Posted on 12/19/2006 10:32:17 AM PST by NormsRevenge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Fresh from the success of an impromptu spacewalk, shuttle Discovery's astronauts awoke Tuesday to the strains of "Zamboni" by the Gear Daddies and got ready to undock from the international space station.
"We can't offer you a Zamboni to drive today," said Mission Control astronaut Shannon Lucid, referring to the ice rink machine immortalized in the Minnesota band's country rock song. "But if you look at today's flight plan, you will see that we are offering you the opportunity to fly the shuttle for half a lap flyaround. That's not a bad tradeoff."
Space shuttle Discovery's astronauts, who are due to return to Earth later this week, rewired the space station, managed four spacewalks, and on Monday completed the most difficult task of their mission: getting a stubborn, accordion-like solar panel array folded up.
The extra, 6 1/2-hour spacewalk — completed with none of the ground training the crew had for scheduled spacewalks — delayed Discovery's undocking by a day and pushed back the shuttle's return to Earth to Friday from Thursday. Because of supply limits, Discovery needs to be on the ground by Saturday.
U.S. astronaut Robert Curbeam and Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang of the European Space Agency worked for more than five hours to get the last section of a 115-foot-long solar array folded up into a box at the international space station.
"You guys are super heroes!" astronaut Megan McArthur in Mission Control told Discovery commander Mark Polansky and his crew.
The spacewalking pair used a scraper to try to get the array unstuck, shook the panel and used pliers to tighten the wire that folds it up. It was a stop-and-go process with the spacewalkers fiddling with the equipment and then astronauts inside the space station sending remote-controlled commands to fold up the array with the words, "Ready, ready, retract."
Curbeam worked from the end of the space station's robotic arm. His fourth trip outside the station during Discovery's visit set a record for the most spacewalks in a single shuttle mission. His spacewalk also moved him up to fifth place on the list of astronauts and cosmonauts with the most time spacewalking.
Workers in Mission Control applauded when the final section fell into the box, although a wire loop hung out. Curbeam worked about half an hour longer to get it rolled back in and the box latched.
"There's just no replacing eyeballs and hands in space," said flight director John Curry. "It's another great day in space."
The array was part of the space station's temporary power source. The space agency had to retract it to make room for a newly installed array that will be part of the space station's permanent power source.
During their 13-day mission, Discovery's astronauts also rewired the station, installed a 2-ton, $11 million addition to the orbiting space lab and replaced space station crew member Thomas Reiter of Germany with American astronaut Sunita Williams, who will spend the next six months in orbit.
In this photo from NASA Video, space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang (TopR) of Sweden and US Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam (C) inspect the P6 solar array on the International Space Station on 18 December 2006. Space shuttle Discovery astronauts are winding down a successful eight-day stay on the International Space Station during which they added a new truss segment and rewired its electrical system, NASA said.(AFP/NASA-HO)
On the Net:
NASA: http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov
Don't forget to watch the ISS tonight, there are excellent viewing conditions for the US, especially the Midwest.
See www.heavens-above.com for the predicted passes and how to observe.
Tonight over my home it will be incredibly bright, weather conditions permitting.
Thanks for the link, we may actually have some clear skies here in the Bay Area,,
also here's a nasa site too..
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/
Thanks NR.
I was able to view the ISS as it passed overhead of the Johnson Space Center last Sunday at 5:47 p.m. CST. It was fascinating to watch it streak across the sky at twilight and much brighter than I had imagined it would be (magnitude -0.7 on that pass). I agree it's worth the effort to take a look.
Considering that the ISS will eventually have nearly three times the reflective solar array area onboard as it has now, the brightness of ISS in its final configuration will be second only to the Moon in the night sky.
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As if life wasn't hard enough for the werewolves among us right now . . . |
The visibility magnitude numbers are in the negative for ISS here and the skies should be clear. Lower the mag, higher the visibility. from Heavens-Above.com
A report I read last evening said the two spacecraft will be traveling 600 feet apart for one hour after undocking. If that is the case when they pass over our locations and the 600 feet are perpendicular to our lines of sight, then yes, 7 power binoculars should reveal them as two separate craft.
Thanks for the report, UP.
It is fun to go to a party at night and print out the times of satellites, etc., as predicted by www.heavens-above.com.
You gotta have your watch set accurately, though, because the predictions are exactly correct.
spaceflightnow.com
1248 GMT (7:48 a.m. EST)
Discovery's astronauts were just awakened to begin flight day 12, which will be devoted to final inspections of the craft's heatshield to check for any micrometeoroid or space debris impacts.
0012 GMT (7:12 p.m. EST Tues.)
The third of three separation engine burns was just completed. This one used the OMS engines for 11 seconds to lower Discovery's orbit by about 10 miles at apogee and one mile at perigee. The new orbit is 182 by 170 miles.
spaceflightnow.com
1853 GMT (1:53 p.m. EST)
Inspections of the reinforced carbon-carbon leading edge panels on Discovery's starboard wing were just completed by the laser and camera package of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System. Next, the crew will use the 50-foot boom to examine the shuttle's nose cap. That will be followed by the port wing leading edge panel survey.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we get to witness another BA-BOOM when it returns to the Cape.
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