Top Science News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AFP) – Discovery, NASA's oldest and most journeyed expanse shuttle, is poised to start Thursday on its test mission, patch up a near three-decade heritage of orbital travel.

When the storied spacecraft lifts off at 4:50 pm (2150 GMT), it module mark the beginning of the end of the US expanse shuttle program, with Discovery the prototypal of the remaining threesome shuttles headlike for retirement this year.

The closure of the shuttle information module leave a gaping hole in the dweller expanse mission, forcing astronauts to rely on the Russian Soyuz expanse capsulise for instrumentation to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

But concerns for the forthcoming were brushed divagation as fervour mounted at Kennedy Space Center for Discovery's mission, with theoretical checks agitated along smoothly and no suggestion of the render cell woes that suspended the start in November.

"Everything is on track and going beautifully with the countdown," said assignment direction aggroup administrator Mike Moses. "We're rattling looking forward to a rattling action-packed, successful mission."

Cracks on Discovery's right render cell emerged just before start more than threesome months ago, feat engineers to teaser for many weeks over the drive and how to mend it.

In January, they agreed that instalment small metal strips, titled radius blocks, on the 6.7 meter- (22-foot-) long U-shaped metal brackets, titled stringers, would fortify their strength.

Shuttle start administrator Mike Leinbach said the teams preparing Discovery this time had found "no problems at all" aweigh of lift-off.

"We're not chase some issues and it looks like Discovery module fly this time," said Leinbach.

The rotating assist structure around Discovery was rolled away on weekday evening, disclosing the shuttle lit up on the launch-pad on a humid, stormy night.

The six astronauts in the gathering were to awaken at 7:00 am (1200 GMT) aweigh of the launch, NASA said.

The weight of the right render cell was to begin at 7:25 am (1225 GMT), and the astronauts were expected to commission the shuttle at around 1:35 pm (1835 GMT).

The assignment module be led by man Steven Lindsey, pilot Eric Boe and astronauts Alvin Drew, archangel Barratt, Steve Bowen and Nicole Stott.

Astronaut Tim Kopra was damaged from the gathering itemize after a bicycle accident in January. He was replaced by Bowen.

The gathering plans to have the Permanent Multipurpose Module, with player storage expanse and an Atlantic for experiments, as substantially as some constituent parts and the Express Logistic Carrier, an right papers for super equipment.

The shuttle module also bring the prototypal mechanism robot to the ISS. The Robonaut 2, or R2, is a joint send of General Motors and NASA and module meet behind when Discovery leaves as a permanent doc of the expanse station.

The defy forecast -- clear skies, light and mild winds -- was thoughtful exceptionally good, with only a 20-percent quantity of conditions that could retard the launch, NASA defy officer Kathy Winters said.

Discovery prototypal flew in 1984. Final flights for the another two remaining in the fleet, Atlantis and Endeavour, are scheduled for after this year.

Endeavour is set for its test takeoff on Apr 19 and a terminal assignment for Atlantis is scheduled for June 28, though resource for Atlantis remains in question.

There were initially fivesome expanse shuttles in the fast -- Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986 and river disintegrated on its artefact backwards to Earth in 2003.

The sixth shuttle, Enterprise, did test flights in the region but was never flown into space. It is already on display at a museum right Washington.

Discovery has flown more missions than some another shuttle, circling the Earth more than 5,600 nowadays and logging 142 meg miles (230 meg kilometers) over its 352 days in space.

Source