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Space shuttle Discovery is successfully docked at the ISS Thursday at 1118 GMT after a flawless rendezvous. Discovery and the space station were flying over the Pacific Ocean, just west of Chile, during their orbital meeting.
Discovery’s ISS docking marked the first shuttle arrival at the station since Nov. 25, 2002, when Endeavour docked at the orbital facility during NASA’s STS-113 mission.
The STS-114 crew will spend about eight days at the ISS, transferring thousands of pounds of fresh food, equipment and spare parts for the station’s crew. Discovery astronauts will perform three spacewalks outside the station before casting off from the orbital platform and return home on Aug. 7.
While a feat of orbital acrobatics, the backflip – known as the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver (RPM) – was pivotal highlight of Discovery’s flight. During the maneuver, Discovery Commander Collins slowly flipped Discovery in a circle to give the Expedition 11 crew a clear view of the heat-resistant tiles lining its underside.
ISS crew Krikalev and Phillips had about 1 minute and 40 seconds – a bit longer than the 93 seconds they trained for – to take a carefully rehearsed set of photographs to record the state of Discovery’s belly tiles, which protect the orbiter from the searing heat of reentry during landings.
According to their photography plan, Phillips took about nine images with a 400 mm digital camera to gather a wide-view look at Discovery’s belly tiles. Krikalev, using the equivalent of an 800 mm camera to gather close-up images of Discovery’s landing gear door seals with an analytical resolution of about one inch, NASA officials said.
"I thought the process went really fine," Phillips said after the photography session. "Neither of us saw anything really alarming."
Two primary areas of interest for the engineers that will review the images are a chipped tile near Discovery’s nose landing gear doors, and an "area of interest" further back on the orbiter’s belly, NASA deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said Wednesday.
China has picked its first group of women to be trained as astronauts. The 35 women, aged between 17 and 20, will first train as pilots at the Chinese military’s Aviation University. Some will then be picked for space missions, and China’s first female is due to be launched into space by 2010. The short listed women were picked from more than 200,000 hopefuls.
Valentina Tereshkova, from the USSR, became the first female in space in 1963, and Sally Ride was the first American, in 1983.
After reviewing video and images taken by a few of 100-plus cameras, engineers believe the foam that came off during Discovery’s liftoff was 24 to 33 inches long, 10 to 14 inches wide, and between 2 and 8 inches thick — only somewhat smaller than the chunk that smashed into Columbia’s left wing during liftoff in 2003.
"You have to admit when you’re wrong. We were wrong," shuttle program manager Bill Parsons said. "We need to do some work here, and so we’re telling you right now that the ... foam should not have come off. It came off. We’ve got to go do something about that."
In addition to the chunk of foam, several smaller pieces broke off, including at least one from an area of the fuel tank that had been modified after Columbia. Thermal tile was also damaged on Discovery’s belly; one tile lost a 1 1/2 -inch piece next to the set of doors for the nose landing gear, a vulnerable spot.
Wayne Hale, Parsons’ deputy, said none of the tile damage looked particularly serious, and likely would not require repairs in orbit.
Imagery experts and engineers expect to know today whether the gouge left by the missing piece of tile needs a second look.
The tile fragment broke off less than two minutes after liftoff Tuesday and was spotted by a camera mounted on the external fuel tank.
Nasa has said it is grounding the space shuttle fleet as engineers investigate debris which fell from Discovery’s external fuel tank during launch. Nasa made the decision after experts pored over images taken by cameras on Discovery and its external tank during launch. Managers said two shielding tiles were damaged and two large pieces of foam tore away during lift-off. A large piece of foam 24-33 inches (61-84 cm) in length had peeled off an area of the fuel tank known as the Pal ramp during launch, they said. A six-inch foam chunk also fell from an area of the external tank called the liquid hydrogen intertank flange. This was an area where several modifications were made after the Columbia disaster. Wayne Hale, the shuttle’s deputy programme manager, said two heat shield tiles now appeared to be damaged on Columbia’s underside.
A rectangular tile near the nose landing gear doors appeared to be chipped and a square "chine" tile further toward the aft (back) end of Discovery also seems to have broken away. The debris did not hit the orbiter and posed no threat to the crew.
