alberich still hopes he can keep the ring, but Wotan demands it, and when Alberich refuses, Wotan tears it from Alberich's hand and puts it on his own finger. Crushed by his loss, Alberich lays a curse on the ring: until it should return to him,  whoever possesses it will live in anxiety, and will eventually be robbed of it and killed.

The gods reconvene. Fasolt and Fafner return with Freia.  Fasolt, reluctant to release her, insists that the gold be piled high enough to hide her from view. Wotan is forced to relinquish the Tarnhelm, to help cover Freia completely. However, Fasolt spots a remaining crack in the gold, through which one of Freia's eyes can be seen.   Loge says that there is no more gold, but Fafner, who has noticed the ring on Wotan's finger, demands that Wotan add it to the pile,  to block the crack. Loge protests that the ring belongs to the Rheinmaidens, and Wotan angrily declares that he intends to keep it for his own. As the giants seize Freia and start to leave, Erda, the earth goddess, appears and warns Wotan of impending doom, urging him to give up the cursed ring. Troubled, Wotan calls the giants back and surrenders the ring. The giants release Freia and begin dividing the treasure, but they quarrel over the ring itself. Fafner clubs Fasolt to death. Wotan, horrified, realizes that Alberich's curse has terrible power.

Donner summons a thunderstorm to clear the air, after which Froh creates a rainbow bridge that stretches to the gate of the castle. Wotan leads the gods across the bridge to the castle, which he names Valhalla. Loge does not follow; he says in an aside that he is tempted to destroy the treacherous gods by fire – he will think it over. Far below, the Rhine maidens mourn the loss of their gold, and condemn the gods as false and cowardly.

Writing history

Text, sources, characters

Because Wagner developed his Ring scheme in reverse chronological order, the "poem" (libretto) for Das Rheingold was the last of the four to be written. He finished his prose plan for the work in March 1852, and on 15 September  began writing the full libretto, which he completed on 3 November. In February 1853, at the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zürich, Wagner read the whole Ring text to an invited audience, after which all four parts   were published in a private edition limited to 50 copies. The text was not published commercially until 1863.

Of the principal sources that Wagner used in creating the Ring cycle,  the Scandinavian Eddas – the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda – provided most of the material for Das Rheingold. These are poems and texts from 12th and 13th-century Iceland, which relate the doings of various Norse gods. Among these stories, a magic ring and a hoard of gold held by the dwarf Andvari (Wagner's Alberich) are stolen by the gods Odin (Wotan) and Loki (Loge) and used to redeem a debt to two brothers. One of these, Fafnir, kills his brother and turns himself into a dragon to guard the gold. The Eddas also introduce the gods Thor (Donner), Frey (Froh) and the goddesses Frigg (Fricka) and Freyja (Freia).  The idea of Erda, the earth mother, may have been derived from the character Jord (meaning "Earth"), who appears in the Eddas as the mother of Thor.

A few Rhinegold characters originate from outside the Eddas. Mime appears in the Thidriks saga,  as a human smith rather than as an enslaved Nibelung. The three Rhinemaidens do not appear in any of the sagas and are substantially Wagner's own invention; he also provided their individual mames Woglinde, Wellgunde and Floßhilde.  In his analysis of The Ring Deryck Cooke suggests the Rhinemaidens' origin may be in the Nibelungenlied, where three water sprites tease the characters Hagen and Gunther.  Wagner may also have been influenced by the Rhine-based German legend of Lorelei, who lures fishermen on to the rocks by her singing, and by the Greek Hesperides myth in which three maidens guard a  golden treasure.

Robert Jacobs, in his biography of the composer, observes that the "Nibelung Myth" on which Wagner based his entire Ring story was "very much a personal creation", the result of Wagner's "brilliant manipulation" of his sources. In the Rheingold text,  Wagner used his imaginative powers to adapt, change and distort the stories and characters from the sagas. J.K. Holman, in his "Listener's Guide  and Concordance" (2001), cites the Alberich character as typifying Wagner's ability to "consolidate selected aspects from diverse stories to create ... vivid, consistent and psychologically compelling portrait[s]". While some characters' importance is enhanced in Wagner's version, others, such as Donner, Froh, and Freia, who are major figures in the sagas, are reduced by Wagner to roles of largely passive impotence.

Wagner originally conceived the first scene of Das Rheingold as a prologue to the three scenes that follow it. As such, the structure replicates that of Götterdämmerung, and also that of the full Ring cycle.

Composition

As early as 1840, in his novella "A Pilgrimage to Beethoven", Wagner had anticipated a form of lyric drama in which the standard  operatic divisions would disappear. In early 1851 he published his book-length essay Opera and Drama, in which he expounded his emerging ideas around the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk – "total work of art".   In the new kind of musical drama, he wrote, the traditional operatic norms of chorus, arias and vocal numbers would have no part. The vocal line would, in Gutman's words, "interpret the text emotionally through artificially calculated juxtapositions of rhythm, accent, pitch and key relationships".  The orchestra, as well as providing the instrumental colour appropriate to each stage situation, would use a system of leitmotifs, each representing musically a person, an idea or a situation. Wagner termed these "motifs of reminiscence and presentiment", which carry intense emotional experience through music rather than words. According to Jacobs, they should "permeate the entire tissue of the music drama".  The Rheingold score is structured around many such motifs; analysts have used different principles in determining the total number. Holman counts 42, while Roger Scruton, in his 2017 philosophical analysis of the Ring, numbers them at 53.

Apart from some early sketches in 1850, relating to Siegfried's Death, Wagner composed the Ring music in its proper sequence.  Thus, Das Rheingold was his first attempt to adopt the principles set out in Opera and Drama. According to his memoirs, Wagner's first inspiration for the music came to him in a half-dream, on 4 September 1853, while he was in Spezia in Italy. He records a feeling of "sinking in swiftly flowing water. The rushing sound formed itself in my brain into a musical sound, the chord of E flat major, which continually re-echoed in broken forms ... I at once recognised that the orchestral overture to the Rheingold, which must long have lain latent within me, though it had been unable to find definite form, had at last been revealed to me".  Some authorities (for example Millington et al., 1992) have disputed the validity of this tale, which Nikolaus Bacht refers to as an "acoustic hallucination".

After an extended tour, Wagner was back in Zürich by late October and began writing down the Rheingold music on 1 November. He finished the first draft in mid-January 1854, and by the end of May had completed the full orchestral score. According to Holman, the result was "a stunning break from Wagner's earlier musical output" In the three years following his completion of the Rheingold score, Wagner wrote the music for Die Walküre, and for the first two acts of Siegfried. At that point, in 1857, he set Siegfried aside in order to work on Tristan und Isolde, and did not return to the Ring project  for  12 years.

Performances

Premiere, Munich, 22 September 1869
Long before Das Rheingold was ready for performance, Wagner conducted excerpts of the music from Scenes 1, 2 and 4, at a concert in Vienna on 26 December 1862. The work remained unstaged, but by 1869 Wagner's principal financial sponsor, King Ludwig of Bavaria, was pressing for an early performance in Munich. Wagner wanted to wait until the cycle was completed, when he would stage the work himself; also, his return to Munich would likely have precipitated a scandal, in view of his, at the time, affair with the married Cosima von Bülow. Wagner was horrified at the idea of his work being presented in accordance with Ludwig's eccentric tastes.However, Ludwig, who possessed the copyright, was insistent that Rheingold be produced at the Munich Hofoper without further delay. Wagner did all he could to sabotage this production, fixed for August 1869, and persuaded the appointed conductor, Hans Richter to stand down after a troublesome dress rehearsal. Ludwig was unmoved; he denounced Wagner, sacked Richter, appointed another conductor, Franz Wüllner, and rescheduled the premiere for 22 September. Wagner was refused admission to the rehearsals at the theatre, and returned, angry and defeated, to his home in Triebschen.

Accounts differ as to the success or otherwise of the Munich premiere. Osborne maintains that the performance was successful, as does Holman,  while Oliver Hilmes in his biography of Cosima describes it as "an artistic disaster". Cosima's diary entries for 24 and 27 September note that the performance was portrayed in the Munich press as a succès d'estime, or otherwise as "a lavishly decorated, boring work". Gutman maintains that much of the adverse comment on the Munich premiere derives from later Bayreuth propaganda, and concludes that, "in many ways, these Munich performances surpassed the level of the first Bayreuth festival". As to the public's reaction, the audience's main interest was in the novel scenery and stage effects; Wagner's new approach to composition largely passed them by.

Bayreuth premiere, 13 August 1876

In 1876, with the Bayreuth Festspielhaus built, Wagner was ready to stage the first Bayreuth Festival with his own production of the now complete Ring cycle, beginning with a performance of Das Rheingold on 13 August.  This event was preceded by months of preparation in which Wagner was deeply engaged; according to witnesses, he was "director, producer, coach, conductor, singer, actor, stage manager, stage hand and prompter". He searched Europe for the finest orchestral players, and selected a largely new cast of singers  – of the Munich cast, only Heinrich Vogl (Loge) was engaged, although Richter, deposed as conductor in Munich, was given the baton in Bayreuth.

