Discovery in Orbit, Chasing Space Station
Space shuttle Discovery turned
midnight into noon along the central Florida coast with launch at
2359 EDT beginning its 37th mission - a flight to deliver supplies
and research facilities to the International Space Station and its
six-person crew.
Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Kevin Ford and Mission
Specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas Nicole
Stott and Christer Fuglesang representing the European Space Agency
reached orbit eight and a half minutes later as the space station
flew 225 miles up, southwest of Tasmania.
Aboard the station watching Discovery's launch on a live feed
from Mission Control were Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight
Engineers Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra, Roman Romanenko, Robert
Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency and Frank De Winne of the
European Space Agency.
Following Discovery's docking Sunday night, Stott officially
becomes a station crew member when she and Kopra swap places
shortly before midnight. Kopra will return home aboard Discovery
after a month and a half aboard the station.
Shortly after reaching orbit, Discovery's crew began procedures
to ensure the spaceship is healthy for on-orbit operations and
opened the payload bay doors at about 0130 Saturday. The crew's
launch day ended with a thorough checkout of the robotic arm and
survey of the payload bay before heading to bed about 0630
Saturday.
Following wakeup at 1429 Saturday, the crew spent the majority
of the day assessing the health of Discovery's wing leading edge
panels and nosecap using the boom/sensor extension and checking out
the spacesuits to be worn during three planned spacewalks later in
the mission. The crew also will test rendezvous tools and prepare
the docking system ahead of arrival at the station.
Overnight, the Flight Control Team reported the failure of one
of two small steering jets that flank the orbiter nose due to a
leak. This will have no impact to docking, other mission activities
or entry, but the crew will close a manifold to isolate both jets
and disable them from use for the remainder of the mission.
Pilot Kevin Ford will join Mission Specialists Pat Forrester and
Jose Hernandez to perform the survey of the shuttle’s heat
shield. Using the shuttle robotic arm and specialized cameras,
they’ll commence with a well-established choreography to
capture detailed video of the orbiter’s wing-leading edges
and nose cap. The imagery will be reviewed by specialists to ensure
there was no damage from liftoff.
With Commander Rick Sturckow at the controls, Discovery is
scheduled to link up with the space station at 0803 Sunday.
Discovery's mission is the 128th in shuttle program history and the
30th dedicated to station assembly, resupply and maintenance.