NASA sets shuttle Discovery launch for April 5

nandu

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NASA sets shuttle Discovery launch for April 5

NASA has given the final go-ahead for the launch of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for April 5, NASA said on its website on Saturday.

The agency said "there were no unresolved issues that would prevent Discovery and crew from flying a safe and successful mission."

Discovery is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:21 a.m. EDT [10:21 GMT].

The launch was initially scheduled for March 18 but was delayed over unusually cold weather.

The STS-131 mission, which is scheduled to last 13 days, will deliver a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the station.

Commander Alan Poindexter will lead the six-astronaut crew on the 33rd shuttle mission to the ISS and the second shuttle flight in 2010.

The mission will feature three spacewalks.

http://en.rian.ru/science
 

nandu

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NASA launches space shuttle Discovery

The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at 06:21 a.m (local time) on Monday.

The launch began a 13-day flight to the International Space Station and the second of five shuttle missions planned for 2010.

According to a NASA press release, discovery is scheduled to dock to the space station at 03:44 a.m. on Wednesday, April 7. The shuttle will deliver science experiments, equipment and supplies to the station.

"The crew of STS-131 is really honoured to represent the thousands of dedicated people that make up the entire NASA, JAXA and contractor workforces," Commander Alan Poindexter said in the release.

The flight will include three spacewalks to switch out a gyroscope on the station's truss, or backbone, install a spare ammonia storage tank, and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station's exterior.

Inside the shuttle's cargo bay is the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, a pressurized "moving van" that will be attached to the station temporarily on April 7 and returned to the shuttle's cargo bay Thursday, April 15, it said.

The module is filled with supplies, new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the station's laboratories. This is the final compliment of laboratory facilities that will complete the station's overall research capabilities.

http://www.brahmand.com/news/NASA-launches-space-shuttle-Discovery/3557/1/11.html
 

nandu

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Discovery crew suffers antenna failure

Discovery's astronauts surveyed their ship for signs of launch damage, but the job was complicated by the failure of the space shuttle's big dish antenna.

Without the antenna, the seven astronauts have no way to send or receive big packages of information, like the images of the shuttle's wings and nose that are usually sent immediately to Mission Control.

Instead, commander Alan Poindexter and his crew had to store the data on 40-minute tapes that were fed, in turn, into a computer for digital conversion. In all, six tapes were filled, containing 35 to 40 gigabytes of information. All that information will be relayed once the shuttle reaches the International Space Station Wednesday, delaying analysis.

The rendezvous was expected to be trickier than usual, given the antenna trouble. The antenna is supposed to provide radar tracking as the shuttle approaches the station, from 40 kilometers out. Engineers had little confidence the system would be working by then.

Mission Control said the astronauts could rely on other tools, and stressed the linkup would not be any more dangerous.

"We're planning on getting there on time," Poindexter assured flight controllers on Tuesday. He said he trained for just such an event, two weeks ago back in Houston.

http://www.brahmand.com/news/Discovery-crew-suffers-antenna-failure/3567/1/14.html
 

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Discovery crew conducts first spacewalk

US space shuttle Discovery astronauts on Friday began the first of three scheduled spacewalks.

Mission Specialists Clayton Anderson and lead spacewalker Rick Mastracchio configured an old Ammonia Tank Assembly (ATA) for removal and prepared a new ATA for installation, a NASA statement said.

On the center-most portion of the International Space Station’s backbone, they replaced a Rate Gyro Assembly, part of the station’s navigation system.

The duo will perform two more spacewalks during their time at the station. Anderson and Mastracchio performed two spacewalks together during the STS-118 mission in August 2007.

On Wednesday, Shuttle Discovery successfully docked with the International Space Station
(ISS) manually after a malfunction on board the shuttle.

Discovery blasted off on schedule at 6:21 a.m. local time (14:21 GMT) on Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on one of NASA's final stockpiling missions to the ISS.

This is Discovery's 33rd mission to the ISS, and the 131st mission of the Space Shuttle program.

The current mission will last 13 days and astronauts will perform three space walks, each of which is planned to last around six and a half hours.

http://www.brahmand.com/news/Discovery-crew-conducts-first-spacewalk/3591/1/11.html
 

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