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Discovery crew installs new toilet, lab module, on ISS |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Thursday, 05 June 2008
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 On Monday the space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station, carrying with it a massive new Japanese lab, a new crewmember, and a replacement toilet pump. The two orbital craft met 335 km over the Pacific Ocean, where Discovery performed a slow back flip so that the ISS crew could take hundreds of detailed photos of the shuttle’s heat tiled belly for transmission back to the surface for analysis.
After docking, the two crews immediately got to work, first installing the new toilet pump on the station. The Russian-built lavatory began to seriously falter two weeks ago, forcing the three-man crew to use the facilities in the docked Soyuz spacecraft. The toilet’s malfunctioning forced the crew to perform manual water flushes whenever used, something tricky in the zero-gravity environment of the space station. The new pump will allow the toilet to again use air suction to collect liquid waste and was installed by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko. The pump was added to Discovery’s cargo manifest at the last minute and loaded onto the shuttle the day before launch.
On Tuesday, the combined crews installed the Japanese Experiment Module portion of JAXA’s Kibo Laboratory. The 11-meter-long 16-ton lab was attached to the station and opened the next day, with astronauts immediately beginning to load in the experiment racks that had been carried inside the shuttle. This second of three modules for the Kibo laboratory is the single largest module launched to the ISS and is designed to host a variety of experiments both inside the pressurized environment and exposed to the vacuum of space.
Today, the third spacewalk was used to outfit the laboratory. Astronauts removed and repositioned insulation blankets and installed the Kibo Laboratory’s robotic arm. They also installed two video cameras on the exterior of the module that will be used to remotely operate the robotic arm. The astronauts also checked a rotary joint used to orient the station’s massive solar arrays for optimal sun reception. Unlike the rotary joint on the other side of the station, which has been experiencing grinding, this one appeared to be in fine working order.
Tomorrow the astronauts will venture into space again to relocate the Japanese Pressurized Module, a smaller module described as a storage shed, that was delivered to the ISS by shuttle in March. It has been attached to a temporary docking berth awaiting the arrival of the JEM. On Saturday, the ISS crew will begin testing Kibo’s 10-meter-long robotic arm. And on Sunday, the final planned spacewalk of Discovery’s 14-day mission to the ISS will involve the replacement of an empty nitrogen-gas on the exterior of the station.
The addition of Kibo to the ISS brings the number of orbital labs at the station to three, with prior labs delivered by NASA (Destiny in 2001) and the ESA (Columbus in February 2008). Both Columbus and Kibo are docked to the Italian-built Harmony Node.
The shuttle crew also has retrieved and tested the heat shield inspection boom left at the ISS by Endeavour in March. Because of the size of the JEM, there was no room in Discovery’s cargo-bay for the 15-meter boom. The end of the robotic arm extension is tipped with a laser scanner used to meticulously inspect the heat tiles on the shuttle’s belly for damage. Based on launch video and the images transmitted back by the ISS crew, NASA’s shuttle managers do not believe that the shuttle has suffered any damage that would preclude a safe return to Earth, but will complete the detailed scan regardless.
Discovery is projected to undock from the ISS on Wednesday, June 11th. After departing, the crew will use the retrieved inspection boom to scan the heat shield. Discovery is currently scheduled for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday the 14th.
Discusss: TrekUnited Forum
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