Space shuttle delivers a feel-good Fourth

Yet another potential concern turned out to be not a big issue: During last year's launch, a vulture flew into the shuttle and was killed, leading NASA to draw up a plan for luring away or scaring away the vultures, which are a protected species.

"We executed our plan for the birds perfectly today," launch director Mike Leinbach said, drawing a chuckle from the journalists. "We didn't execute any birds. There were no birds over the vehicle at launch time."

Ambitious agenda
Discovery's mission agenda is ambitious — so ambitious that NASA aims to add a 13th day to the flight. Among the highlights:

• Reiter will be dropped off to join the space station's current Expedition 13 crew members, NASA's Jeff Williams and Russia's Pavel Vinogradov. The move will make Reiter the first long-term crew member who is neither American nor Russian. "It adds, maybe, a little bit of internationality to the station," Reiter told NBC. His arrival will also mark the first time since 2003 that the station has had a crew of three. That additional crew time should also allow more science to be done on the station, he said.
• More than 2 1/2 tons of supplies will be delivered to the station, including an oxygen generator that will eventually allow the station's occupancy to rise to six crew members. Almost as much old equipment and trash will be unloaded from the station for return to Earth.
• Spacewalkers will repair a power-supply reel system for the station's robotic rail car, which was rendered essentially unusable last December when a cable was cut by accident. They'll also install a spare component for the station's cooling system.
• One spacewalk will be devoted to testing a technique for inspecting the shuttle's underside for damage even if the shuttle isn't docked to the station. Astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum will take turns standing at the end of a 50-foot-long (15-meter-long) orbital boom attached to the shuttle's 50-foot-long robotic arm, and practicing the moves that would have to be made for inspection and even repair.
• If the mission is extended by an extra day, as expected, yet another spacewalk would be devoted to testing tools that could be used for repairing the reinforced panels on the shuttle's most critical areas — the nose cone and the leading edges of the wings.
• The sensor-tipped orbital inspection boom will be used to check the tiles in orbit, as it was during last year's flight. The space station's crew will also conduct a high-resolution photo survey of the shuttle's tiles before Monday's scheduled docking, just like last time. But this time, a similar survey will be done just before and after undocking, to learn more about potential damage to the shuttle from micrometeoroids or orbital debris during flight.

MORE FROM HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT

Human Spaceflight Section Front

Russian room ready for space station launch Space junk buzzes station while crew sleeps Countdown begins for NASA's uncertain future Space hotel says it's on schedule to open in 2012 Amelia Earhart's scarf flying to space NASA delays Nov. shuttle launch for test flight Space clown comes back down to Earth Billionaire hosts ‘Cirque du Space’ from orbit Astronaut hopefuls don’t mind being ‘Chumps’ Top 10 antics in outer space Human Spaceflight Section Front   Add Human Spaceflight headlines to your news reader: