CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space shuttle Discovery is poised to launch into orbit under a full moon Wednesday night on a delivery mission to the International Space Station (ISS).Discovery and her seven crewmembers are scheduled to blast off from a seaside launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center here at 9:20:10 p.m. EDT (0120:10 March 12 GMT) to begin their two-week construction flight.
Packed aboard the spacecraft is a new set of solar panels to be installed on the station, as well as the final stretch of the ISS's massive backbone-like girder.
Discovery is also due to deliver even more precious cargo: Koichi Wakata, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut, who is to become his nation's first long-duration spaceflyer when he joins the station's Expedition 18 crew as a flight engineer for a six-month stay.
"I feel just lucky to be able to serve as a crew member to complete the assembly of the International Space Station," Wakata said in a NASA interview.
The shuttle Discovery's countdown continues to tick smoothly toward launch Wednesday on a space station assembly mission, NASA officials said today. Liquid hydrogen and oxygen were loaded aboard the orbiter Monday evening to power the ship's electricity-producing fuel cells and engineers are on schedule prepping the shuttle for fueling and blastoff Wednesday at 9:20:10 p.m. EDT.
Aboard the space station, meanwhile, commander Mike Fincke and flight engineer Yury Lonchakov conducted a spacewalk this afternoon to mount a European experiment packaged on the hull of the Zvezda command module and to complete a variety of other tasks. Fincke and Lonchakov were unable to complete the experiment installation during their most recent previous spacewalk late last year.
Today's excursion began at 12:22 p.m. EDT when the spacewalkers, wearing Russian suits, opened the hatch of the Pirs docking and airlock module. Crewmate Sandra Magnus will monitor the spacewalk from inside the station.
For identification, Fincke, making his sixth spacewalk, was wearing a suit with red stripes and use the call sign EV-2. Lonchakov, making his second EVA, was wearing a suit with blue markings and use the call sign EV-1. No NASA helmet cameras were used during today's work.
Tasks successfully completed in today's spacewalk included:
Shortening six tie-down straps near the docking interface at the base of the Pirs module.
Installing and activating the European materials exposure experiment package.
Repositioning another space exposure package that was bumped out of position during an earlier spacewalk.
Closing an insulation flap on a connector patch panel.
Carrying out a detailed photo survey of the Zvezda command module. The more than two dozen targets include handrails, antennas, docking targets, cooling vents, thrusters and radiator panels.
The four-hour, 49-minute EVA ends at 5:11 p.m. EDT, nearly an hour ahead of schedule.
This was the 120th spacewalk devoted to station construction and maintenance since assembly began in 1998 and the first so far this year. Going into today's outing, more than 80 spacewalkers representing the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, Germany, France and Sweden had logged 751 hours and seven minutes of EVA time.
To avoid conflict with an upcoming Russian mission to ferry a new crew to the station and return Fincke and Lonchakov to Earth, the docked phase of Discovery's mission must be finished by around March 26, the day the next crew is set for launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
To carry out a full-duration four-spacewalk mission, the shuttle must get off the ground by March 13 at the latest. A launch as late as March 16 or 17 is possible, but mission managers would have to eliminate one or two planned spacewalks, along with crew off-duty time.
Complicating the picture, the Air Force plans to launch a sophisticated military communications satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket on March 14, with March 15 as a backup. While that flight presumably could slip a few days if NASA needed more time for Discovery, shuttle managers are hopeful it won't come to that.
NASA Test DIrector Steve Payne said launch preparations are on track with no technical problems of any significance at launch pad 39A.
"At this point, we have no real concerns," Payne said. "Our systems are in good shape, the countdown is proceeding on schedule like it should be and we are ready for the exciting mission that lies ahead of us Wednesday night."
Shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said the forecast continues to call for a 90 percent chance of acceptable conditions Wednesday and Thursday, decreasing slightly to 80 percent "go" on Friday the 13th.
"The weather is looking very good for launch," Winters said. "And of course, there's going to be a full moon out so that's going to be a really nice view. Right now, it is looking like very favorable weather conditions for launch."
Orion and Constellation
The Orion spacecraft is part of a larger program called Constellation, an initiative intended to lead both to renewed exploration of the moon and eventually a human Mars mission. As planned, Constellation also will include two new rockets, both partly based on existing Space Shuttle technology: the Ares 1, a slender, two-stage vehicle designed to carry Orion into orbit; and the Ares V, a mammoth “heavy lifter” roughly the size of the old Saturn V, which will carry a lunar lander.
The Orion vehicle will bear a strong resemblance to the Apollo command and service modules. Like Apollo, Orion will have a launch abort system able to carry the craft clear of any emergency during takeoff, making it potentially safer than the shuttle.
According to NASA, Orion will be much roomier than Apollo, providing its crews of four to six astronauts with two-and-a-half times as much room as the earlier vehicle.
Perhaps the biggest difference, though, will be its electronics. While Apollo went to the moon with less computing power than today’s cheapest cell phone, Orion will have a full array of the latest data technology and avionics systems.
Bay Area Benefits
Orion will bring significant benefits to Houston’s Bay Area, says Bob Mitchell, aerospace marketing director for the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. Lockheed Martin Corp., a major contractor for the Orion program, plans to create about 900 new jobs in the area and to make $68 million in new capital investments.
Lockheed Martin’s stake in the area increased considerably due to aggressive courting by state and local officials. The company initially proposed to create 350 to 400 jobs in the region.
“Originally, the company was just going to do limited design and development work in Texas,” Mitchell says. “But the work that Lockheed Martin is going to be doing here now is developing all of the software and avionics for the entire program. This is a much bigger piece of the pie than we ever had on the shuttle when it was originally developed.”
“Houston’s base of skilled aerospace workers, experienced technicians and strong community support are unique and hard to beat,” says John Karas, vice president for Human Space Flight at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. “Combine that with the strong support and willingness of the state and local communities and business organizations to partner with Lockheed Martin through economic incentives, and it made perfect sense for us to establish our Orion program office in Houston.”
New Jobs, New Workers
The Orion program’s impact will extend well beyond the Lockheed Martin work force.
“It’s all in the jobs that will support those 900 new jobs,” says Mitchell. “Local businesses benefit the most – the local builder, drugstores and supermarkets all add new employees. It snowballs.” Bay Area Houston estimates that the Orion project will generate an additional 2,600 jobs in the area and more than $535 million in annual spending.
Lockheed Martin also plans to make significant commitments to Texas educational institutions to begin preparing a new generation of aerospace workers.
“The need to develop and train engineers, scientists and mathematicians is a compelling requirement for NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration,” says Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for Project Orion. “At the University of Houston at Clear Lake and the surrounding Clear Creek Independent School District, we will take advantage of their growing expertise in software and power systems. The students will develop and deliver power system test beds and math models for the Orion program.
“We’re also establishing similar programs at the University of Texas at El Paso,” Lacefield continues. “And since today’s elementary school students will form the nucleus of tomorrow’s high-tech work force, we plan to develop cooperative programs with school districts in the greater Houston area.”
The ultimate earthbound benefits of the new space initiative, though, may come from technologies not yet imagined.
“There are going to be new industries that will be developed because of the Constellation program,” Mitchell says. “To get back to the moon and stay on it for long periods of time is going to require a lot of new technology.
“It’s going to require new types of fuel cells,” he says. “There’s going to have to be a habitat built, which is another new industry we’ve never had before. The technology that’s going to be developed through those activities is going to create a lot of new industry in this community.”
Back to the Future
In the space community, excitement about Orion is growing.
“We’re very proud to be partnered with NASA and with the state of Texas on the Orion program as we embark upon the most exciting space adventure yet to unfold,” says Lockheed’s Karas. “Since the days of Apollo and before, Texas has played a central role in our nation’s space program. Today, we’re ready to take the next leap forward.”
“What it means is the reality of going back to the moon, to Mars and beyond,” says Mitchell. “We are a technology-driven economy in a global market. That’s who we are, and we’ve got to stay in front of everybody else. And space exploration is a driver in that technology.”