NASA said Wednesday a chipped thermal tile on Discovery’s belly does not appear to be a danger.
Imagery experts and engineers expect to know by Thursday afternoon whether the gouge left by the missing 1½-inch piece of thermal tile needs a second look or, in the worst case, a repair, Hill said. The astronauts have a 100-foot laser-tipped crane on board that could determine precisely how deep the gouge is.
The tile fragment broke off less than two minutes after liftoff Tuesday and was spotted by a camera mounted on the external fuel tank. It fell off a particularly vulnerable spot, near the set of doors for the nose landing gear.
The tank camera also captured a large piece of debris flying off the tank but missing Discovery itself; the nature of the debris is still a mystery. After the Columbia accident, the tank was redesigned to reduce the risk of foam insulation falling off.
On Wednesday, Discovery’s astronauts spent nearly six hours using the boom to inspect Discovery’s wings and nose cap for launch damage. The wings and nose are protected by reinforced carbon panels capable of taking the brunt of the searing re-entry heat.
"There will be only one thing better than the launch, and that will be the landing." _ Mike Leinbach, NASA’s shuttle launch director.
"We know that the folks back on the planet Earth are just feeling great right now, and our thanks to everybody for all the super work that’s been done over the past 2 1/2 years to get us flying again." _Discovery Commander Eileen Collins.
"I’m delighted that they’re safe so far. Space is part of our frontier and we need to explore and learn about what’s going on there." _ Grace Corrigan, mother of Christa McAuliffe, who died in the 1986 Challenger explosion.
"I hope the return to flight mission goes well and that Israelis return to flight again too." _ Benni Nofech in Tel Aviv, reflecting on Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, one of the Columbia astronauts who died.
Nasa is investigating two cases of apparent debris seen falling from the space shuttle Discovery as it blasted off for Earth orbit. In one case, a heat shield tile seems to have been affected on the underside of the shuttle. The tip of the shuttle’s external fuel tank also hit a bird as it launched from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday.
John Shannon, STS-114 mission operations representative, pointed out video frames apparently showing a piece of heat shield tile breaking off from the underside of the shuttle. This has left a one-and-a-half inch white spot near the nose landing gear doors. Mr Shannon said it could simply be that part of the black covering on the orbiter’s underside was damaged exposing the heat shield tile. But he added that it was equally possible the tile itself had been dented or sheared.
Experts cannot yet determine its size, but it did not appear to hit the shuttle.
The shuttle program has lived with damage from debris from the very first flight, in 1981; in 113 missions the orbiters have been hit by debris some 15,000 times, mostly on liftoff. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration replaces about 100 insulating tiles after every flight and repairs many more than that.
Now, though, it will be far easier to spot such damage while the shuttle is still in orbit. NASA can detect a crack of just two-hundredths of an inch, the width of two business cards pressed together. On the leading edge of the orbiter’s wing, such a crack could admit dangerous amounts of superheated gas during re-entry. A similar crack elsewhere might not.
It was a large hole in the left wing’s leading edge, caused by impact with a 1.67-pound piece of insulating foam during the launching, that led to the Columbia disaster.
NASA’s efforts to create a repair kit for tile and leading-edge panels have not been successful. Techniques will be tested during a spacewalk in coming days, but they are not ready for an actual repair, and the Discovery astronauts have said they would not want to trust any patchwork on a return to Earth.
Another option, the "safe haven" plan, would involve abandoning the $2 billion shuttle and having the astronauts wait in the space station for a rescue mission. For that to work, another shuttle would have to be launched within a few weeks. That is theoretically possible but carries risks of its own: the chance, for example, that the orbiting astronauts would run out of food, water or oxygen before the mission could be mounted.
Space shuttle Discovery blasted off on its 12-day flight at 1039 EDT(1439 GMT), 26 July from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
US space agency officials were happy with the launch, despite the sighting of what appeared to be some debris falling from the vehicle moments after it cleared the pad. They said they would wait for detailed photo analysis to be done before coming to any conclusions about the structural integrity of Discovery.
