A Mars Odyssey

“It’s a gorgeous day to launch,” NASA’s launch director, Mike Leinbach, told the astronauts just before liftoff, wishing them good luck and Godspeed. Commander Mark Kelly said Kibo is the “hope for the space station,” then radioed: “Now stand by for the greatest show on Earth!” Nearly 400 Japanese journalists, space program officials and other guests jammed NASA’s launch site.

The space shuttle Discovery has finally taken off for the International Space Station—loaded with a crew of seven astronauts, a giant Japanese lab, and a toilet pump—at 5:02 p.m. With a successful lift-off, seen were five pieces of falling debris located at the fuel tank area. According to NASA’s space operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier, as long as it did not occur within the first two minutes of launch, it was not a serious problem.

Taking about two days to reach the ISS, the crew will be responsible for installing the $1 million dollar Japanese lab, Kibo, and the pump for the crew’s broken toilet once they arrive—and probably none too soon for the crew on the ISS. With the delivery of the Japanese lab addition, the orbiting outpost will be ¾ complete. With a lab that is 37 feet long, weighing 32,000 pounds, it entirely fills the payload area of the Discovery space shuttle. Already delivered is the first part of the Japanese lab, with the third and final section will not be delivered until next year. The entire lab has a price tag of $2 billion dollars.

With identical twins on board, Discovery’s commander Kelly and the space shuttle commander Scott, the mission has a 14-day schedule with three spacewalks planned: the installation of the Kibo, replacing an empty nitrogen gas tank, and working on a clogged solar wing rotating joint.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Mission Objectives, Space Agency News, The Gear to Get There. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.