Thu, Mar 26, 2009
Undocks From ISS After Nine-Day Stay
The shuttle Discovery separated from
the International Space Station at 3:53 pm EDT Wednesday, after
spending 9 days, 20 hours and 10 minutes docked to the orbital
outpost.
Reuters reports station commander Mike Fincke told the Discovery
crew as they gathered to say good-bye, "It was really great having
you up here. You've made the space station much better than it was
before." Fincke, along with flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, will
return to Earth next month after a six-month stay on the
station.
They'll be replaced by Commander Gennady Padalka and flight
engineer Michael Barratt. The two will join second-time space
tourist Charles Simonyi aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle scheduled
for launch Thursday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan.
The third member of their crew is Japan's Koichi Wakata, who
already made the trip with Discovery on STS-119. He replaced
astronaut Sandra Magnus, who is returning onboard Discovery from
her six-month stay onboard the station.
On Thursday, the crew will wake at 5:13 am and perform a late
inspection of Discovery's thermal protection system using the
shuttle robotic arm and the Orbital Boom Sensor System around 9:28
am. This procedure will last for approximately five hours before
the OBSS and arm are then berthed in Discovery’s payload bay
around 2:43 pm. Landing is scheduled for Saturday at the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida.
The STS-119 crew flew the S6 truss segment and installed the
final set of power-generating solar arrays to the International
Space Station. The S6 truss completes the backbone of the station
and provides one-fourth of the total power needed to support a crew
of six.
The expansion of the normal crew size also hinges on proper
functioning of a troublesome liquid recycling system, which
reprocesses urine into drinkable water. Discovery delivered a new
part, and is carrying home a sample of the treated water for
analysis to see if it is drinkable.
More News
Aero Linx: International Business Aviation Council Ltd IBAC promotes the growth of business aviation, benefiting all sectors of the industry and all regions of the world. As a non->[...]
"During the annual inspection of the B-24 “Diamond Lil” this off-season, we made the determination that 'Lil' needs some new feathers. Due to weathering, the cloth-cove>[...]
Also: Bushcat Woes, Hummingbird 300 SL 4-Seat Heli Kit, Carbon Cub UL The newest Junkers is a faithful recreation that mates a 7-cylinder Verner radial engine to the airframe offer>[...]
Also: Seaplane Pilots Association, Rotax 916’s First Year, Gene Conrad After a decade and a half of struggling with the FAA and other aero-politics, G100UL is in production a>[...]
Also: Martha King Scholarship, Montaer Grows, Textron Updates Pistons, FlySto The FAA is hiring thousands of air traffic controllers, but the window to apply will only be open for >[...]