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Discovery blasts off with Buzz Lightyear aboard |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Saturday, 31 May 2008
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 To infinity and beyond, indeed. As part of a partnership between Disney and NASA, a 12-inch figure of Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story fame signed up as an eighth astronaut aboard Discovery, seeking to expand and invigorate childhood space, science, and math education. Back in the cargo hold of Discovery was the Japanese Experiment Module of JAXA’s Kibo Laboratory - this massive module is the size of a touring bus and fills the entire cargo hold of the space shuttle.
Discovery lifted off from Launch Complex 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:02 PM EDT. The planned 14-day mission will include three spacewalks to install and outfit the JEM on the International Space Station. Discovery is projected to dock with the ISS on Monday just before 2:00 PM EDT.
The Kibo laboratory has been 20 years in the making for JAXA and comes to a total cost of about $1 billion. After the JEM is attached, the smaller Japanese Pressurized Module, delivered to the station in March, will be relocated and mounted onto the JEM. In 2009 the last portion of Kibo, an external porch-like experiment module, will be delivered via another shuttle mission. The JEM on its way right now weighs 14,500 kg and measures 11 meters long by 4.4 meters across.
Discovery is commanded by US astronaut Mark Kelly. The crew is rounded out my pilot Ken Ham, and mission specialists Karen Nyberg, Rob Garan, and Mike Fossum. Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide is also aboard, serving as the crew’s expert on Kibo when it comes to operation and installation. US astronaut Greg Chamitoff will depart Discovery when it docks with the ISS, trading places with ISS resident Garrett Reisman, who has been on the station since March 11, 2008.
Apart from the JEM, Discovery is also carrying a replacement pump for the ISS’s malfunctioning Russian-built space toilet. The station only has one installed commode, with one available on the docked Soyuz craft. Normally the toilet works with air suction, but with the faltering pump the three-man ISS crew has had to resort to using water in an inconvenient and time-consuming process to clear the loo.
After the shuttle has completed its construction mission to the ISS, it will retrieve the sensor-laden scanning boom used to inspect the shuttle’s heat shield. Ever since the 2003 loss of the space shuttle Columbia, space shuttles have scanned their heat tile-covered bellies after launch for dangerous nicks, cracks, gouges, and holes. This was accomplished with the aid of a 15-meter boom that was mounted onto the end of the shuttle’s Canadarm. The JEM however, was designed before the Columbia tragedy and addition of the scanning boom to the shuttle’s standard payload, and thus took up all available space inside the cargo bay, including that occupied by the boom. When the space shuttle Endeavour visited the station early last month, it left behind its boom so that Discovery could pick it up when it arrived.
STS-124 is the 123rd space shuttle missions and the 26th trip to the International Space Station. With NASA’s planned 2010 retirement of the shuttle fleet, there are 11 more shuttle missions to be flown, with all but one going to the ISS. This is the 35th flight for Discovery. The crew and shuttle are currently projected to return to Earth on June 14th.
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
To infinity... and beyond!
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"Cardassian rule may have been oppressive, but at least it was simple."
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