The 13 August premiere was an event of international importance, and attracted a distinguished audience which included Kaiser Wilhelm I, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and numerous representatives of the various European royal houses. King Ludwig, unwilling to face contact with his fellow-royals or the assembled crowd, attended the dress rehearsals incognito, but left Bayreuth before the opening night. Most of Europe's leading composers were also present, including Tchaikovsky, Gounod, Bruckner, Grieg, Saint-Saens and Wagner's father-in law Franz Liszt, together with a large corps of music critics and opera house managers. The huge influx of visitors overwhelmed the resources of the modest-sized town and caused considerable discomfort to some of the most distinguished of the guests; Tchaikovsky later described his sojourn at Bayreuth as a "struggle for existence".

Despite the careful preparation, the first Bayreuth performance of Das Rheingold was punctuated by several mishaps. Some scene changes were mishandled;  at one point a backdrop was prematurely lifted to reveal a number of stagehands and stage machinery; early in Scene 4 Betz, as Wotan, mislaid the ring and had to go backstage to look for it; the gas lighting failed repeatedly, plunging the auditorium into darkness. Some innovations worked well – the wheeled machinery used by the Rhinemaidens to simulate swimming was successful, and the quality of the singing pleased even Wagner, who was otherwise in despair and refused to present himself to the audience despite their clamouring for him.  The critics made much of the technical shortcomings, which were largely overcome during the course of the festival, although, to Wagner's fury, they failed to acknowledge this fact.

Revivals

Traditional productions

After the 1876 festival, Das Rheingold was not seen again at Bayreuth for 20 years, until Cosima revived the Ring cycle for the 1896 festival. Meanwhile, opera houses across Europe sought to mount their own productions, the first to do so being the Vienna State Opera, which staged Das Rheingold on 24 January 1878. In April 1878 Das Rheingold was produced in Leipzig, as part of the first full Ring cycle to be staged outside Bayreuth. London followed suit in May 1882, when Rhiengold began a cycle at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, under the baton of Anton Seidl.  In the years following the London premiere, Ring cycles were staged in many European capitals. In Budapest on 26 January 1889,  the first Hungarian performance of Das Rheingold, conducted by the young Gustav Mahler, was briefly interrupted when the prompt-box caught fire and a number of patrons fled the theatre.

The American premiere of Das Rheingold was given by the New York Metropolitan Opera in  January 1889, as a single opera, with Seidl conducting. The production used Carl Emil Doepler's original Bayreuth  costume designs, and scenery was imported from Germany.  According to the New York Times critic, "[t]he scenery, costumes and effects were all designed and executed with great art and caused admirable results." Of particular note was the performance of Joseph Beck who sang Alberich: "a fine example of Wagnerian declamatory singing, His delivery of the famous curse of the ring was notably excellent in its distinctness and dramatic force". On 4 March 1889, with largely the January cast, Seidl conducted Das Rheingold to begin the first American Ring cycle. Thereafter, Das Rheingold, either alone or as part of the Ring, became a regular feature of the  international opera repertory, being seen in St Petersburg (1889), Paris (1901), Buenos Aires (1910), Melbourne (1913),, and Rio de Janeiro (1921), as well many other major venues.

After the 1896 revival, Das Rheingold was being performed regularly at the Bayreuth Festival, although not every year, within a variety of Ring productions. Until the Second World War,  under the successive artistic control of Cosima (from 1896 to 1907), her son Siegfried (1908 to 1930) and Siegfried's widow Winifred (1931 to 1943), these productions did not deviate greatly from the stagings devised by Wagner for the 1876 premiere.  With few exceptions, this generally conservative, even reverential approach – which extended to all Wagner's operas – tended to be mirrored in  performances outside Bayreuth.

New Bayreuth and experimentation
The Bayreuth Festival, suspended after the Second World War, resumed in 1951 under Wieland Wagner, Siegfried's son, who introduced his first Ring cycle in the "New Bayreuth" style.  This was the antithesis of all that had been seen  at Bayreuth before, as scenery, costumes and traditional gestures were abandoned and replaced by a bare disc, with evocative lighting effects to signify changes of scene or mood. The stark New Bayreuth style dominated most Rheingold and Ring productions worldwide until the 1970s, when a reaction to its bleak austerity produced a number of fresh approaches. The Bayreuth centenary Ring production of 1976, directed by Patrice Chéreau provided a significant landmark in the history of Wagner stagings: "Chéreau's demythologization of the tetralogy entailed an anti-heroic view of the work ... his setting of the action in an industrialized society ... along with  occasional 20th century costumes  and props, suggested  a continuity between Wagner's time and our own". Many of this production's features were highly controversial: the opening of Das Rheingold revealed a vast hydro-electric dam in which the gold is stored, guarded by the Rhinemaidens who were portrayed, in Spotts's words, as "three voluptuous tarts" – a depiction, he says, which "caused a shock from which no one quite recovered".  According to The Observers critic, "I had not experienced in the theatre protest as furious as that which greeted Das Rheingold." Eventually this hostility was overcome; the final performance of this production, in 1980, was followed by an ovation that lasted ninety minutes.

Post-1980s
The iconoclastic centenary Ring was followed by numerous original interpretations, at Bayreuth and elsewhere, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The 1988 festival opened with  Harry Kupfer's grim interpretation of Das Rheingold, in which Wotan and the other gods were represented as gangsters in mafioso sunglasses. This entire Ring, says Spotts, was "a parable of how the power-hungry cheat, lie, bully, terrorise and kill to get what they want". In August Everding's Chicago Reingold (which would become part of a full Ring cycle four years later), the Rhinemaidens were attached to elasticated ropes manipulated from the wings, which enabled them to cavort freely through the air, using lip sync to co-ordinate with off-stage singers. Edward Rothstein, writing in the New York Times, found the production "a puzzle ... cluttered with contraptions and conceits"  which, he imagined, were visual motifs which would be clarified in later operas. Keith Warner, in his 2004 production for Covent Garden, portrayed, according to Barry Millington's analysis, "the shift from a deistic universe to one controlled by human beings". The dangers of subverted scientific progress were demonstrated in the third Rheingold scene, where Nibelheim was represented as a medical chamber of horrors, replete with vivisections and "unspeakable" genetic experiments.

From the late 1980s a backlash against the tendency towards ever more outlandish interpretations of the Ring cycle led to several new productions in the more traditional manner.  Otto Schenk's staging of Das Rheingold,  first seen at the New York Met in 1987 and forming the prelude to his full Ring cycle two years later, was described by the New York Times as "charmingly old fashioned", and as "a relief to many beleagured Wagnerites". James Morris, who sang Wotan in the 1987 production, and James Levine, the original conductor, both returned in 2009 when Schenk brought his Ring cycle back to the Met for a final performance.

Music
Das Rheingold was Wagner's first attempt to write dramatic music in accordance with the principles he had enunciated in Opera and Drama, hence the general absence in the score of conventional operatic "numbers" in the form of arias, ensembles and choruses. Rather than acting as the accompanist to the voices, the orchestra combines with them on equal terms to propel the drama forward. According to Barry Millington's analysis, Das Rheingold represents Wagner's purest application of the Opera and Drama principles, a rigorous stance that he would eventually modify. Even in Rheingold, as Jacobs indicates, Wagner was flexible when the dramatic occasion warranted it; thus, the Rhinemaidens sing in the disavowed ensembles, and there are several instances in which  characters sing melodies that appear to be musically independent from the general flow. The music is continuous, with instrumental entr'actes linking the actions of the four discrete scenes.

Prelude
The prelude to Das Rheingold consists of an extended (136-bar) chord in E♭ major, which begins almost inaudibly in the lowest register of eight double-basses. The note of B♭ is added by the bassoons and the chord is further embellished as the horns enter with a rising arpeggio, to announce the "Nature" motif. This is further elaborated in the strings; the lower-register instruments sustain the E♭ note throughout the prelude, while the chord is increasingly enhanced by the orchestra. The "Rhine" motif emerges, representing what Osborne describes as "the calm, majestic course of the river".character The composer Robert Erickson describes the prelude as drone music – "the  only well-known drone piece in the concert repertory". Millington suggests that the protracted chord does not simply represent the depths of the Rhine, rather "the birth of the world, the act of creation itself".

First scene
When the prelude reaches its climax the curtain rises and the key shifts to A♭  as Woglinde sings a "greeting to the waters". The first two and last two notes of this short, lilting passage form a falling musical step which, in  different guises, will recur throughout the opera, signifying variously the Rhinemaidens' innocence, their joy in the gold and conversely, in the minor key, Alberich's woe at his rejection by the maidens, and his enslavement of the Nibelungs. The first appearance of the gold is signified by a muted horn call in the lower register, played under a shimmer of undulating strings, conveying, says Holman, "the shining, innocent beauty of the Rhinegold in its unfashioned state." The  motif for the Ring itself first appears in the woodwind, as Wellgunde reveals that a ring fashioned from the gold would confer on its owner the power to win the wealth of the world. This is followed by what is sometimes known as the "Renunciation" motif, when Woglinde sings that to fashion such a ring, the owner must first renounce love. Confusion arises because this same motif is used later in the Ring cycle to represent affirmation rather than rejection of love; Scruton suggests the motif would be more appropriately labelled "existential choice". Alberich duly curses love, seizes the gold and departs, to the sounds of  the despairing shrieks of the Rhinemaidens.

