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.
spaceflightnow.com
“We’re really having to get medieval on Mr. Dextre,” Foreman said at one point, using the informal name for the special purpose dexterous manipulator, or SPDM.
spaceflightnow.com
Working from a robotics work station in the Destiny laboratory module, Robert Behnken and Garrett Reisman will send commands to move Dextre’s joints slightly to make sure internal brakes are working properly.
“The crew will be sending some commands to test out each of the individual joints, specifically the brakes on the joints,” Kerrick said. “We don’t want to command any significant motions with any of the joints until we make sure that those brakes work first. Everything is looking great so far.”
spaceflightnow.com
“Today is a very significant robotics day,” said Ginger Kerrick, the overnight space station flight director. “Our configuration right now, the SSRMS, or the station arm, is holding the SPDM (Dextre robot) out in an overnight park position. Big picture, we have the arm based on node 2, so we’ve got one end at node 2, one end grappled to the SPDM. They will maneuver the arm over to the lab, drop off the SPDM and it will grapple there and that will be its new home.”
spaceflightnow.com
With the shuttle Endeavour’s mission entering the home stretch, shuttle Discovery remains on track for blastoff May 25 to ferry a huge Japanese laboratory module to the international space station. But subsequent near-term flights, including a high-profile mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, could be delayed, sources say, because of ongoing external tank production issues.
The tank used by Endeavour for its current mission was the last in the inventory of tanks built before the 2003 Columbia disaster and subsequently modified to reduce potentially dangerous losses of foam insulation. The tank slated for use with Discovery in late May, ET-128, is the first so-called “in-line” external tank built from the ground up with post-Columbia upgrades, including a new ice-frost ramp design and titanium oxygen line support brackets. Both improvements address areas of possible foam shedding.
Amazing to hear of this only now. It was on national news this morning, but the problem seems like it was known and is not one of those that can be resolved quickly.
Shuttle is undocked
spaceflightnow.com
Endeavour is targeting a landing Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The planned homecoming would begin with the deorbit burn braking maneuver at 5:58 p.m. EDT, leading to touchdown on Runway 15 at 7:05 p.m. EDT, a half-hour before sunset.
Station resupply ship passes first demonstration day
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: March 29, 2008
Europe’s revolutionary Jules Verne cargo ship pulled within 2.2 miles of the international space station Saturday, proving the craft’s long-range rendezvous systems are ready for next week’s docking with the complex.
Europe’s robot freighter successfully docked on its maiden voyage Thursday with the International Space Station, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named after French science-fiction pioneer Jules Verne, hooked up with the orbiting space station on schedule at 1445 GMT.
TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2008
A Soyuz rocket carrying South Korea’s first astronaut and two cosmonauts bound for the international space station blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today and rocketed smoothly into orbit.
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