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US shuttle blasts off on key space station mission
Cape Canaveral, Florida (AFP) Oct 23, 2007 US space shuttle Discovery blasted off successfully Tuesday on an ambitious, complex mission to the International Space Station, key to future manned flights to Mars. The launch went ahead at 11:38 am (1538 GMT) despite safety concerns voiced by a team of independent NASA engineers, and the discovery of a chunk of ice outside the craft. The shuttle took off on schedule carrying seven astronauts, led by Commander Pam Melroy, 46, who is only the second woman to head a shuttle team since the start of the program in 1981. "It was one of the cleanest countdowns we've had since I've been launch director," said launch director Mike Leinbach. Within about a minute after liftoff, with partially clouded skies over the Atlantic, the craft had accelerated to five times the speed of sound. It reached Earth's orbit within eight and a half minutes some 225.3 kilometers (140 miles) above the planet, and set course for the space station where it is due to dock on Thursday for a 10-day mission. The mission was watched by several invited guests including US director George Lucas, marking the 30th anniversary of the first "Star Wars" movie. On board the shuttle, the crew was carrying the lightsaber used in the movies by the character Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, a NASA spokesman said. There had been last-minute fears the mission could be delayed after a small chunk of ice measuring about 10 centimeters (four inches) long by 1.2 centimeters (half an inch) was found outside the craft on a liquid oxygen supply cable. But in consultations before countdown, officials from the National Space and Aeronautics Administration (NASA) agreed the ice posed no danger to the craft and crew. There had also been earlier concerns over the safety of the mission, after a committee of NASA engineers last week recommended replacing three of 44 thermal protection tiles on the orbiter's wings. The US space agency decided however the risk was not high enough to delay the launch for some two months to replace the tiles. NASA has closely watched thermal tiles on shuttles since the 2003 Columbia catastrophe when one of them broke off on takeoff and hit a wing. The damage caused the shuttle to break up on re-entry, killing all seven crew members. Wing bottoms have to withstand temperatures of 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,900 Fahrenheit) when the shuttle makes reentry to the Earth's atmosphere at more than 20 times the speed of sound. Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told reporters last week that program officials "decided we were in an acceptable risk posture to go fly." The Discovery's main mission is to attach the Harmony module to the ISS. The module is crucial for the installation of the future European lab Columbus and Japan's Kibo lab on the orbiting platform. Harmony, an Italian-made aluminum tube weighing 14.3 tons, will connect the two labs to the outpost and give it its almost final shape. The Discovery crew's tight schedule also includes moving a tower of solar arrays already in space to a new location and overseeing the rotation of the ISS crew that will see Discovery astronaut Dan Tani and ISS resident Clayton Anderson switch places. "(There is) just a tremendous set of challenges in front of us," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations. Any delay to the Discovery's mission could have hampered NASA's shuttle program, with plans for at least an additional 11 missions to complete the ISS by 2010, when the shuttle fleet is supposed to be taken out of service. The ISS is a 100-billion-dollar (70.3-billion-euro) project in which 16 countries are taking part to ready the way for future manned Mars missions. Melroy is leading Discovery's crew of seven, which includes five men and one other woman. The team also includes an Italian, Paulo Nespoli, with the European Space Agency. Melroy is the second woman ever to command a space shuttle. The first was Eileen Collins, who also commanded the Discovery shuttle, in 2005. Coincidentally, US astronaut Peggy Whitson became the ISS's first female commander on October 12. Related Links Shuttle at NASA Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com
Space Shuttle Discovery Is Ready; Weather Remains A Concern
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Oct 23, 2007The countdown to launch of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-120 mission is proceeding smoothly at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Test Director Steve Payne announced at this morning's countdown status briefing. "At this point in the count, we're on schedule, our systems are all good and we're in great shape," Payne said, adding that the launch team is not tracking any technical issues. |
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