Second scene

During the first entr'acte, the Ring motif is transformed into the multipart and oft-reiterated "Valhalla" music – four intertwined motifs which represent the majesty of the gods and the extent of Wotan's power. Scene two begins on the mountaintop, in sight of the newly-completed castle, where Fricka and Wotan bicker over Wotan's contract with the giants. This duologue is characterised by Fricka's "Love's longing" motif, in which she sighs for a home that will satisfy Wotan and halt his infidelities. Freia's distressed entrance is illustrated by  "Love", a fragment that will recur and develop as the Ring cycle unfolds.  The Giants' entrance is signified by heavy, stamping  music that reflects both their simple nature and their brute strength. The "Golden Apples"  motif, of "remarkable beauty" according to Scruton, is sung by Fafner as a threatening reminder to the gods that the loss of Freia means the loss of their youth and vigour; it is later used by Loge to mock the gods for their weakness after Freia's departure with the giants. The "Spear" motif, a rapidly descending scale, represents the moral basis of Wotan's power and the sanctity of the treaties engraved on it. The phrase of five descending notes known as  "Woman's Worth", first sung by Loge, is described by Holman as one of the most pervasive and appealing motifs in the entire Ring cycle – he lists 43 occurrences of the motif throughout the cycle. Many of the Rings  characters – Wotan, Froh, Alberich, Fasolt and Erda in Das Rheingold – either sing this phrase or are orchestrally referenced by it.

Third scene
The descent of Wotan and Loge into Nibelheim is represented musically in the second entr'acte, which  begins with the "Renunciation" and Spear motifs but is quickly overwhelmed with the insistent, rhythmic 9/8 beat of the Nibelung motif in B♭, briefly foreshadowed in Loge's Scene 2 soliloquy. In the climax to the entr'acte this rhythm is hammered out on eighteen anvils. This motif is thereafter used, not just to represent the Nibelungs but also their enslavement in a state of relentless misery. During the scene's opening interaction between Alberich and Mime, the soft, mysterious  "Tarnhelm" motif is heard on muted horns; this is later combined with the  "Serpent" motif as, at Loge's behest, Alberich uses the Tarnhelm to transform himself into a giant snake. The transition back to the mountaintop, following Alberich's entrapment, references a number of motifs,  among them Alberich's woe, the Ring, Renunciation and the Nibelungs' enslavement.

Fourth scene
After Wotan seizes the ring from the captive Alberich, the dwarf's agonised, self-pitying monologue ("Am I now free?") ends with his declamation of the "Curse" motif – "one of the most sinister musical ideas ever to have entered the operatic repertoire", according to Scruton's analysis: "It rises through a half-diminished chord, and then falls through an octave to settle on a murky C major triad, with clarinets in their lowest register over a timpani pedal in F sharp". This motif will recur throughout the cycle; it will be heard later in this scene, when Fafner clubs Fasolt to death over possession of the ring. Tranquil, ascending harmonies introduce the reconvention of the gods and giants. The subsequent dispute over Wotan's reluctance to part with the ring ends with Erda's appearance; her motif is a minor-key variation of the "Nature" motif from the prelude.  After her warning she  departs to the sounds of the "Downfall" motif, an inversion of Erda's entry that  resembles "Woman's Worth". The scene ends with a rapid succession of motifs: "Donner's Call", a horn fanfare by which he summons the thunderstorm; Froh's "Rainbow Bridge" which provides a path for the gods into Valhalla; the "Sword" motif, a C major arpeggio that will become highly significant in later Ring operas, and the haunting "Rhinemaidens' Lament", developed from the falling step which earlier signified the maidens' joy in the gold. Scruton writes of this lament: "And yet, ever sounding in the depths, is the lament of the Rhine-daughters, singing of a natural order that preceded the conscious will that has usurped it. This lament sounds in the unconsciousness of us all, as we pursue our paths to personality, sovereignty and freedom...". These are the last voices that are heard in the opera, "piercing our hearts with sudden longing, melting our bones with nostalgic desire", before the gods, "marching in empty triumph to their doom", enter Valhalla to a thunderous orchestral conclusion, made up from several motifs including "Valhalla", "Rainbow Bridge" and the "Sword".

Orchestral forces
Das Rheingold is scored for the following instrumental forces:
 Woodwind: Piccolo; 3 flutes; 3 oboes; cor anglais; 3 clarinets; bass clarinet; 3 bassoons
 Brass: 8 horns; 2 tenor tubas in B flat; 2 bass tubas ("Wagner tubas") in F; 3 trumpets; bass trumpet in E flat; 4 tenor-bass trombones; contrabass trombone; contrabass tuba
 Percussion: 2 sets of timpani; cymbals; triangle; gong
 Strings: 16 first violins; 16 second violins; 12 violas; 12 cellos; 8 double basses; 6 harps (plus a seventh on-stage)
 Off-stage: 18 anvils of varying sizes (tuned to 3 octaves of F#); hammer

Critical assessment
Although it is sometimes performed independently, Das Rheingold is not generally considered outside the structure of the Ring cycle. However, as Millington points out, it is a substantial work in its own right, and has several characteristics not shared by the other works in the tetralogy. It is comparatively short, with continuous music; no interludes or breaks. The action moves forward relatively swiftly, unencumbered, as Arnold Whittall observes, by the "retarding explanations" – pauses in the action to clarify the context of what is going on – that permeate the later, much longer works. Its  lack of the conventional operatic devices (arias, choruses, ensembles) further enable the story to progress briskly.

Since it was written as a prelude to the main events, Das Rheingold is in itself inconclusive, leaving numerous loose ends to be picked up later; its function, as Jacobs says, is "to expound, not to draw conclusions". The fact that most of its characters display decidedly human emotions makes it seen, according to a recent writer, "much more a present-day drame than a remote fable". Nevertheless, Philip Kennicott, writing in the Washington Post describes it as "the hardest of the four installments to love, with its family squabbles, extensive exposition, and the odd, hybrid world Wagner creates, not always comfortably balanced between the mythic and the recognizably human."

The prelude enables audiences to obtain insights  into the natures of many of the principal characters, and the dynamics of their complex interrelationships. Certain presumptions are challenged or overturned; John Louis Gaetani, in a 2006 essay, notes that, in Loge's view, the gods are far more culpable than the Nibelungs, and that Wotan, for all his prestige as the ruler of the gods, "does much more evil than Alberich ever dreams of".

Recordings

Live performances  of Das Rheingold from Bayreuth and elsewhere were recorded from 1937 onwards, but were not issued  for many years. The first studio recording, and the first to be issued commercially, was Georg Solti's 1958 Decca version, part of his complete Ring cycle, 1958–1966, which marked the beginning of a new era in recorded opera. Since then Das Rheingold has been recorded, as part of the cycle, on many occasions, with regular new issues.

Notes and references

Notes

Citations

Sources

  (First published 1935, revised 1965, 1974 and 1980)

External links

 Richard Wagner – Das Rheingold, gallery of historic postcards with motifs from Richard Wagner's operas
 Vocal score of Das Rheingold
 Complete libretto of the opera, in German
 Complete libretto of The Ring Cycle in English and German
 Das Rheingold on DVD


Ross Parmenter

Ross Parmenter (May 30, 1912 – October 18, 1999) was a Canadian music critic, editor, and author who was primarily active in New York City. He wrote several books on Mexico and was a news editor and staff writer at The New York Times for 30 years.

Life and career
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Parmenter graduated from the University of Trinity College, a federated college of the University of Toronto, in 1933. He joined the staff of The New York Times (NYT) in 1934 where he initially covered shipping news. He joined the music staff at the NYT in 1940 and for the next 24 years wrote news, features, criticism and a column called The World of Music. In 1955 he was named music news editor, a position he maintained until 1964 when he retired from the paper.

As an author, Parmenter published a dozen books, many of them about Mexico. He was particularly interested in Spanish colonial architecture and traveled to Mexico numerous times while working out of New York City. In the 1940s he visited several major 16th century monasteries in Mexico, including the Church of San Miguel Arcangel in Ixmiquilpan in the state of Hidalgo, the Monastery of San Miguel Arcángel in Huejotzingo, and the Ex-monastery of Santiago Apóstol in Cuilapan. According to Richard D. Perry, "His descriptions of these early colonial monuments, then virtually unknown to American art historians or travelers, remain among the earliest accounts in English and can claim considerable historic interest." After his retirement, he maintained homes in both New York City and Oaxaca, Mexico.

In his book Lawrence in Oaxaca, Parmenter discusses & analyzes the relationship of D. H. Lawrence's writings to his time living in Mexico. Many of his works highlight the diffulties and rewards of observing things in great detail.  For example, his book The Plant in my Window shares his observations of the growth of a plant in his New York City apartment.  Through his observations of the plant, he learns to give focused attention to what he is looking at.  By learning to look more closely at things, he also learns to draw, and his learning to draw teaches him even more about focused looking.  He works through similar themes in a more detailed way in his books The Awakened Eye, A Week in Yanhuitlan, Stages in a Journey, and A House for Buddha.

Parmenter died in New York on October 18, 1999, at the age of 87. Some of his papers are collected at the Latin American Library at Tulane University.

