Image above: At left, is a detailed view of the Harmony Node 2. At right, is a view of Harmony attached to the International Space Station's U.S. Destiny laboratory.
Posted on 10/21/2007 7:04:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The next mission of the space shuttle Discovery set for liftoff Tuesday is critical to building the International Space Station, ferrying in the Harmony module key to installing the European lab Columbus and Japan's Kibo lab.
Harmony, a big Italian-made aluminum tube weighing in at 14.3 tonnes, will connect the two labs to the outpost and give it its almost final shape.
NASA plans to bring in the Columbus on an Atlantis shuttle flight December 6 and the Kibo early in 2008.
Discovery's crew of seven includes five men and two women, one of whom is Commander Pam Melroy, 46. The crew, which also includes an Italian, Paulo Nespoli, with the European Space Agency, was due to deliver a 16-tonne, 20-meter(yard)-long beam called P6.
Once in place, P6 will make it possible to deploy a third dual-wing solar antenna of the four which are planned. That will get the station's electrical power generation gearing up.
Five spacewalks of a total 30.5 hours by teams of two astronauts are planned for the 14-day mission, including 10 tied to the ISS.
The launch of the Discovery, the third of a shuttle this year and the 23rd to the ISS, is scheduled for Tuesday, October 23 at 1538 GMT at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a 10-minute window for blastoff.
Countdown formally started at 1800 GMT Saturday.
On Saturday, Cape Canaveral weather forecaster Kathy Winters gave a 60-percent chance of good weather for liftoff. She said possible rain and clouds could interfere with the launch.
The seven astronauts arrived in Houston, Texas late Friday to ready for the mission.
"All of our systems are in good shape," said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA Test Director.
Program officials decided to make the Tuesday launch attempt despite recommendations of an engineers committee calling first for the replacement of three of 44 thermal protection shields on the orbiter's wings.
"The Flight Readiness Review board decided we were in an acceptable risk posture to go fly," shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told reporters on Tuesday.
The bottom of the wings endure temperatures of 1,600 degrees Celsius when the shuttle makes reentry to the Earth's atmosphere at more than 20 times the speed of sound.
NASA has closely watched the shuttles' thermal tiles since the 2003 Columbia catastrophe when a tile broke off the shuttle as it took off and hit its wing. The damage caused the shuttle to break up on re-entry, killing all seven crew members.
Replacing the tiles would have taken two months time said Hale, a time frame that would have affected coming launches.
NASA plans at least an additional 11 flights 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 project in which 16 countries are taking part to ready the way for future manned Mars missions.
Thanks for the reminder, NR.
....Bob
Image above: At left, is a detailed view of the Harmony Node 2. At right, is a view of Harmony attached to the International Space Station's U.S. Destiny laboratory.
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