Posted on 03/10/2008 9:13:27 AM PDT by RobFromGa
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's space shuttle Endeavour is on track to light the predawn Florida sky ablaze early Tuesday as it rockets toward the International Space Station (ISS) with seven astronauts on board.
Led by commander Dominic Gorie, Endeavour's STS-123 crew will install the first piece of Japan's three-part Kibo laboratory, assemble a monstrous, two-armed Canadian robot and deliver a suite of on-orbit experiments during their mission. The shuttle is counting down toward a planned 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT) launch on Tuesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Gorie and his crew plan to spend 16 days executing their mission, which is the longest space station-bound flight NASA has ever concocted. And with no less than five spacewalks on tap, the astronauts consider their mission as one of the most intense and exhilarating, too.
"If you go to a drawing board and describe an exciting mission from scratch, I think you'd end up with STS-123," Gorie said. "We've got everything on this mission that you could imagine."
Joining the veteran spaceflyer aboard Endeavour will be pilot Gregory H. Johnson, mission specialists Robert Behnken, Mike Foreman, Rick Linnehan and JAXA astronaut Takao Doi. Rookie spaceflyer Garrett Reisman will stay behind as a member of the Expedition 16 space station crew, allowing European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Leopold Eyharts to return home.
A successful launch will mark the second space station assembly mission of 2008, as well as the second of up to six NASA shuttle missions planned for the year.
Clear skies?
Endeavour has a 90 percent chance of favorable weather conditions at launch time, with the potential for thick clouds posing the only threat, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Pat Barrett, NASA's shuttle weather officer with the 45th Weather Squadron, in a Sunday briefing.
"We are expecting favorable conditions for launch. The only concern we have is a slight chance of seeing some low-level clouds moving into the area from ... the Atlantic," Barrett said, adding that cloud cover can interfere with tracking the 100-ton orbiter as it speeds to more than 17,500 mph (28,200 kph) during the trip to space.
If all goes as planned, Endeavour will be the second shuttle to launch in darkness since the 2003 Columbia tragedy, and the 30th total night launch, following the shuttle Discovery's December 2006 liftoff.
Shot in the dark
Darkness can be dangerous because technicians have a tough time spotting errant chunks of ice or insulating foam that can shed from an orbiter's 15-story fuel tank — debris which can damage the heat-resistant underbelly of a space shuttle.
But LeRoy Cain, chair of NASA's mission management team, said the agency has addressed these risks by improving the external fuel tank and adding extra cameras to the launch vehicle.
"We feel very comfortable to go fly at night," Cain told reporters during a Sunday briefing. One of the new improvements flying aboard Endeavour is a flash unit for a belly-mounted camera to help photograph the shuttle's fuel tank after separation.
"This will be the first time that we've flown that," Cain said, noting that it should put on quite a show when Endeavour sheds its orange fuel tank high above the Earth. "You can expect to see some pretty brilliant flashes in a sequence [in video footage] after we have physical separation from the external tank."
International cargo
Shortly after reaching the space station some 212 miles (340 kilometers) above the Earth, the crew will deliver the cylindrical Japanese Logistics Pressurized (JLP) module.
"Japanese people have been waiting a very long, long time," Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, ISS program manager for JAXA, said of the JLP's launch and delivery to the space station. "It will be an unforgettable event."
Two days after Japan's first orbital room is stowed in a temporary berth at the space station, spacewalkers Linnehan, Foreman and Behnken will piece together Dextre — the Canadian Space Agency's (CSA) maintenance robot that weighs more than 3,440 pounds (1,560 kilograms).
The giant robot, often personified by the STS-123 crew as "Mr. Dextre," will have an arm span of about 30 feet (9 meters) and stand 12 feet (3.7 meters) tall. By guiding highly precise "hands" from inside the space station, astronauts can perform basic space station maintenance without having to venture into the unforgiving space environment outside.
"As spacewalkers, we don't want to put ourselves out of the job," Foreman said of the robot's abilities. "But I think ... Dextre will be a boon to the space station when it gets built and put into work."
