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Preparations Continue Toward Discovery's Liftoff
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Jan 28, 2009 At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida ground crews are working on valve and aft skirt installations and performing several tests on space shuttle Discovery at Launch Pad 39A. Meanwhile, the STS-119 mission astronauts are rehearsing spacewalking techniques in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, or NBL, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Neutral buoyancy is a term used to describe something that has an equal tendency to float as it does to sink and this effect is accomplished with a combination of weights and flotation devices. Suited astronauts in the NBL are not truly weightless because they still feel their weight while in the suit. Although the effects are unlike the conditions of space, neutral buoyancy currently is the best available method for long-duration spacewalk training. NASA managers will meet at Kennedy for the executive-level Flight Readiness Review on Feb. 3 to discuss the preparedness of Discovery and the ground teams for launch. An announcement will be made and broadcast on NASA TV at the conclusion of the meeting to set the mission's official launch date.
related report The S6 truss, with its set of large U.S. solar arrays, will complete the backbone of the station and provide one-fourth of the total power needed to support a crew of six. The two solar array wings each have 115-foot-long arrays, for a total wing span of 240 feet. They will generate 66 kilowatts of electricity - enough to provide about 30 2,800-square-foot homes with power. Commander Lee Archambault will lead Discovery's crew of seven, along with Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will replace Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus, who will return to Earth with the STS-119 crew. Wakata will serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 18 and 19, and return to Earth with the STS-127 crew. Discovery's STS-119 mission to the International Space Station is targeted to lift off at 7:32 a.m. EST, Feb. 12. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory Shuttle at NASA Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com
Shuttle Crew Complete Rehearsal And More For STS-119 Launch
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Jan 22, 2009At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the seven STS-119 astronauts have wrapped up their Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT, and related training. |
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