Author: Rainer Gerhards

STS-120
Report #04
5 p.m. CDT Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – The seven-member crew of STS-120 on board Space Shuttle Discovery is ready for tomorrow’s rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station, planned for 7:33 a.m. CDT.

Commander Pam Melroy and her crewmates today completed a five-hour inspection of Discovery’s heat shield using the shuttle’s robotic arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System.

During today’s initial look at Space Shuttle Discovery’s heat shield, mission managers received no reports of visible damage. However, engineers on the ground will add today’s three-dimensional sensor images to imagery and accelerometer data collected at launch and during the climb to orbit and continue their analysis. The images gathered during tomorrow’s back flip will help verify the heat shield’s condition.

Also today, Melroy and the rest of the crew, Pilot George Zamka and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson, Doug Wheelock, Scott Parazynski, Dan Tani and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency installed the centerline camera that will be used during docking, extended the outer ring of the Orbiter Docking System, and checked the tools that will be used during rendezvous.

Tomorrow, Melroy will perform the rendezvous pitch maneuver, an orbiter back-flip just 600 feet below the space station that will allow Expedition 16 crew members Clay Anderson and Yuri Malenchenko to take detailed photographs of the orbiter’s underside.

The STS-120 crew is on a two-week mission that will set the stage for delivery of new research laboratories from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in the upcoming assembly missions. During the mission, the crew will install the Harmony module, a connecting port and passageway for the new laboratories, in a temporary location.

The crew will also relocate the Port 6 (P6) truss segment and solar arrays to the end of the Port 5 truss and then redeploy and reactivate the P6 arrays, increasing the station’s capacity to generate power.

On board the space station, Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineers Malenchenko and Anderson readied the station for the arrival of Discovery’s crew by conducting a leak check of Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, Discovery’s docking point, and set up spacesuits already in the station’s Quest airlock.

Anderson, now in the 139th day of his flight, charged the batteries, formatted memory the cards, and configured the 400 and 800 milimeter lenses on the cameras that will be used during tomorrow’s orbiter maneuver. Anderson and Malenchenko also did a practice run of the photo shoot.

Anderson will return to Earth aboard Discovery. Tani will stay on the station to work with Whitson and Malenchenko to put Harmony in its permanent location on the front of the Destiny laboratory. The next shuttle mission, targeted to launch in early December, will deliver the European laboratory module Columbus.

Discovery’s crew went to sleep at 4:38 p.m. and will awaken at 12:38 a.m.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Thursday morning or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #03
1 a.m. CDT Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – The astronauts on board Space Shuttle Discovery have begun their first full day in space on a two-week mission to set the stage for delivery of new laboratory modules from two more of the International Space Station’s partner agencies.

The main payload on STS-120 is a connecting node, named Harmony. It will expand the pressurized volume in ISS to approximately 18,000 square feet and provide the docking ports for labs furnished by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Those components are due to arrive on orbit late this year and early next.

This morning’s wakeup song, “Lord of the Dance,” performed by John Langstaff, was played for Commander Pam Melroy at 12:39 a.m. CDT.

Today Melroy and her crewmates, Pilot George Zamka and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson, Doug Wheelock, Scott Parazynski, Dan Tani and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency will perform an inspection of Discovery’s heat shield using the shuttle’s robotic arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System. They’ll also check out the tools they need for Thursday’s rendezvous and docking to the station and install a centerline camera in the shuttle’s orbiter docking system. Spacewalkers Parazynski, Wheelock and Tani will prepare spacesuits that will be worn during the five spacewalks planned during ten days of docked operations.

The International Space Station’s Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Clay Anderson started their day at midnight. Today they will set up spacesuits already in the station’s Quest airlock, and conduct a leak check of the Pressurized Mating Adapter where Discovery will dock to the station Thursday morning at 7:35 a.m. CDT.

Anderson, now in the 138th day of his flight, will spend time exercising to prepare himself to experience the pull of gravity again when he returns to Earth with the shuttle crew. Tani will stay onboard to work with Whitson and Malenchenko to put Harmony in its permanent location on the front of the Destiny laboratory so the next mission, targeted to launch in early December, can deliver the European laboratory module Columbus.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Wednesday evening or earlier if events warrant.

STS-120
Report #02
Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007 – 5 p.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON — The Space Shuttle Discovery is headed to the International Space Station, carrying the Harmony module, destined to become the first expansion of the orbiting complex’s living and working space since 2001.

The addition of Harmony, a connector module also known as Node 2, will set the stage for the arrival of new research laboratories from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on future shuttle missions.

Following a flawless launch today, the seven crew members aboard Discovery opened the shuttle’s payload bay doors, successfully deployed the Ku-Band antenna that provides high-rate communications and television, and checked out the shuttle’s robotic arm. They also transmitted video and photographs of the shuttle’s external tank to the ground for standard post-launch analysis by engineers.

Discovery is commanded by veteran astronaut Pam Melroy. The pilot is George Zamka and mission specialists include Stephanie Wilson, Doug Wheelock, Scott Parazynski, Dan Tani and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency. The crew will awaken at 12:38 a.m. Wednesday to begin their first full day in space.

On Wednesday, the crew will perform a close inspection of Discovery’s heat shield using the shuttle’s robotic arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System. They also will check the spacesuits that will be used for spacewalks during the mission and install a centerline camera in the shuttle docking hatch that is used to help align the vehicle for docking.

STS-120
Report #01
Noon CDT Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON — The Space Shuttle Discovery raced into space this morning with an on-time launch at 10:38 CDT. Onboard are seven crewmembers led by veteran astronaut Pam Melroy. Discovery’s crew will join the International Space Station’s Expedition 16 crew Thursday morning.

Melroy, Pilot George Zamka and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson, Doug Wheelock, Scott Parazynski, Paolo Nespoli and Dan Tani began unstowing equipment and checking systems after reaching orbit.

On the way to the space station, Discovery’s crew will oversee a complete checkout of orbiter systems, including the robotic arm which will see extensive use throughout the mission beginning on Wednesday when it will be used to inspect the thermal protection system of the shuttle.

Discovery and its crew will arrive at the station at about 7:30 a.m. CDT Thursday and Tani will swap places with astronaut Clay Anderson. Anderson will come home aboard Discovery after serving 4 ½ months as a station flight engineer.

The launch of Discovery on its 34th mission begins a flight that will see the space station grow in size and capability with the addition of the first U.S. pressurized module since the Quest Airlock was delivered in 2001. The Harmony module, also known as Node 2, will add 2,600 cubic feet of living and working space to the complex. It will serve as the permanent docking port for international laboratories from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The shuttle astronauts are set to go to bed about 4:30 p.m. CDT today and awaken at 12:38 a.m. CDT Wednesday to begin their first full day in space.

As Discovery launched, the station crew, commanded by astronaut Peggy Whitson, watched live via a laptop computer as they sailed 218 miles above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland.