to likely be from a camera system, and was ultimately ruled out as a concern. Mission timeline May 14 (Flight Day 1 – Launch) The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis occurred on time at 18:20 UTC, with launch commentator George Diller saying that the shuttle was "reaching the crest of its historic achievements in space". Powered flight conformed to the standard timeline, with main engine cutoff (MECO) occurring at 8 minutes and 32 seconds Mission Elapsed Time (MET). The External Tank, ET-136, separated from the shuttle 15 seconds later at 8:47 MET. 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 of about 26 seconds adjusted the orbital path of the shuttle to match that of the International Space Station (ISS), by altering the shuttle's velocity by about . NASA held a post-launch news conference with Bill Gerstenmaier, Alexey Krasnov (chief of the Piloted Programs Directorate at the Russian Federal Space Agency), Mike Moses and Mike Leinbach. During the conference, Gerstenmaier made mention of a piece of space junk that could potentially have impacted Atlantis' planned arrival at the ISS. More than 39,000 guests, including television host David Letterman, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and former NASA administrator Michael Griffin, witnessed the launch. The Russian deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, and the head of the Russian Space Federal Agency, Anatoly Perminov, were also present at KSC. Once in orbit, the crew opened the shuttle's payload bay doors, activated the radiators and deployed the Ku band antenna successfully. They also completed a checkout of the orbiter's Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS). The crew was also successful in downlinking all imagery from Atlantis umbilical well cameras, along with crew video of ET-136, for review by imagery experts in the ground. Preliminary inspections showed that ET-136 was very clean and had performed well during the ascent, with only a few foam liberation incidents visible. The launch of Atlantis on STS-132 was supposed to be its last. The mission patch depicted Atlantis flying into the sunset as she retired, and the Space Shuttle Program patches on sale at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch showed the years 1981–2010 for the program. The programme guide magazine to the launch also cited the launch as the final flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis. However, on