Space Shuttle Discovery in Good Shape for May Launch Posted on May 12th
NASA’s shuttle Discovery is on track to ferry seven astronauts and a large Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS) later this month.
Shuttle
commander Mark Kelly told reporters Thursday that Discoverys preparations are going extremely
smoothly for its planned May 31 launch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Cape
Canaveral, Fla.
From what
I was told yesterday, the condition of the orbiter and the number of problems
weve had with it have been at a historic low, Kelly said from Discoverys seaside
Pad 39A launch site. So that makes us feel really good.
Kelly and
his STS-124 astronaut crew are in the final weeks of preparation for their
planned 13-day mission to the ISS, where they will deliver Japans massive
37-foot (11-meter) Kibo laboratory during three spacewalks.
The astronauts
are currently at NASAs Florida spaceport for a three-day training session to practice
launch
and escape procedures, as well as practice donning their bright orange
pressure suits for liftoff and landing. They will stage a dress rehearsal of their
final hours before launch on Friday and cap the training simulation with an
emergency escape drill.
Weve got
a little bit of training and a little bit of practice to go, Discovery mission
specialist Mike Fossum said this week. Well be ready to take off in a few
weeks.
According
to the United Space Alliance, NASAs shuttle contractor, engineers have tackled
only 40 glitches with Discovery - the fewest ever in the entire 27-year history of
shuttle flight - in their bid to ready the orbiter for its late May liftoff. The second-lowest number of issues - 76 in all - occurred
in April 2001 as engineers were again preparing Discovery for flight, USA
officials said.
“The
reason the shuttle has fewer maintenance issues is a lot of hard work that
has gone into making the hardware, processes, and software better along with a
little bit of luck, said Mark Nappi, USAs program manager for ground
operations, in a statement. We are seeing it across the board on all processing.
Discoverys
STS-124 mission will mark NASAs third shuttle flight of the year dedicated to hauling a new orbital room to the high-flying space
station. The shuttle Atlantis delivered Europes
Columbus laboratory to the station in February and was followed by the
Endeavour orbiter carrying an attic-like
storage room for Japans Kibo lab.
NASA now hopes
to launch a total of five shuttle flights this year, which include four station
construction flights and a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. A planned
sixth flight, slated for flight in December, has been pushed to early 2009 due
to fuel tank delivery delays, mission managers have said.
- NEW
VIDEO: Space Shuttle Bloopers - VIDEO:
Danger on the Pad - IMAGES:
Shuttle Mission Diary: NASA’s STS-123