Posted on 08/05/2005 8:38:13 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - Discovery's astronauts lowered a huge container filled with a 2 1/2-year backlog of space station trash and old broken equipment into the shuttle Friday for return to Earth next week.
It was their biggest task of the day, coming just one day after NASA cleared Discovery to come home and one day before their departure from the international space station. The contents of the cargo container, which was slowly anchored into the shuttle's payload bay by a robot arm, will either be junked once it's back on Earth or returned to engineers for analysis.
Their other task Friday was to put away the inspection boom that they used to survey their spaceship.
Much of the packing work was tedious and time-consuming. At one point, astronauts asked Mission Control what they should do with a piece of white foam that wouldn't fit into a bag.
"We see it well, and we concur. It is not tiny," Mission Control's Steve Frick said after looking at the material over a video link. He later told the crew they could cut the foam to make it fit.
Another call from Mission Control went unanswered for a few minutes as the astronauts worked. "Sorry to ignore you," astronaut Stephen Robinson radioed as the crew secured items in large white bags. "We all have our heads down in bags."
The amount of trash being removed was larger than usual because of the 2 1/2-year gap in shuttle flights after the Columbia disaster. The space station has had to rely on much smaller Russian cargo ships for restocking and a limited amount of trash removal.
Friday's activity came a day after NASA gave the all-clear for Discovery to return to Earth, concluding that there was no need to send the astronauts out on another spacewalk to repair a torn thermal blanket near a cockpit window.
Mission managers could not guarantee that a piece of the blanket wouldn't rip and slam into the spacecraft during re-entry, but said the chances were slim.
"We have assessed the risk to the very best of our engineering knowledge and we believe that it is remote, small, whatever adjective you want to put with that," deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said. "And the remedy that might be called for to try to make this better would be worse."
Had blanket repairs been necessary, the work would have come during a fourth spacewalk. It would have been the second time during Discovery's 13-day mission that astronauts were called on to repair their spacecraft's thermal protection shield.
During unprecedented repairs earlier this week, Robinson went beneath Discovery's belly to remove two protruding strips of tile filler that engineers thought could lead to dangerous overheating during the trip home.
They feared leaving the strips could cause a repeat of Columbia's disastrous re-entry in 2003 when that spacecraft, damaged by a piece of insulating foam during launch, broke apart over Texas as it headed to Florida, killing the seven astronauts on board.
Discovery is the first shuttle to return to orbit since the tragedy.
Pat Youngs, the husband of Discovery commander Eileen Collins, said Friday morning there's always a degree of apprehension to any shuttle re-entry, "but I feel very confident" for this one.
"The mission itself has been incredibly successful and with all the new photography and inspection capability that was demonstrated," Youngs said. "They were able to recognize the problems and, to my satisfaction, resolve them. In the past ... you wouldn't have any idea and you just hoped everything was OK."
Among the crew's goals for the mission were resupplying the space station, bringing home the station's trash, and intensely inspecting Discovery for damage. The astronauts also tested repair techniques on orbit that were developed after Columbia.
"We put the orbiter under a microscope," Hale said. "We are out there with every little spot, scuff, ding, you name it. It's not ignored. It's not brushed off. It is evaluated by a large team of engineers who are very knowledgeable."
Shortly after Discovery's launch, NASA officials learned a large chunk of foam reminiscent of the one that doomed Columbia had fallen from Discovery's external tank during its climb to orbit. NASA quickly said it would ground future missions until it can find a way to keep large pieces of debris from shedding.
The agency has already spent $1.4 billion and 2 1/2 years working the problem.
Discovery is set to undock from the space station Saturday. The crew and the space station's two-member crew planned one last meal together before Discovery's departure from the orbiting lab.
The shuttle is scheduled to land back at Cape Canaveral, Fla., before dawn Monday.
The Rafaello multi-purpose logistics module, holding some two and one half tons of equipment and refuse no longer needed on the space station, on its way to the cargo bay of Discovery aboard the station's Canadarm2 robot arm. Discovery astronauts started packing up on Friday for their departure from the International Space Station after NASA finally said the shuttle was safe enough to come home from the first flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster. EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/NASA TV
I sure would not like to haul the trash home why dont they let it burn up in the atmosphere
SCRAP NASA.
"Discovery's astronauts lowered a huge container filled with a 2 1/2-year backlog of space station trash and old broken equipment into the shuttle Friday for return to Earth next week."
Yeah, and then they probably dented the garbage can real good before tossing it on the front lawn.
In order to let it burn up in the atmosphere, they have to slow it. There is no provision to attach retro rocket and associated guidance equipment to the module. The only other option is to lower the Orbiter to a lower Earth orbit, then toss the container out, where it will eventually return to earth in several years. In the meantime, it would be just one more piece of space junk to track and avoid.
Easier to just bring it home. My question is did the Shuttle bring up a replacement cargo pod?
The Rafaello was brought up in Discovery's cargo bay stuffed full of supplies. I believe they said thirty thousand pounds of supplies. It was docked to the station and the supplies were cleaned out, then it was packed with garbage for the return trip.
It makes one think how tough it would be to fill a space dumpster in the absence of gravity. You'd need to strap down each item as you inserted it. No standing inside and stamping it down.
"Nice. So our taxdollars are paying for a garbage scow that keeps breaking down.
SCRAP NASA."
Nonsense.
You took the words right out of my mind; and, Rafaello looks like a glorified dumpster.
n2s
> Easier to just bring it home.
And sell it on Ebay! I'll be there's some cool stuff...
Now THAT is a politically correct waste of time and money. They should simply have pushed the trash bag back towards Earth. It would have been incinerated upon reentry for no extra cost.
Can you say "E Bay"?
Will Freepers be tracking Discovery as it crosses the country to land as they did last time? If you know of a thread where it's being tracked, would you please ping me to it? Thanks.
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