Critter litter - A bat attempted to stow away on the space shuttle, Discovery, according to Space.com. It was not expected to cause a debris problem; it was expected to fly away during the launch. To quote:
Discovery is poised to deliver new solar arrays and a new station crewmember to the International Space Station. Commander Lee Archambault will lead the seven-member STS-119 crew on the planned 13-day mission.
Discovery is also ferrying Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata to the space station, where he will replace NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus as a member of the outpost's three-person crew. Coincidentally, Wakata - Japan's first long-duration astronaut - was also part of the STS-72 crew aboard Endeavour when the last bat tried to hitch a ride into space.
Satellite debris was tracked near the space station yesterday, but it passed by without the necessity of moving the station out of harm's way. To quote:
The amount of space trash has increased in recent months after the Feb. 10 collision of a U.S. and a different Russian satellite, which spewed two debris clouds after the two spacecraft crashed into each other 490 miles (790 km) above Siberia. The new debris has increased the damage risk to NASA's space shuttle and station flights by about 6 percent, or 1-in-318, NASA officials have said.
"Space waste: Handling garbage when your dumpster is 100 million miles away," is an article sort of on the same subject. You might find this archived piece from Eurekalert (11/18/08) interesting.
Night into Day
Billows of smoke and the water near Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida capture the brilliant light of space shuttle Discovery's lift-off on the STS-119 mission.
Photo credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph, Kevin O'Connell
March 15, 2009
Urine recycling system to get a spare part -- The space shuttle Discovery will link up with the International Space station today. NASA's STS-119 is due to dock with the ISS at 5:13 PM EDT. The crew will land back on earth on March 28. Space.com has the full story of the mission plans. To quote the highlights:
Discovery's STS-119 mission will deliver the Starboard-6 truss (S6), a 45-foot-long, 31,000-pound girder that will complete the station's 11-piece main truss, which serves as the outpost's metallic backbone. The truss also carries the fourth set of U.S. solar wings to generate power for the orbiting lab.
. . . Discovery is also carrying up Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, a veteran spaceflyer who will serve as his nation's first long-duration astronaut. Wakata is due to relieve NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus as a station Expedition 18 flight engineer for a roughly three-month stay. Magnus will fly back home aboard Discovery.
. . . Pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists Joseph Acaba, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, and John Phillips fill out Discovery's STS-119 crew. Arnold and Acaba, both teacher-astronauts, are set to be the first educators to perform spacewalks when they help install the new elements on the space station.
. . . The shuttle is also set to carry up a spare part for the station's urine recycling system, which filters astronaut urine back into drinking water. The system has been malfunctioning since it was installed last November.
Space flight will always have to deal with things that are unplanned. And STS-119 has been no exception. But NASA and its partners around the world have shown an amazing resilience and brilliance when it comes to work-arounds. It is really something to behold for an old "space junkie" like me.
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