Shuttle Discovery’s astronauts are in the midst of a two-day project to unload and unpack the last truss segment and last set of solar arrays at the International Space Station.
I didn’t know until now that these solar arrays were actually the first constructed for the station. They’ve been tested repeatedly on Earth prior to their packing and launch for this flight. Hopefully their installation and deployment are done without incident.
NASA’s space shuttle Discovery successfully launched yesterday and is on its way to the International Space Station. Crew members will install another set of solar panels, deliver a replacement for a urine recycling station and perform other tasks. This is officially shuttle flight STS-119.
This is slightly older news, but the shuttle Discovery’s launch that was set for Wednesday has been posponed due to a hydrogen gas leak. The new launch date has been set for Monday the 16th. Discovery is slated to deliver the last truss segment and the last set of solar panels to the International Space Station. A replacement part to the urination recycling unit delivered in November is also supposed to go up. The solar panels and urination system will allow the ISS crew to grow from 3 to 6 persons.
There is more good news for NASA: the planned Discovery launch went well just a couple of hours ago. From the Space.com article:
The shuttle’s trip to the space station should take two days. Once there, Discovery’s crew will unload and install the $1 billion lab and hand-deliver a specially made pump for the outpost’s finicky toilet.
About five pieces of debris — what appeared to be thin pieces of insulating foam — broke off the fuel tank during liftoff, but the losses did not occur during the crucial first two minutes and should be of no concern, said NASA’s space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier. This was the first tank to have all safety changes prompted by the 2003 Columbia disaster built in from the start.
Three spacewalks are planned during Discovery’s 14-day flight: to install Kibo, replace an empty nitrogen-gas tank and try out various cleaning methods on a clogged solar-wing rotating joint.