Partial list of works
The Awakened Eye

The Plant in my window

School of the Soldier

Week in Yanhuitlan

Lawrence in Oaxaca

Stages in a Journey

A House for Buddha: A Memoir with Drawings

Lienzo of Tulancingo, Oaxaca


Clostera

Clostera is a genus of moths of the family Notodontidae. It consists of the following species:
 Clostera aello (Schintlmeister & Fang, 2001)
 Clostera albosigma (Fitch, 1856)
 Clostera anachoreta (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775)
 Clostera anastomosis (Linnaeus, 1758)
 Clostera angularis (Snellen, 1895)
 Clostera apicalis (Walker, 1855)
 Clostera bramah (Roepke, 1944)
 Clostera bramoides (Holloway, 1983)
 Clostera brucei (H. Edwards, 1885)
 Clostera costicomma (Hampson, 1892)
 Clostera curtula (Linnaeus, 1758)
 Clostera curtuloides (Erschoff, 1870)
 Clostera dorsalis (Walker, 1862)
 Clostera ferruginea (Hampson, 1910)
 Clostera fulgurita (Walker, 1865)
 ? Clostera hildora (Schaus)
 Clostera inclusa (Hübner, 1829)
 Clostera inornata (Neumoegen, 1882)
 ? Clostera javana (Moore)
 Clostera obscurior (Staudinger, 1887)
 Clostera pallida (Walker, 1855)
 Clostera paraphora (Dyar, 1921)
 Clostera pigra (Hufnagel, 1766)
 Clostera powelli (Oberthür, 1914)
 Clostera restitura (Walker, 1865)
 Clostera rubida (Druce, 1901)
 Clostera strigosa (Grote, 1882)
 ? Clostera tapa (Roepke)
 ? Clostera transecta (Dudgeon)

External links


Craig Horner

Craig Horner (born 24 January 1983) is an Australian actor and musician who first appeared in the Australian television program Cybergirl. He is best known for his role as Richard Cypher on the television series Legend of the Seeker.

Biography
Horner discovered a love for acting after appearing in school productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Maids. In addition to performing, Horner has been active as a musician, playing the guitar and writing music. He was a member of the band "Earth For Now" (called "Unstable Conditions" in 2011) who played their first show in Hollywood, California, starting the set with "Howl at the Moon". Horner and bandmate Steve Matsumura announced their departure from the band on 2 February 2012. He published two songs on iTunes, "Avoid" and "Say What You Mean" under the name "Ithaca". Horner enjoys playing soccer, volleyball, tennis, swimming, skiing, snowboarding, and kayaking. Craig went to St Peters Lutheran College in Indooroopilly, Brisbane, Australia. After graduating, he pursued acting.

Horner has appeared in various TV programs since 2001: as Jackson in "Cybergirl"; as Jesse Spencer's brother in "Swimming Upstream;" as a reporter on "Totally Wild," and starred as Caleb in the U.S.'s "Monarch Cove". In 2008, Horner joined the cast of the Australian children's drama television series Blue Water High, portraying surfer Garry Miller and then Ash Dove in the series H2O: Just Add Water. He starred as Richard Cypher in Legend of the Seeker, the syndicated television adaptation of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth book series.

Filmography


Avia BH-29

__NOTOC__
The Avia BH-29 was probably a trainer aircraft maybe built in Czechoslovakia in 1927, in the improbable hope of marketing it to both the Czechoslovakian Army, and probably to Czechoslovakian Airlines as a primary trainer. It was an unconventional design, an unequal-span biplane of wooden construction and with tailskid undercarriage. The pilot and instructor sat in tandem open cockpits. A more powerful version was built, powered by a  Walter NZ-120 radial engine.

When no interest was shown in the aircraft domestically, Avia undertook a promotional tour where the aircraft was demonstrated in eighteen European countries, but this did not result in any sales either and only a few were built.

Specifications (NZ-85 engine)


Krisana Kraisintu

Krisana Kraisintu (, , ) is a Thai professor and pharmacist, as known as the  "Gypsy pharmacist". She was pharmaceutical consultant in the local production and increased access to life-saving medicines in Africa, in particular, in the domains of malaria and HIV/AIDS-related drug production.

She was formerly Director of Research and Development Institute of the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. Between 2002–2007 Kraisintu worked as a pharmaceutical consultant for Action Medeor, a German aid organization dealing with the production and distribution of medicines in Africa.

Kraisintu is the Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Medicines, Rangsit University, and a visiting professor at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand. She is also a visiting professor of oriental medicines at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China.

In 2009, she was given the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

HIV/AIDS drugs
Krisana conducted research on anti-retroviral drugs without much support and successfully formulated a generic version of  zidovudine (AZT), which treats HIV and reduces the risk of mother-to-child transmission, in 1995. The product was introduced to the market at a fraction of the cost of the branded product. Her achievement raised the pharmaceutical and health profile of Thailand as the first developing country to manufacture generic HIV/AIDS drugs.

Education
Kraisintu earned her bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Chiang Mai University, Thailand in 1975; a MSc in pharmaceutical analysis from Strathclyde University in 1978; and aPhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Bath in 1981. She was also awarded an Honorary DSc (Doctor of Science) from the University of Bath in 2009.

For the past 28 years, she has worked in the pharmaceutical industry in various roles of quality assurance, manufacturing, research and development and business development for the discovery, development, and commercialization of chemical and natural pharmaceutical products.

Honors


Ambrosius Franz, Count of Virmont

Ambrosius Franz Friedrich Christian Adalbert von Virmont (also von Viermund; 15 December 1682 – 19 November 1744) was a German nobleman and Imperial Count of Virmont and Bretzenheim.

Life
Ambrosius Franz was the only son of Ambrosius Adrian, Freiherr von Viermund zu Neersen (1640–1688) and Johanna Margaretha von Spee (died 1712). He baptised in December 1682. His family seat was Schloss Neersen in today's Willich in the Lower Rhine region. He was still a minor when his father died in 1688 and he inherited his father's titles and fiefs as Freiherr von Viermund and Lord of Neersen. He reached adulthood in 1699.

In 1705 he married Eleonore Magdalena Wilhelmina (1687–1727), daughter of Ernest William, Count of Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Steinfurt. This marriage gave him access to the higher ranks of the European nobility. In respect of the merits of his uncle General Damian Hugo von Virmont during the Great Turkish War, Emperor Joseph I on 8 September 1706 raised both him and his uncle to Imperial Counts. Following the fashion of the time his family name was altered from von Viermund to the frenchified von Virmont. His wife Eleonore died in 1727. Soon after his two children Maria Isabella Augusta Ernestine (1706–1728) and Joseph Damian Max (1707–1730) also died.

1731 he was appointed to be judge at the Imperial Chamber Court (Reichskammergericht) in Wetzlar and became one of the highest judges of the Holy Roman Empire. After Count Alexander IV. von Velen had died in 1733 the Archbishop and Prince-elector of Cologne Clemens August of Bavaria enfeoffed him with the Lordship of Bretzenheim. This Lordship was an Imperial Estate providing him a seat and vote both in the Upper Rhenish Circle and in the Bench of Counts of Westphalia. On 22 August 1738 he was even elected to be the catholic director of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Comital College. He furtheron styled himself as "Reichsgraf von und zu Virmont und Bretzenheim".

1741 in Vienna he married his second wife Maria Elisabeth von Nesselrode, daughter of the Royal-Hungarian Field Marshal Johann Hermann Franz von Nesselrode (died 1751) and his cousin Maria Ludovica von Virmont. Maria Elisabeth had been handmaiden of dowager empress Wilhelmine Amalia and was considerably younger than Ambrosius Franz. During all his life Ambrosius Franz sought to regain the estates and possessions of his family in and around the town of Viermünden in Hesse. 1742 he applied to be enfeoffed with the Lordship of Viermünden at the court of landgrave Frederick I and after being repeatedly refused filed a lawsuit at the Aulic Council in Vienna in this matter. His death in 1744 forestalled a final decision.

On 19 November 1744 after a masked ball in Wetzlar Ambrosius Franz abruptly died. Since the children from his first marriage had all died early and the second marriage had remained childless, the House of Viermund became extinct with his death. On 21 November 1744, he was buried in Wetzlar Cathedral. After a long legal dispute, his widow finally in 1763 returned the Lordship of Neersen, including Schloss Neersen, to the Electorate of Cologne for a payment of 110,000 florins. The Lordhship of Bretzenheim was given by the Archbishop of Cologne to Ignaz Felix Freiherr von Roll zu Bernau.

Titles
By 1744 he held the following titles:
 Reichsgraf von und zu Virmont und Bretzenheim,
 Baron (Freiherr) of Neersen, Anrath, Donk, Zoppenbroich, Nordenbeck and Gündringen,
 Lord (Herr) of the free County of Schönau, of Hülsdonk, Bladenhorst, Dürrenhardt, Altenhof, Clörath, Kollenburg and Broichhausen,
 Heredary Bailiff (Erbvogt) of Uerdingen
 Imperial Privy Councillor (Geheimrat) and Judge of the Chamber Court,
 Director of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Comital College,
 Knight Grand Cross and Commander of the Order of Saint Michael.

Notes


Yuki Kato (athlete)

is a Paralympic athlete from Japan competing mainly in category T36 sprints events.

Yuki competed in the 100m and 200m in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Paralympics winning the bronze medal in the T36 100m in 2004.


STS-129

STS-129 (ISS assembly flight ULF3) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Atlantis was launched on November 16, 2009 at 14:28 EST, and landed at 09:44 EST on November 27, 2009 on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. It was also the last shuttle launch of the 2000s.

STS-129 focused on staging spare components outside the station. The 11-day flight included three spacewalks. The payload bay carried two large ExPRESS Logistics Carriers holding two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly, a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm, a spare trailing umbilical system for the Mobile Transporter, and a high-pressure gas tank. STS-129 was the first flight of an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. The completion of this mission left six Space Shuttle flights remaining until the end of the Space Shuttle program, after STS-135 was approved in February 2011.

Crew

Crew seat assignments

Mission payload

ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 and 2

The primary payload of STS-129 was the ExPRESS (Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station) Logistics Carrier (ELC-1) and the ELC-2. The mass capacity of each ELC is  with a volume of 30 meters cubed (total with spares, ELC-1:  and ELC-2: ). Goddard Space Flight Center served as the overall integrator for ELC-1 and ELC-2, with the addition of components manufactured by the Brazilian Space Agency.

The spare hardware stored on ELC-1 includes an Ammonia Tank Assembly, a Battery Charger Discharge Unit, a station
robotic arm Latching End Effector, a Control Moment Gyroscope, a Nitrogen Tank Assembly, a Pump Module, a Plasma Contactor Unit and two empty Passive Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanisms.

ELC-2 was launched with an oxygen-filled High Pressure Gas Tank (HPGT), a Cargo Transport Container (CTC-1), a Mobile Transporter Trailing Umbilical System Reel Assembly (MT TUS-RA), a Control Moment Gyroscope, a Nitrogen Tank Assembly, a Pump Module, MISSE attach hardware and one empty site for future payloads.

ELC-1 was installed on the Unpressurized Cargo Carrier Attachment System #2 (UCCAS 2) on the P3 (port side) segment of the main truss. ELC-2 was installed on the Upper Outboard Payload Attach System on the S3 (Starboard Segment 3) of the main truss.

Materials on International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) carrier

ELC2 also carried MISSE-7, an experiment that will expose a variety of materials and coatings being considered for future spacecraft to the extreme conditions outside the space station. The materials are being evaluated for the effects of atomic oxygen, ultraviolet, direct sunlight, radiation, and extremes of heat and cold. 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.

MISSE-7 is composed of two suitcase-sized Passive Experiment Containers (PECs), identified as MISSE 7A and MISSE 7B. Once installed in the exterior of ISS by space walking astronauts, the PECs are opened. The orientation of MISSE 7A will be space facing/Earth facing while MISSE 7B will face forward/backward relative to the ISS orbit. Both MISSE 7A and MISSE 7B contain active and passive experiments. Passive experiments are designed for pre- and post-flight evaluation in ground-based laboratories.

S-band Antenna Sub-Assembly (SASA) package

Atlantis delivered a repaired S-band Antenna Sub-Assembly (SASA) to the ISS which was returned to Earth during the STS-120 mission in October 2007. SASA is a space station antenna assembly consisting of
 Assembly Contingency Radio Frequency Group (RFG or ACRFG)
 SASA Boom
 Avionics Wire Harness

Major functions of the ACRFG are to transmit/receive radio signals to/from the transponder, amplification of signals to a power level necessary to be acquired by a Tracking Data and Relay Satellite and to broadcast/receive signals through the selected antenna.

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. The fitting will serve as the structural interface for mounting the SASA to the Zenith 1 truss on the ISS.

The Avionics Wire Harness installed on the SASA Boom provides operational and heater power to the RFG. Another function of the harness is to send command/status/RF signals to and from RFG.

SASA package was attached to the sidewall inside the payload bay of Atlantis during the ascent to the ISS. It was transferred from the payload bay to the Zenith 1 truss for installation as a spare by spacewalkers Foreman and Satcher performing EVA 1 on November 19.

SpaceX COTS UHF Communication Unit and Crew Command Panel
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. It will be integrated on the space station in preparation for future SpaceX flights to the orbiting complex. The unit allows for communication between ISS and SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft via a UHF radio. Commands from SpaceX can be forwarded through ISS to CUCU and on to Dragon. Similarly, telemetry from Dragon and CUCU can be forwarded down through ISS for monitoring by SpaceX and NASA ground-based mission control. The Crew Command Panel (CCP) provides feedback about the state of the Dragon vehicle to astronauts aboard ISS. It additionally provides some simple commanding capability to the astronauts to be used during the Dragon approach to ISS.

Other items
Astronaut Randolph Bresnik carried a scarf worn by the noted American aviation pioneer and author Amelia Earhart. The scarf had been on display at the Ninety-Nines Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City. Bresnik's grandfather, Albert Louis Bresnik, was the personal photographer for Earhart from 1932 until July 2, 1937—the date of her disappearance. After being returned to Earth, the scarf would be placed in a new display at the Museum dedicated to the astronaut's grandfather's photographs.

In addition, the official opening toss-coin for Super Bowl XLIV (see "Pregame" section for the actual coin toss itself) as well as a football with all of the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees written on it and various other NFL-related, space-flown memorabilia were flown on STS-129.

Mission experiments

The crew of Atlantis worked with several short-term experiments during their mission. Atlantis also transported new long-term experiments to the space station. At the end of the mission, the shuttle will return some of the completed experiments from the ISS.

Short-term experiments included:
Shuttle Exhaust Ion Turbulence Experiments (SEITE) – The crew of Atlantis carried out the SEITE burn on Flight Day 11. SEITE uses instrumentation on The Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite for in situ observations of density and electric field disturbances caused by the shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engine exhaust plume. The scope of the research is to enhance the surveillance of space, real-time characterization, detection and tracking and timely surveillance of high interest objects.
Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Localized Exhaust Experiments (SIMPLEX) – The crew carried out the SIMPLEX burn on Flight Day 11. The experiment investigates plasma turbulence driven by shuttle exhaust in the ionosphere using ground-based radars. The processes by which chemical releases can produce plasma turbulence are quantified with the SIMPLEX measurements. Plasma turbulence can affect military navigation and communications using radio systems. They can also be used to promote communications by opening radio channels at abnormally high frequencies.

New experiments delivered to the space station included:
Microbe experiment – An experiment developed by Texas Southern University (TSU) students in Houston that aims to study how microbes (Escherichia colii and Bacillus subtilis) grow under weightless conditions in space. Students at TSU, Center for Bionanotechnology and Environmental Research (CBER) will share experimental data with K-12 students nationwide. Visit https://web.archive.org/web/20091204135023/http://www.tsu.edu/pages/3611.asp to obtain additional information on the experiment named "URC Microbial 1"or to download fact sheet use
Butterflies in Space Program – The shuttle carried a suitcase sized payload holding larvae of painted lady butterflies and monarch butterflies to the space station. Researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder expect to compare the space caterpillars with butterfly larvae raised on Earth by students from 100 U.S. elementary and middle schools. Visit http://www.bioedonline.org to follow the ground-based experiment on Earth at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, or to download the Butterflies in Space free teacher's guide for classroom use.
Advanced Plant Experiments on orbit (APEX-Cambium project) –  This joint Canadian Space Agency/NASA project aims to help determine the role gravity plays in the formation of reaction wood in trees. APEX-Cambium will also carry out a second experiment to detect the effects of stressors in space on gene expression in higher plants.
Atlantis transported thousands of the microscopic Caenorhabditis elegans worms that have been sent from the University of Nottingham, UK to the ISS. The worms are expected to suffer similar muscle loss to humans and will be stored inside the Kibo laboratory. They will be used to study the effect of zero gravity on the human body's muscle development and physiology. Several potential treatments for muscle loss will be tested on the creatures and the research findings will pave the way for treatments to be safely tested on astronauts.

For a comprehensive list of all STS-129 experiments and more information, see.

Mission background and milestones
The mission marked:

 160th NASA crewed space flight
 129th shuttle mission since STS-1
 31st flight of Atlantis
 31st shuttle mission to the ISS
 5th shuttle flight in 2009
 104th post-Challenger mission
 16th post-Columbia mission

The STS-129 mission marked NASA's fifth NASA Tweetup, and its first such event ever held during a Shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 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.

Launch window
The November 2009 launch window of Atlantis, between November 16 and November 20, was complicated by the launch of the Mini-Russian Research Module 2 (MRM-2) aboard a Soyuz-U rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Further conflict was caused by Eastern Range constraints with two other satellite launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, one at the beginning of the shuttle's launch window and the other at the end. The Eastern Range had been reserved on November 14 and 15, 2009, for the launch of the communications satellite Intelsat 14 aboard an Atlas-V rocket. A Delta-IV rocket carrying a Wideband Global SATCOM satellite was also expected to lift off on November 19, 2009.

On November 10, 2009, MRM-2 was successfully launched, docking with the ISS on the 12th, while on the same day the Delta-IV rocket team announced that they had delayed their launch to a future date, allowing the shuttle to gain additional launch opportunities at the end of the window if it required. Atlas V's launch with the Intelsat 14 was scrubbed on the 14th due to a technical issue requiring a rollback. The scrub, lasting more than 24 hours, meant that Atlantis also avoided a possible postponement of its launch slipping into November 17, 2009.

Shuttle processing

Atlantis was towed from its hangar in Orbiter Processing Facility-1 to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on October 6, 2009 at about 07:00 EDT. The move, known as rollover, was completed at 08:25 when Atlantis arrived in the VAB transfer aisle. Atlantis was initially scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A on October 13, 2009. 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.

Atlantis rolled out from the VAB to the Launch Complex 39A on October 14, 2009, at 06:38 EDT in a slow drive on the top of the Crawler-transporter. The  rollout was completed with the launch platform secured in place at about 13:31 EDT.

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. The FRR had approved the installation of a special minicam pointing out of window 4 on Atlantis flight deck. The camera will film the forward portion of the External Tank during the shuttle's ascent to orbit, in order to capture the behavior of the LO2 Ice Frost Ramps (IFRs) located on the upper part of the tank during potential liberation events.

NASA managers held a post news conference to brief about the outcomes of the FRR on October 30, 2009. The briefing was broadcast on NASA TV and was attended by William Gerstenmaier, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Operations, Michael Moses, Launch Integration Manager, Space Shuttle Program and Michael Leinbach, Space Shuttle launch director. Mr. Gerstenmaier and Mr. Moses mentioned about two issues related to ongoing shuttle processing that had been discussed during the FRR: (1) Effects of vibrations and acoustics associated with the Main Engine ignition—a potential issue with a stinger (bolt) structure on the aft of the shuttle, which may be susceptible to the stresses of Main Engine ignition (2) Shuttle's toilet – a new Aluminum bracket used to help anchor the toilet to the crew module structure had been installed. For future flights, NASA plans to use a redesigned Titanium bracket.

The payload for the mission was moved to Launch Pad 39A on the October 29, 2009 and was installed into the shuttle's payload bay on November 4, 2009.

During the post-flight interview on November 16, shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach told that Atlantis officially beat shuttle Discovery on the record low amount of Interim Problem Reports, with a total of just 54 listed since returning from the STS-125. He continued to add "It's due to the team and the hardware processing. They just did a great job. The record will probably never be broken again in the history of the Space Shuttle Program, so congratulations to them".

Launch preparations

Final launch preparations commenced at Pad 39A with technicians closing Atlantis' payload bay doors during the morning hours on November 13, 2009. On the same day, NASA's official launch countdown clock began at 1 pm and the crew flew to Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility in a Shuttle Training Aircraft Gulfstream II jet at 12:35 EST to prepare for the launch.

On November 14, 2009, after the L-2 Mission Management Team (MMT) meeting, Space Shuttle launch integration manager Michael Moses announced that the MMT gave the official "go" for Atlantis'''s launch on Monday, and Hobaugh and Wilmore practiced landings in the Shuttle Training Aircraft. 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.

The MMT again met at 04:30 EST on November 16, 2009 and gave a "go" to begin loading shuttle Atlantis' external tank. The tanking began at 05:03 EST and was completed at 08:00 EST. The final unanimous "go" for launch directive from the mission management team, mission control and the launch team came during the countdown clock holding at T-9 minutes.

The initial launch day weather forecast called for a 90% chance of favorable launch conditions. As the launch preparations continued, due to lower cloud cover ceilings it was changed to 70% and at liftoff to 80%.

 Mission timeline

 Nov. 16 (Flight Day 1 – Launch) Atlantis launched on time at 14:28 EDT (19:28:10 UTC), with launch commentator George Diller's words upon launch being "liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis, on a mission to build, re-supply and to do research on the International Space Station". Powered flight conformed to the standard timeline (see Space Shuttle – Mission Profile – Launch), with main engine cutoff (MECO) occurring at eight minutes and 24 seconds Mission Elapsed Time (MET) and the external tank separating from the shuttle at eight minutes and 38 seconds MET into the flight. A further boost from the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines was not required due to the nominal MECO and Atlantis settled into its planned preliminary orbit. A subsequent NC-1 engine firing adjusted the orbital path of the shuttle to the ISS, by altering the shuttle's velocity, resulting in a new orbit of 147 by 118 statute miles.

At the post-launch news conference, NASA officials reported that three foam events were seen in the external fuel tank (ET) video camera footage. They further quoted that the events weren't a concern since the foam loss events occurred after the aerodynamic sensitive time period. Later in the day, based on a quick-look review of the launch video, crew communicator (CAPCOM) astronaut Christopher Ferguson also informed the shuttle crew that there were no ascent debris events of concern.

Flight day 1 on-orbit operations included, opening of the 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. Some of the crew started their sleep period around 21:45 pm EST about an hour or so later than originally planned.

 Nov. 17 (Flight Day 2 – TPS survey)
The crew members aboard space shuttle Atlantis began their first full day in space at 09:28 UTC. The day was primarily devoted to inspect Atlantis's thermal protection system to look for any signs of launch damage. Using the shuttle's robotic arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), the crew performed a six-hour inspection of the reinforced carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels of the shuttle. 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.

The images and video from the thermal protection system survey would be reviewed by the image analysis team on the ground. 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.

The crew also made progress to dock with the space station on Flight Day 3. The mission's spacewalkers worked inside the middeck to test and ready the spacesuits that would be used during the spacewalks. The crew extended the ring of the orbital docking system in preparation for linkup with the ISS. Commander Charles Hobaugh also installed the docking system's centerline camera that was used during the rendezvous with the station in the docking port. Two Rendezvous burns were performed (NC-2 and NC-3) on the path to reach the station. The NC-2 burn was scheduled for earlier in the day and once again Atlantis reaction control jets were fired for NC-3 burn later in the day. The NC-3 burn lasted for 12s.

 Nov. 18 (Flight Day 3 – Docking) Atlantis crew awoke at 09:28 UTC and began the rendezvous operations two hours into the day. Guided by a series of maneuvers—NH, NC-4 and the Terminal Insertion burns to refine the shuttle's trajectory—Atlantis closed in on the space station. Before the shuttle docked STS-129 Commander Charles Hobaugh performed what is known as the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver (RPM) 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. The photos were down-linked to mission control for review. The pitch maneuver was completed at 16:01 UTC.

Docking to Harmony/Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 occurred a couple of minutes ahead of schedule at 16:51 UTC. The joined spacecraft were orbiting 220 miles above Earth at the time of docking, above Australia and Tasmania. After leak checks, the hatchway between Atlantis and the space station was opened at 18:28 UTC. The traditional welcome ceremony and the station safety briefing followed, and shuttle and station crews began their joint operations for the rest of day. The astronauts worked to move the spacewalking suits carried up on Atlantis over to the Quest airlock for use in the EVAs. 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.

Later in the day at 19:52 UTC, shuttle's robotic arm operated by Mission Specialists Melvin and Bresnik lifted the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 which it had grappled on Flight day 2 out of the payload bay. After handing over to the station's Canadarm2 controlled by shuttle Pilot Wilmore and station Flight Engineer Williams, the carrier was attached to the ISS's Port 3 truss at 21:27 UTC.

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.

During the post MMT briefing Leroy Cain noted that the shuttle continues to perform flawlessly with no significant problems to report. Furthermore, he added that NASA is not tracking down any significant issues with Atlantis.

 Nov. 19 (Flight Day 4 – EVA 1)

The wakeup call from the Mission Control Center in Houston went up to the crew at 09:28 UTC to begin Flight Day 4. 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. The crew was told to use that "deleted time" to get ahead with shuttle-to-station cargo transfers. Later on Thursday, NASA officials said that Atlantis heat shield has been cleared for re-entry.

The major activity for the day was mission's first spacewalk (EVA 1) by astronauts Foreman and Satcher. Foreman, the lead spacewalker wore a suit with solid red stripes while Satcher wore an all-white spacesuit. Inside the space station Atlantis Mission Specialist Randolph Bresnik choreographed the activities and coordinated communications between the spacewalkers and Mission Control. Since Foreman and Satcher completed their chores nearly two hours ahead of schedule, planners decided to add a "get ahead" task; Satcher to lubricate the Kibo robotic arm snares while Foreman to route a LAN cable on Zarya and mate power cables on a patch panel at the S0 truss. Towards the end of EVA 1, while deploying the Payload Attach System (PAS) on the Earth-facing side of the Starboard 3 truss, the crew had difficulty loosening a bolt and removing a diagonal brace on the PAS. After hammering on a bolt and wiggling the brace, they successfully deployed the PAS and reinstalled the brace. The spacewalk marked: 228th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 134th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, 106th spacewalk out of the space station, the fourth for Foreman and the first for Satcher.

The focus of other Atlantis crew members was mostly on supporting the spacewalk or related activities.

Nicole Stott celebrated her 47th birthday in space.

The astronauts went into their sleep period at 00:28 UTC on November 20, 2009 as planned, however they were awakened at 01:36 UTC due to a false alarm indicating a sudden depressurization. After checks on the ground and in orbit, flight controllers in Houston, Europe and Russia concluded the station was safe and the crews were not in danger. To make up for the sleep they lost reacting to the alarm, crew sleep period was extended by 30 minutes.

 November 20 (Flight Day 5 – internal transfers) Atlantis crew awoke at 09:28 UTC. Just after 12;00 UTC, Atlantis Commander Charles Hobaugh and Mission Specialist Leland Melvin used the shuttle robotic arm to grasp the Express Logistics Carrier (ELC2), located in Atlantis payload bay.

Internal shuttle-to-station transfer of material kept the crew members busy through flight day 5. As a result, well over half the mission's transfer activities were completed. Inside the station's Unity node, crew members also completed the two-day task of outfitting the node. 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.

Over the course of day, several of the crew participated in chats with media representatives on the ground to answer their questions related to the mission and the experience of being up in space. Shortly after 11:00 UTC, Commander Hobaugh and Pilot Wilmore talked with CBS News, FOXNews Radio and Nashville's WTVG-TV. At 12:28 UTC, Melvin and Satcher were interviewed by the Tom Joyner Morning Show and at 21:33 UTC, Hobaugh, Melvin and Satcher talked with ESPN's SportCenter, Black Entertainment Television News and WRIC-TV in Richmond, Virginia.

The crew also got prepared for the mission's second spacewalk on Saturday. These tasks included recharging batteries, switching out Robert Satcher's spacesuit for that of Randolph Bresnik and reviewing procedures.

The crew went to their sleep period at 00:28 UTC, a half-hour later than the station crew. Astronauts Foreman and Bresnik were to spend the night in the Quest airlock as part of the overnight "campout" procedure. 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. The depressurization alarm triggered automatic procedures that brought the airlock back up to the station's normal pressure of 14.7 psi. Because of time needed to reset various systems, Foreman and Bresnik were informed to forgo the normal "campout" procedure and to sleep wherever they liked, at the station's normal pressure. The flight controllers suspected that the alarms are a result of an unresolved problem with a newly arrived Russian Poisk (MRM2) module.

 Nov. 21 (Flight Day 6 – EVA 2)

Thirty minutes later than planned, Mission Control Center, Houston sent the crew wake-up call at 08:58 UTC.

The major activity for the day was mission's second spacewalk (EVA 2) by astronauts Foreman and Bresnik. Because of last night's space station false alarms sounded at 02:53 UTC, spacewalk was shortened to six hours and delayed the start. Mission Specialist Satcher, serving as the intravehicular crew member helped to direct the spacewalk. The spacewalking pair finished all their assigned work way ahead of timeline with no major problems and completed several "get ahead" tasks originally scheduled for the mission's third spacewalk. EVA 2 marked: 229th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 135th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, 107th spacewalk out of the space station, the fifth for Foreman and the first for Bresnik. Also between STS-123 and STS-129, Michael Foreman has completed five spacewalks totaling 32 hours, 19 minutes and placing him 28th on the all-time list.

Earlier, at 11:32 UTC, Atlantis robotic arm operators Leland Melvin and Robert Satcher lifted ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 2 out of the shuttle payload bay and handed off to space station's robotic arm, Canadarm2. 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.

Ground engineers declared that a minor ring misalignment on Atlantis Orbiter Docking System (ODS) is of no issue. They cleared the system for undocking and redocking with the space station—a safe haven scenario which would only be initiated in the event Atlantis has to return to the ISS. The docking ring had lost alignment during ring extension on flight day 2.

 Nov. 22 (Flight Day 7 – Off duty)

The crew was awakened at 07:58 UTC. The day that began with some exciting news from Randolph Bresnik to Mission Control in Houston. Bresnik reported the birth of his daughter, Abigail Mae Bresnik at 17:04 UTC Saturday.  He had got the news by private phone patch through mission control shortly after the crew was awakened. Mission specialist Bresnik is the second astronaut to become a father while in space. The first was astronaut Michael Fincke, whose wife gave birth to a baby girl while he was working at the International Space Station in 2004.

The crew got a half-day off and earlier on the day and discussed their spaceflight with reporters. 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. Wilmore, Melvin and Stott also supported an educational PAO TV event with Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, attended by Tennessee students, the President of the University, and Representative Barton Gordon (Democratic-Tennessee). The Tennessee Technological University alumnus Wilmore's parents were also present.

Some astronauts on both shuttle and station crews worked part-time to transfer equipment from the shuttle to the station and back, and to investigate false alarms sounded on Thursday and Friday. Preparations also continued for third and the last spacewalk of the mission. Shuttle crew members as well as the station's crew joined in an hour-long spacewalk procedures review just before bedtime. Satcher and Bresnik prepared tools for their spacewalk, with help from Foreman. The two spacewalkers began their "campout" procedure in the Quest airlock.

 Nov. 23 (Flight Day 8 – EVA 3)

Atlantis' crew awoke at 07:28 UTC.

The major activity for the day was mission's third and final spacewalk (EVA 3) by astronauts Satcher and Bresnik.  For identification, Satcher wore an all-white spacesuit while Bresnik wore a spacesuit with broken red stripes. Atlantis Mission Specialist Foreman, the intravehicular crew member for EVA 3 choreographed the activities and coordinated communications between the spacewalkers and Mission Control. Astronauts Melvin and Wilmore operated the station's robotic Canadarm2.

The spacewalk started just over an hour later than planned due to Satcher reinserting a valve that became detached in his spacesuit drink bag. The bag is contained in the spacesuit and allows spacewalkers to sip water throughout their activity.

Working ahead of schedule most of time, the two Mission Specialists completed all the primary jobs they were assigned and all the "get ahead" work that was added to their timeline. EVA 3 marked: the 230th conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 136th in support of Space Station assembly and maintenance, totaling 849 hours, 18 minutes and the 108th spacewalk out of the space station, totaling 662 hours, 3 minutes. It was also the second for both Satcher and Bresnik.

The role of other Atlantis and Space Station crew members were mostly on supporting the spacewalk and completing cargo transfers between the shuttle and the ISS. 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. De Winne working with STS-129 Commander Hobaugh afterwards, terminated the transfer of Nitrogen gas from Atlantis to the ISS.

 Nov. 24 (Flight Day 9 – Hatch closure)

The crew woke at 06:58 UTC. Earlier on the day, Atlantis astronauts used the maneuvering thrusters of the shuttle to boost the Space Station to a slightly higher orbit. This 27-minute maneuver changed the station's velocity by 2.5 feet per second and raised its orbit by about .

Final internal transfers continued throughout the day. Around 1,400 lbs of water from Atlantis to the Space Station was handed over. During 5 days of joint work, the crews also transferred 2,100 pounds of to be returned experiments and items.

Inside ISS, around 12:00 UTC a false smoke and fire alarm triggered by the Japanese Kibo laboratory sounded for about 4 minutes. Mission Control in Houston concluded that stirred up dust particles due to transfer operations aboard the station might have sounded the alarm. This was the third false station alarm during the STS-129 mission. The two previous alarms originated in the new Russian Poisk module.Atlantis and the station crews also joined together for a traditional news conference with reporters at NASA centers, Mission Control in Russia and Canada, and TF1 evening news in France. The interactive event was aired live at 13:00 UTC. During the news conference, Expedition 21 astronaut Robert Thirsk said "The space station now is nearly complete". The station is currently about 86% complete.

Aboard the Destiny laboratory at 15:00 UTC shortly after a joint crew photo, Frank De Winne, the first European Space Agency commander of the Space Station handed over his command to astronaut Jeffrey Williams. The Change of Command Ceremony was the first-of-its-kind command handover during a shuttle mission on the ISS. Just after the ceremony, Atlantis crew members began a two-hour, off-duty period.

At 17:43 UTC, Atlantis astronauts bid farewell to the Station's crew inside the Harmony module and crossed the threshold into the shuttle. The hatches between the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station were closed at 18:12 UTC in preparation for the Atlantis undocking. The hatch closure ended 5 days, 23 hours and 44 minutes of joint time between Atlantis and the station crews. Atlantis crew used their first hour separated from the station crew to get ready for undocking. They checked out rendezvous tools and set up a centerline camera and carried out leak checks on the Orbiter Docking System (ODS).

 Nov. 25 (Flight Day 10 – Undocking)
Shuttle crew members were awakened at 06:29 UTC. Undocking operations began about an hour before the separation of the shuttle and the Space Station. The two spacecraft undocked at 09:53 UTC. The total docked time was 6 days, 17 hours and 2 minutes. After undocking, Wilmore piloted Atlantis to a point about 450 feet ahead of the station, then, began a flyaround. 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.

During a routine flush out of the shuttle waste water tank Wednesday morning, the astronauts ran into a problem. Mission Control noticed a reduction in the flow from the nozzle that vents the waste water into space. The tank can hold 165 pounds of liquid waste and the crew only managed to get it down to about 80 pounds. Later in the day, astronauts used the camera on Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS) to survey the condition of the nozzle. Since no ice was found, Flight Controllers told the crew that it is likely that there is a blockage in the line.

Standard late inspections of the Thermal Protection System took place later on Flight Day 10. About 12:15 UTC, Wilmore and Melvin began grappling and unberthing the OBSS for the survey of the shuttle's heat shield. With help from Bresnik, they inspected the reinforced carbon-carbon of the right wing leading edge, then the nose cap and the left wing leading edge. The inspection tasks took more than five hours.

 Nov. 26 (Flight Day 11 – End of Mission Prep)

The crew was awakened at 06:28 UTC for their final full day in space. STS-129 was the eighth shuttle mission in history to mark the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday up in space and the second time for Atlantis. The first time for Atlantis was during STS-61-B mission in 1985.