If the shuttle's Tuesday morning launch attempt is foiled, NASA will try again no earlier than 2:02 a.m. EDT (0602 GMT) on Wednesday with a less encouraging 70 percent chance of liftoff. Clouds may botch a second attempt, with the added threat of rain showers, shuttle weather officials said. Should further delay be required, Endeavour would stand down until after March 15 to allow an unmanned Delta 2 rocket to launch a navigation satellite from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Endeavour is scheduled to return to Earth on March 26 at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT March 27) at Kennedy Space Center.
prisoner6
and away they go !
Saw at least one black thing go by...couldn’t tell what it was.
16 days in space. Holly buckets. No sex.
Heck that's no biggie. Wife has me trained to go...ummm...a LONG time without...sigh.
prisoner6
So I guess Spitzer couldn't get Astronaut qualified??
Nice pic! Call an exterminator!!!!!!
Doing a Hillary single Freep tomorrow in Harrisburg. Should be fun.
Only 11:50pm here! Nite-Owls Club!
Freep On!! Good luck and have fun in Harrisburg!
Good luck on the FReep, wish I could be there!
gotta get back to work.
prisoner6
Dextre is with them. More Canadian robots. Good job.
So how about an after-action report? How did it go? Where di you end up viewing the launch? Was it everything you hoped it would be? Let us know, please.
It was enjoyable, I watched from the shore of the Banana River along 528. Launch was fairly close, we could see it great, the low cloud cover caused the Shuttle to disappear completely into the clouds about 20 seconds after liftoff so that was anti-climactic. We could hear the loud noises for a few minutes after it disappeared, then I got into my car and hightailed it back to Mousetown, arriving at 345am about an hour drive back.
Well worth doing, too bad that the clouds were so low! Thanks for all the advice everyone.
thanks for the advice on the launch!
Glad you had a good time. I sort of wish I had been there but I think it would have been a bit of a letdown with the very short show. The other night launches I saw had very clear weather. I was surprised they launched into weather where it was so cloudy even the long range cameras could not track the vehicle. In any case, 75 minutes to get back to Orlando is pretty good time.
spaceflightnow.com
Atlas 5 rocket readied for its first West Coast launch
The inaugural launch of an Atlas 5 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base is scheduled for liftoff at 3:02 a.m. local time (6:02 a.m. EDT) on Thursday. Few details are available about the classified launch, which will place a spy satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. This will be the first launch from the rebuilt SLC-3 pad on the West Coast following Atlas 5’s previous dozen flights from Florida.
Shuttle is docked.
spaceflightnow.com
0725 GMT (3:25 a.m. EDT)
This is the 80th consecutive successful Delta 2 rocket launch dating back to May 1997. The Delta 2’s overall history since debuting in 1989 has achieved 133 successes in 135 flights.
The next Delta 2 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral is scheduled for May 16 during a window extending from 11:45 a.m. to 1:40 p.m. EDT. Flying in its Heavy configuration with larger strap-on solid rocket boosters, vehicle will haul NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) observatory into orbit.
The next GPS launch is planned for the end of June.
For the second time in six months, a commercial launch of the Russian Proton rocket ended in failure early Saturday after an undetermined problem struck the booster’s upper stage, leaving the mission’s DISH Network broadcasting payload in a useless orbit.
The failure occurred near the end of the 34-minute-long second burn of the launcher’s Breeze M upper stage, which features a single engine powered by explosive hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants.
“The satellite failed to reach the planned orbit,” International Launch Services said in a written statement.
The Proton was carrying AMC 14, a communications satellite owned by SES AMERICOM, a New Jersey-based satellite operator, destined to beam direct-to-home television programming for DISH Network.
Performing electronic bypass surgery, the Endeavour astronauts late Friday successfully routed power to a Canadian maintenance robot being assembled at the international space station. Using the station’s mechanical arm to feed electricity directly to a power-and-data plug on one end of the unfinished robot’s torso, the crew was able to bypass suspect circuitry in the pallet used to carry the robot’s components into orbit. The power-up operation was confirmed by telemetry at 10:10 p.m. A few minutes later, engineers confirmed critical heaters were working as required.
“Well, I guess I have to say it: It’s alive!” joked Pierre Jean, acting space station program manager for the Canadian Space Agency.
spaceflightnow.com
The logistics module is the first of two Japanese additions to the space station that will complement U.S. and European laboratory modules. In late May, the shuttle Discovery will ferry the Greyhound bus-size Kibo lab module to the station, attaching it to the Harmony module’s left port.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.