It was Nasa’s second go at a lift-off in the current launch window. An earlier attempt on 13 July had to be scrubbed because of the failure of a fuel sensor; but the problem did not recur on Tuesday.
The separation of solid boosters and external tank all occurred without incident; and after eight-and-a-half minutes, Discovery shut down its engines to enter the planned preliminary orbit. A series of thruster firings will gradually raise its altitude over the next couple of days.
Nasa has learnt the safety lessons of the Columbia disaster, which cost the lives of seven astronauts, and has made this the most scrutinised shuttle flight ever.
Nasa had positioned more than 100 cameras both on the ground and in the air to capture as much detail as possible on Discovery’s ascent into orbit.
Discovery’s crew will test safety measures brought in after the Columbia accident in 2003 and resupply the International Space Station with tons of supplies, research equipment and replacement parts.
Discovery crew will test new safety features such as a repair-kit for heatshield tiles and a 15m-long robotic arm that will inspect the shuttle for damage in orbit. They will use a newly designed, 50-foot-long (15-meter-long) extension boom to inspect critical areas of the shuttle’s skin with cameras and laser sensors.
If any of the inspections turn up signs of serious damage to Discovery, the shuttle astronauts would most likely have to take refuge on the station and wait until next month for another shuttle, Atlantis, to come to the rescue.
Assuming that the shuttle checks out OK, Discovery astronauts will take on three spacewalks while they are linked up with the station. During the initial spacewalk, repair procedures worked out after the Columbia tragedy will get their first practice run-through in orbit. Among the tools to be tested are a daub-on applicator for patching adhesive, a caulking gun for filling cracks and a series of patches that could be set in place with expansion bolts.
The other two spacewalks are aimed at replacing a balky guidance gyroscope on the station, and installing a storage platform for future construction jobs. The shuttle crew also will load up the station’s bad gyroscope, as well as a troublesome oxygen generator and other items, for return to Earth.
Discovery is due to touch down at Kennedy Space Center on 7 August at 0546 EDT (0946 GMT).
The shuttle measures 122.2 feet long, 56.67 feet high, with wingspan of 78.06 feet. The height of the full shuttle stack, including the external fuel tank, is 184.2 feet. Gross weight is 4.5 million pounds at liftoff. But when it returns, the orbiter weighs 230,000 pounds. The cargo bay measures 60 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, and can carry cargo equivalent to the size of a school bus. Maximum payload is 29.5 metric tons, or 32.5 U.S. tons.
The cost of a space shuttle is approximately $1.7 billion. That’s in 1991 dollars and based on the cost of replacing Challenger. The average cost of each shuttle mission is $759 million, based on data for fiscal year 2000. The cost of returning the shuttle to flight has been approximately $1.4 billion, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The shuttle’s speed is 17,321 mph, with the shuttle making a circuit of Earth every 90 minutes.
Discovery’s flight plan calls for 186 orbits, giving each crew member about 4.8 million frequent-flier miles.
The shuttle orbits in altitudes ranging from 115 to 400 statute miles. For Discovery’s mission, orbital insertion altitude is 140 statute miles (122 nautical miles), but the orbit is raised to 220 miles for space station docking.
Born November 19, 1956, in Elmira, New York. Married. Enjoys running, golf, hiking, camping, reading, photography, astronomy.
Graduated from Elmira Free Academy, Elmira, New York, in 1974; received an associate in science degree in mathematics/science from Corning Community College in 1976; a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics from Syracuse University in 1978; a master of science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1986; and a master of arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in 1989.
She has logged over 6,280 hours in 30 different types of aircraft.
Selected by NASA in January 1990, Collins became an astronaut in July 1991. A veteran of three space flights, Collins has logged over 537 hours in space. She served as pilot on STS-63 (February 3-11, 1995) and STS-84 (May 15-24, 1997), and was the commander on STS-93 (July 22-27, 1999). Collins is assigned Crew Commander on STS-114. During this Return To Flight mission the crew will test and evaluate new procedures for flight safety and Shuttle inspection and repair techniques.
Mo'nonymous on New companion of Nep...
Mo'nonymous on New companion of Nep...
Mo'nonymous on New companion of Nep...
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