"The first big news of the day is that our TPS, the Thermal Protection System has been cleared for entry" said STS-129 Entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney early in the day's Mission Status Briefing. Later, he also mentioned that "Atlantis is in great shape, the crew is in great shape ready for de-orbit tomorrow".

The crew spent time stowing items in the shuttle's cabin in preparation for the return to Earth. Cabin stowage started at 08:48 UTC.Atlantis crew tested shuttle's re-entry systems. Commander Hobaugh and Pilot Wilmore, with help from Mission Specialist Bresnik checked out the Flight Control System (FCS). Immediately afterwards, at 10:58 UTC, the astronauts test fired Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters. The RCS thrusters control the shuttle's orientation as it descends and begins its re-entry through the atmosphere. All astronauts gathered for a deorbit briefing a little after 11:00 UTC, just before their midday meal. The Thanksgiving dinner aboard Atlantis was more traditional than expected.

Earlier in the day, astronauts carried out the Shuttle Exhaust Ion Turbulence Experiments (SEITE) burn. The burn was radial down (nose to the Earth) such that the burn plume was observed by the orbiting C/NOFS satellite. Later, the Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Localized Exhaust Experiments (SIMPLEX) burn was conducted, with the burn plume observed by the Arecibo ground station.

All seven crew members took a break at 13:13 UTC for a 20-minute talk with news media representatives. During the chat they took questions from ABC Radio, WTVT-TV in Tampa and KCBS in Los Angeles.

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.

 Nov. 27 (Flight Day 12 – Re-entry and Landing)

The Shuttle crew awoke Friday at 05:28 UTC. 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. Mission Control also instructed the astronauts to begin "fluid loading" – a protocol that aids the astronauts' readjustment to gravity. The crew strapped into their seats at 12:37 UTC in preparation for a landing. 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. The deorbit burn decelerated the orbiter by about 211 miles per hour, enough to lower its orbital perigee into the upper atmosphere. Atlantis encountered the first traces of Earth's atmosphere, known as "entry interface", at 14:12 UTC at an altitude of 399,000 feet flying over the Pacific Ocean. At 14:26 UTC, eighteen minutes before touchdown, the orbiter was travelling at Mach 22; nine minutes later the orbiter was "gliding" at Mach 6. The shuttle's ground track took it along the east coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, across the Gulf of Mexico and cross the Florida coast south of Fort Myers.Atlantis main landing gear wheels touched down at 09:44:23 am EST (14:44:23 UTC) on Runway 33, followed by the nose wheel at 9:44:36 am EST (14:44:36 UTC). The shuttle's wheels stopped at 9:45:05 am EST (14:45:05 UTC). This was the 72nd Space Shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center. As the shuttle rolled to a halt, Commander Hobaugh announced "Houston, Atlantis, wheels stop". 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. Everybody, welcome back to Earth, especially you, Nicole."Atlantis had two opportunities to land on November 27, 2009, with two more on November 28, 2009 – all targeting Kennedy Space Center. If the November 27, 2009 landing was waved off for some reason, the shuttle had consumables on board to allow Atlantis to remain in space until November 30, 2009.

After working through the checklists to safely power down the orbiter for about an hour, the crew got out of Atlantis and into the Crew Transport Vehicle. Exiting the vehicle without Stott, they performed the traditional walk-around of the shuttle and met with employees from NASA. Speaking briefly to the press following the walk-around, Commander Hobaugh said "We really had truly an amazing mission". He went to add, "We had no hitches. It was not us, it was not any single group, but it was just an incredible team from all around the nation".

Post-landing Crew Conference was held later in the day. Five STS-129 astronauts attended the conference. Mission Specialists, Randolph Bresnik and Nicole Stott were absent. Bresnik had flown home right away aboard a NASA training jet to be with his wife and new baby daughter. Stott was to take up standard medical checkups after her 91 days in space aboard the International 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 crew members flew back to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on the following Saturday. On November 30, 2009 they received the traditional Houston homecoming celebration at nearby Ellington Field.

Spacewalks

Wake-up calls
NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, which was first used to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15.
Each track is specially chosen, often by their families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.

Mission insignia
The STS-129 mission patch was designed by Tim Gagnon and Dr. Jorge Cartes. The rather unusual shape of the patch resulted from the crew's desire for the patch to signify the mission's payload (two ExPRESS Logistics Carriers) providing equipment ensuring the longevity of the ISS.

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).

The 13 stars on the patch represent the crewmembers' children, and the Moon and Mars represent the future of space exploration. The names of the crew members are denoted on the outer band of the patch.


Arthur Onslow (priest)

Arthur Onslow (31 August 1746 – 15 October 1817) was Dean of Worcester from 1795 until his death.

The son of Lieutenant General Richard Onslow, he was educated at Eton and Exeter College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1774 and held incumbencies at St James Garlickhythe in the City of London, Shottesbrooke, Kidderminster, Wolverley and  Lindridge. He married Frances Phipps in 1772. They had two daughters and three sons, one of whom, Richard, was Archdeacon of Worcester from 1815 to 1849.


Venmanad

Venmanad is a census town in Thrissur district in the Indian state of Kerala.

Demographics
 India census, Venmanad had a population of 9687. Males constitute 48% of the population and females 52%. Venmanad has an average literacy rate of 86%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 87%, and female literacy is 85%. In Venmanad, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age.


M-94 (Michigan highway)

M-94 is a state trunkline in the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. It runs for  from K. I. Sawyer to Manistique. The highway is part of the Lake Superior Circle Tour during a concurrency with M-28. M-94 crosses the Siphon Bridge in Manistique, unique for the fact that the bridge roadway is below water level.

M-94 has been realigned several times. It has had its own roadway between the M-28 junctions in Munising and Shingleton. Other changes have flip-flopped M-94 with M-28 between Harvey and Munising and extended it across the former K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base.

Route description

M-94 begins at an intersection with M-553 and crosses the former K. I. Sawyer AFB. Then it overlaps US 41 for a little over a mile near Skandia. East of Skandia, M-94 runs through forest lands and serves the communities of Sundell and Rumely before entering Eben Junction. There M-94 intersects the southern section of H-01. Further east is Chatham where there are junctions with the northern section of H-01 and M-67. M-94 turns southerly briefly  before returning to an east–west direction to head to the community of Forest Lake and ultimately Munising. There M-94 joins  a concurrency with M-28 and the Lake Superior Circle Tour from Munising to Shingleton. Until the turn at Shingleton, the route is more decidedly east–west than north–south. Between Shingleton and Manistique, M-94 is more north–south.

South of Shingleton, M-94 runs through forest lands as a part of the Great Manistique Swamp. Along the way are national forest campgrounds located near Steuben. South of Crooked Lake, M-94 curves to the east before turning almost due south to the Manistique area. In Manistique, M-94 enters town on North 5th St before turning to follow Deer Street and River Street. On River Street, the trunkline uses the Siphon Bridge to cross the Manistique River and then uses Elk and Maple streets before terminating at US 2 at Lakeshore Drive.

Siphon Bridge
In Manistique, M-94 crosses the Manistique River on the "Siphon Bridge". Built as a part of a raceway flume on the river, the water level actually used to be higher than the road surface. This produced a siphon effect, giving the bridge its nickname. The Manistique Pulp and Paper Company was organized in 1916 and needed a dam on the Manistique River to supply their mill. This dam would have needed to flood a large section of the city. The shallow river banks meant difficulties in any bridge construction. Instead of expensive dikes, a concrete tank was built lengthwise in the river bed. The sides of this tank provided man-made banks higher than the natural banks. The Michigan Works Progress Administration described the bridge as having, "concrete bulkheads, formed by the side spans of the bridge, [that]  allow the mill to maintain the water level several feet above the roadbed." The bridge acted as a siphon because the water level was above the roadway, and the structure has been featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

History

The December 1927 Michigan State Highway Department Official Highway Service Map shows M-94 routed from Au Train west to Munising and further along its current routing to Manistique.  In 1928 or 1929, M-94 was rerouted to run along Munising-Van Meer-Shingleton Road (now H-58 and H-15) and southerly to Shingleton. This routing was abandoned on November 7, 1963. It was later extended westward to Harvey in 1939. In 1941, the portion of M-94 west from Munising to Harvey was made a part of M-28, and M-94 was extended along its current routing from Munising to US 41. M-94 was extended for the last time in 1998 over US 41 and through the old K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base to end at a newly designated M-553. In October 2016, heavy rainfall cause the culverts directing the Chocolay River under M-94 in West Branch Township to fail. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) started construction of a , concrete, single-span bridge at a cost of $1.8 million on March 6, 2017, and opened the structure to traffic on June 28 of the same year.

Major intersections


A.D. Apopa

Asociación Deportiva Apopa is a professional soccer team of the El Salvadorian city of Apopa.

History
In 2015, the club was granted a license to compete in the newly expanded segunda division El Salvador.

Rivalry
Apopa's current biggest rivalry was with fellow and Older Apopa based team C.D. Vendaval, against whom they contest the derby Apopense.

Honours

Domestic honours
 Segunda División Salvadorean and predecessors
 Champions (1) : TBD
 Tercera División Salvadorean and predecessors
 Champions:(1) : TBD

List of Coaches
El Salvador:
   Marcos Antonio Portillo (2015–)