• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

NASA Space Shuttle Discovery Heads to Space Station

26 July 2005

United States returns to manned space flight after more than two years

By Cheryl Pellerin
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – Space shuttle Discovery blasted off without problems into blue Florida skies July 26, the first shuttle to fly since the 2003 Columbia accident, and 13 days after the first launch attempt.

The historic mission is the 114th space shuttle flight and the 17th U.S. flight to the International Space Station. The STS-114 mission is scheduled to last 12 days, with a planned landing August 7 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“Okay Eileen, our long wait may be over,” said shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach to shuttle Commander Eileen Collins.

“On behalf of the millions of people who believe so deeply in what we do, good luck, godspeed and have a little fun out there,” Leinbach said.

Senior NASA managers gave the green light for a launch attempt after a July 24 meeting at Kennedy Space Center to discuss recent problems related to a liquid hydrogen fuel sensor inside the external fuel tank that indicated a low fuel-level reading.

The problems caused the shuttle’s scheduled July 13 launch to be postponed. The sensor protects an orbiter's main engines by triggering them to shut down if fuel runs unexpectedly low.

For the past 11 days, hundreds of engineers across the country worked around the clock to troubleshoot the sensor system issue. Prior to the launch there no longer was any sign of what proved to be an intermittent sensor malfunction.

During their mission to the space station, Discovery's seven-member crew will test and evaluate new safety procedures for the shuttle. Among the many safety improvements are a redesigned external tank, new sensors and a boom that will let astronauts inspect the shuttle for potential damage.

Discovery is carrying 15 tons of supplies and replacement hardware to the space station.

The crew members are Commander Eileen Collins, pilot James Kelly and mission specialists Charles Camarda, Wendy Lawrence, Soichi Noguchi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Steve Robinson and native Australian Andy Thomas.

Collins was the first female space shuttle commander. She and her crew launched aboard space shuttle Columbia on the STS-93 mission in July 1999.

Crew members Robinson and Noguchi will exit the shuttle three times on spacewalks. The first spacewalk will demonstrate repair techniques on the shuttle's protective tiles.

During the second spacewalk, they'll replace a failed control moment gyroscope, which helps keep the station properly oriented. During the third, they'll install the external stowage platform, a sort of space shelf for holding spare parts during space station construction.

This Discovery mission also marks the third trip of the multipurpose logistics module named Raffaello to the space station. Raffaello is essentially a moving van that transports supplies to the orbital outpost.

As Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) were on duty.

Military air, land and sea assets were in place to provide security and, in an emergency, search-and-rescue assistance, according to Mike Kucharek, media chief for NORAD.

NORAD is responsible for air defense of North American airspace; NORTHCOM plans, organizes and executes homeland defense and civil support missions.

The U.S. Defense Department has a long history of supporting manned space flights, dating back to Project Mercury in the early 1960s. The department's capabilities, from surveillance assets to space systems to search-and-rescue units, make it a valuable partner to NASA, Kucharek said.

Speaking from the Kennedy Space Center, Kucharek said NORAD enforced temporary flight restrictions over the shuttle and its path. Six Air Force F-15 aircraft enforced a temporary no-fly zone around the center’s launch pad 39B.

For the millions of potential viewers of the STS-114 mission, on July 12 NASA signed agreements with Yahoo! of California and Akamai Technologies of Massachusetts to help bring the space shuttle return-to-flight mission to Internet users through the NASA Web portal.

Yahoo! is providing live streaming of NASA TV mission coverage in Windows Media format and will be the only other official online host of NASA TV footage beyond the NASA Web site. Akamai is streaming NASA TV for RealPlayer and will deliver all other Web content during the mission.

With a 12-day mission that includes three spacewalks, NASA expects to deliver more data to users than it has for anything but the Mars Exploration Rovers, which are still going strong after 18 months on the mysterious red planet.

The STS-114 mission comes after a 2.5-year initiative to reinforce the orbiters and improve the safety of the space shuttle fleet after the loss of space shuttle Columbia (STS-107) and its seven astronauts.

The Columbia mission lifted off January 16, 2003, for a 17-day science mission featuring microgravity experiments. On re-entering the atmosphere February 1, the orbiter exploded because of a hole made during launch by falling foam from the external tank that damaged panels on the underside of the left wing.

The orbiter and its seven crew members were lost about 15 minutes before Columbia was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space Center.

To show support for the STS-114 crew and those who supported the return to flight effort, the families of the astronauts who died on Columbia sent NASA a statement July 12.

“As the families of Apollo 1 and Challenger before us, we grieve deeply but know the exploration of space must go on,” the statement read. “We hope we have learned, and will continue to learn, from each of these accidents, so that we will be as safe as we can be in this high risk endeavor.”

A limited number of flights remain for the space shuttles, which are scheduled to be retired in 2010.

On July 12, NASA authorized two eight-month contracts, each worth about $28 million, one to Lockheed Martin Corp. and the other to the team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and the Boeing Co., to support a July 2006 review of engineering systems for the agency's new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).

NASA eventually will choose one industry team to build the CEV. Originally, the agency planned to select a single team in 2008, but to reduce or eliminate the time between the shuttle's retirement in 2010 and the first CEV flight, NASA will make the selection in early 2006.

The CEV is expected to carry up to six astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit soon after the Space Shuttle is retired in 2010, and then on to the moon as early as 2015. The CEV is a key element of the nation's Vision for Space Exploration, which returns human explorers to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Over 20 years, the space shuttle has launched 3 million pounds of cargo, transported more than 600 passengers and pilots, cumulatively spent more than three years in flight and traveled more than 366 million miles.

Information about the STS-114 mission is available at the NASA Web site. 

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)