STS-120 Heroes of the International Space Station
The John Wayne hero that most of us grew up with is still very much alive in space, with mission Specialist Steve Parazynski repairing two visible tears on the solar panel while he had been balanced at the end of an extended robotic arm, silhouetted against the brilliant orange glow of a partially extended solar wing. This historical space walk had not been ordinary and far from routine, considering to be an exciting and highly successful mission, with the space shuttle mission STS-120 showing outstanding talent and teamwork among the astronauts, International Space Station crew, and the mission team on the ground.
The lift-off had been set for October 23, 2007, with the Italian-built United States Harmony module being carried aboard the space shuttle Discovery. The key to the following three shuttle flights set to carry the European Columbus lab and two pressurized Japanese Kibo modules was this Italian pressurized module. The connecting point between these modules was Harmony and the United States Destiny laboratory already in place, forming an international crossroads in space.
As we know now, the inspection of Discovery by the crew went well and no signs of damage from lift-off were shown on the shuttle. The orbit chased the International Space Station until the rendezvous on the third day of the mission. The hatches were opened afer the shuttle safely docked to the station. Making space history, Shuttle Commander Pam Melroy and the Station’s expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson were the first time women commanded both space craft at the same time. A crew member swap was one of the first orders of business with Dan Tani joining the station crew in exchange for Clayton Anderson who would return to earth aboard Discovery after a five month stint at the station.
The focus of the mission’s first space walk had been to install Harmony in its temporary location, conducted by Parazynski and Doug Wheelock. While the new men assisted from outside, European Space Agency astronaut Paul Nespoli was space coordinator while Stephanie Wilson, Dan Tani and Anderson had worked from the inside. Using the station’s robotic arm, theyhad removed Harmony from Discovery’s payload bay and brought it into position beside the Unity module. Parazynski and Wheelock worked atop the station, during the six-hour space walk retrieving an antenna from the Z1 truss and readying the P6 for its move to the far end of the port truss. The “grand opening” of Harmony, which school children named, had been held on the following day.
Over 2,666 cubic feet of additional volume had been added to the station by the module, increasing the living space by nearly 20%. Whitson and Nespoli were the first inside after Harmony’s hatch was opened and began the set-up operations. The station crew has relocated Harmony, after Discovery’s departure, to its permanent location at the end of the United States Destiny lab. With all the major work of the mission completed, a space walk by the station crew was postponed until after the shuttle’s departure and the diagnosis of the rotary joint problem was left for a later mission. The STS-120 mission has been proven a great success and proved once again that learning to work in space is an important part of building the station. And yes, grandma, John Wayne still lives!
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Mission History, Technical Concerns. 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.
