Written by Derek Kessler on
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Standing by on the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A is NASA’s space shuttle Discovery, prepped to launch on a construction mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle is scheduled to launch on May 31st at 5:02 PM EDT, carrying the second of three segments of JAXA’s Kibo Laboratory to the ISS.
Discovery will be commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly. He and the rest of the seven member crew will take the shuttle up with what will been it’s largest ever payload; so large arm the Japanese Pressurized Module and robotic arm systems that Discovery doesn’t have room in its cargo bay for its heat shield scanning boom. The 14-day missions will include three spacewalks to install and outfit the Kibo modules.
The crew will swap US astronaut Greg Chamitoff for three-month ISS resident Garrett Reisman. Apart from Kelly and Chamitoff, Discovery will be crewed by US astronauts Ken Ham, Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, and Mike Fossum, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. STS-124 will be the 123rd space shuttle mission, the 35th flight for Discovery, and the 26th to the International Space Station.
Standing by on the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A is NASA’s space shuttle Discovery, prepped to launch on a construction mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle is scheduled to launch on May 31st at 5:02 PM EDT, carrying the second of three segments of JAXA’s Kibo Laboratory to the ISS.
