via Space.com, Shuttle Discovery is slated to launch on yet another ambitious ISS construction mission. Seven astronauts are slated to lift off this morning at 11:38 EST. Nebraskan Clayton Anderson, currently serving on board the ISS, will return home after being replaced by fellow mission specialist Daniel Tani.
"Commanded by veteran spaceflyer Pamela Melroy, the shuttle Discovery is slated to launch from Pad 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 11:38 a.m. EDT (1538 GMT). Melroy and her crewmates plan to swap out one ISS crewmember, deliver an orbital hub to anchor future laboratories to the station and perform the complicated move of a 17.5-ton solar array segment to boost the outpost's power grid...
Set to launch spaceward with Melroy and Parazynski are Discovery pilot George Zamka and mission specialists Stephanie Wilson, Douglas Wheelock, Daniel Tani and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Together, they will install the Italian-built Harmony node - the connecting point for European and Japanese laboratories waiting to fly.
During five planned spacewalks - the most-ever during a shuttle flight to the ISS - the STS-120 astronauts will also test new space shuttle heat shield repair methods, move the station's $276 million Port 6 (P6) solar power truss segment from its mast-like perch to the station's port-most edge, and then unfurl its expansive arrays. Parazynski compared the P6 relocation to moving an entire house from one neighborhood to another."
The installation of the Harmony module will increase the available space on board the station for the first time since 2001. The mission will be the shuttle program's 120th mission, and the third ISS construction mission this year. Three of the shuttle astronauts are making their first trips into orbit.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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