NASA Eases Concerns Over Shuttle Objects
Associated Press
“Mission Control reassured commander Mark Kelly and his crew on Friday that their spaceship was safe for coming home, and that the missing clip — one of three that hold down thermal blankets on the rudder and speed brake — would not impact anything.
“A protrusion in the same area at the tail, which was reported by the astronauts around the same time, also was found to be harmless. The angle of the lighting and the rudder’s position made the so-called bump look strange when, in fact, it was exactly how it looked at liftoff, Mission Control said.”
NASA MISSION STATUS UPDATE
Friday, June 13
In conversations on NASA Television, space shuttle Discovery astronauts, completing a standard day-before-landing test of the shuttle steering jets, called Mission Control and indicated they had seen a one foot to 1.5-foot-long object floating away from the shuttle, from behind the rear portion of the right wing. They said it appeared to be a rectangular object. The crew captured a few seconds of video of the object and transmitted it to the ground.
Shortly afterwards, the crew described what they called a “bump” on the left side trailing edge of Discovery’s rudder (see photo). The crew took photographs of the rudder area with high resolution cameras and is downlinking those images to Mission Control. Discovery’s payload bay television cameras also were trained on the area and provided views of the rudder for ground experts to examine.
The crew completed the standard flight control system check out and reaction control system steering jet test, and is continuing to stow items in the cabin for Saturday’s planned landing.
The deorbit burn is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. EDT Saturday, followed by landing at 11:15 a.m.
NASA concerned as object floats past shuttle, bump detected
CBC News
The space shuttle Discovery has departed the International Space Station and is preparing for a Saturday landing back at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA reports that the mission is going well.
Meanwhile, officials say that the shuttle launch caused so much damage last week that it has knocked the launch pad out of commission. WESH-TV reports that the pad was a “ticking time bomb.” Hundreds of square feet of walls were damaged, with bricks puncturing a fence one-half mile away. The CBS affiliate reports there are fears that bricks could damage the fragile shuttle during a future launch, although another report said this fear was unfounded.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that a 200-square-foot section of the flame trench wall came loose. NASA is probing the launch pad for structure weaknesses, and it hopes to have the facility repaired by October. Work has been hampered by the presence of dangerous asbestos, which can cause deadly lung diseases.
Image above: STS-124 Commander Mark Kelly works inside the Quest airlock with Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov. Photo credit: NASA TV
NASA MISSION UPDATE
Mission specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan are scheduled to kick off STS-124’s first spacewalk at 11:32 a.m. EDT. During the 6-½ hour excursion, the pair will retrieve a shuttle inspection tool, service and inspect components of a solar alpha rotary joint and prepare the largest component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory for installation on the International Space Station.
The spacewalkers’ first task is to transfer the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) from the station’s truss to space shuttle Discovery. The OBSS, which attaches to the shuttle’s robotic arm for detailed inspection of the shuttle’s heat shield, was left at the station for STS-124 during the previous shuttle mission to provide room for the giant Kibo module in Discovery’s payload bay.
Next, the spacewalkers will prepare Kibo’s Japanese Pressurized Module (JPM) for installation. After inspecting the common berthing mechanism on the Harmony Node’s left side and opening a window cover, Fossum and Garan will work together in the shuttle’s cargo bay to remove contamination covers from the JPM’s docking surfaces. Fossum will also disconnect heater cables and remove locking bolts from the shutters of the JPM’s forward window.
Continue reading ‘Discovery Docks at Station, Astronauts Prepare for Spacewalk’
