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
Maximum Authorized Altitude A published altitude representing the maximum usable altitude or flight level for an airspace structure or route segment. It is the highest altitude on >[...]
Aero Linx: Soaring Safety Foundation (SSF) The Soaring Safety Foundation (SSF) is the Training and Safety arm of the Soaring Society of America (SSA). Our mission is to provide ins>[...]
From 2013 (YouTube Version): Dracula Lives On Through Kyle Franklin... and We're NOT Scared! ANN CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Jim Campbell speaks with Aerobatic and airshow master, Kyl>[...]
“For Montaer Aircraft it is a very prudent move to incorporate such reliable institution as Ocala Aviation, with the background of decades in training experience and aviation>[...]
Also: ForeFlight Upgrades, Cicare USA, Vittorazi Engines, EarthX We have a number of late-breaking news highlights from the 2024 Innovation Preview... which was PACKED with real ne>[...]