JSC on STS-123

Next I moved on to “Blast Off”, which was probably the best part of the whole trip, aside from the tram tour. The beginning was a little cheesy – they crammed a bunch of people into a small room with big screens and speakers, and then had us “experience” a shuttle launch. It was cute, but cheesy.

Next we moved into a more comfortable amphitheatre where we got a “mission briefing” – essentially an update on current shuttle missions. Oddly enough, it was all about the shuttle launch from 1.28am (CDT) this morning. I actually pulled out paper and a pen and took some notes, because this was really good.

There are currently 3 spacecraft in orbit around the Earth: the space shuttle (Endeavour), the ISS and the Jules Verne.

The Jules Vern is an automated transfer vehicle from ESA making its maiden voyage. It was launched on March 9th. They’re going to do several approaches and back off to prove that they have good control of the craft before finally docking at the beginning of April. The Jules Verne is the first of a new series of craft designed to re-stock and re-boost the ISS.

The space shuttle Endeavour made its 21st flight (STS-123) this morning. It takes 8.5 minutes to go from launch to orbit (where Endeavour is now). There will be 5 spacewalks this mission, each of which is estimated to be about 6.5 hours. The space shuttle will dock with the ISS for a total of 12 days, the most ever.

The space shuttle is taking with it two important pieces for the ISS. The first is the Experiment Logistics Module, the first of four pieces of the Japanese module “Kibo” (meaning “hope”). Kibo is the largest module that will launch to the ISS.

The second is the Canadian-made two-armed robot “Dextre”. This 12 foot tall, 3400 pound robot with two 11 foot-long arms can be controlled by the crew inside the ISS or by flight controllers on the ground. It will allow routine maintenance tasks to be completed with far fewer spacewalks by space station crew. Dextre is the most sophisticated robot ever launched. It can grasp and screw in a light bulb without breaking it, but also easily move refrigerator-sized objects.

The final part of the space shuttle’s mission before undocking from the ISS is to remove the Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS). This 50-foot extension of the shuttle’s robotic arm is used to inspect the underside of the space shuttle for damage incurred during lift-off (particularly damage that could cause a re-occurrence of the Columbia disaster). The OBSS will be temporarily attached to the ISS because there isn’t enough room in the cargo bay for the boom and the large Japanese pressurized module which will be launched on the next mission (STS-124). The astronauts on the STS-124 mission will have to do the inspection of the spacecraft after delivering their cargo. They will bring the OBSS back to Earth with them.

There was also video footage of the launch from this morning (if you were like me and asleep when the launch actually occurred, head over here to watch footage at your leisure), and brief bios of the astronauts heading up to ISS and those currently aboard.

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