Shuttle Discovery blasts
off for space station
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. space shuttle
Discovery blasted off its seaside launch pad on Sunday with a pair
of solar wing panels and the first Japanese resident astronaut for
the International Space Station.
NASA shook off a month of delays to launch its 125th shuttle
mission at 7:43 p.m. EDT (11:43 p.m. British time) from the Kennedy
Space Centre in Florida.
"We had a little bit of a wait but that'll just make the payoff
that much sweeter," shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach radioed
to the Discovery crew shortly before liftoff.
"Thanks for the work. We'll see you in a couple of weeks,"
shuttle commander Lee Archambault replied.
There was no sign of the hydrogen fuel leak that shut down
Discovery's launch attempt last week and no issues with valves in
the ship's engines that triggered four previous delays. In the
final hour before launch, even Florida's notoriously fickle weather
was perfect.
The shuttle rode into the clear sky trailing a column of pale
smoke that turned into a knot of bright pink as it caught the light
of the setting sun. Two and a half minutes into its climb to orbit
the ship dropped its booster rockets, which could be seen drifting
back to Earth as pinpoints of light against the darkening sky.
Discovery will spend the next 13 days in orbit, speeding around
the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour (28,160 kph). For eight of those
days it will be lodged at the space station, which is nearing
completion after more than a decade of construction 225 miles (360
km) above Earth.
The space station is about 75 percent complete. When it's
finished it will be larger than a full sized soccer field.
The primary goal of the mission is to deliver the last piece of
the station's 11-part external backbone, the structural spine of
the $100 billion (71 billion pound) outpost.
FULL POWER
The $300 million truss segment in Discovery's cargo hold
contains the final set of solar wing panels to bring the station up
to full power, with 120 kilowatts of electricity -- enough to power
42 homes of 2,800 square-feet.
"That's a pretty healthy neighbourhood," said NASA spokesman
Allard Beutel.
The power boost will pave the way for NASA and its 15 partners
to double the station's crew size from three to six members as
early as May.
Japan's tenure as a prime station operator begins sooner.
Discovery's seven-man crew includes Koichi Wakata, 45, who will be
left behind on the space station as Japan's first resident crew
member. NASA last year delivered and installed the main components
of Japan's Kibo laboratory at the orbital complex.
"It is over 20 years since Japan started this endeavour, in
participating in the International Space Station program," Wakata,
a veteran of two previous shuttle missions, said in a preflight
interview.
"To be able to conduct a variety of experiments, we need to be
able to stay on board the space station on a long duration," he
said. "I am very fortunate to be able to participate in a
long-duration flight to fully utilize the Kibo module."
Joining Wakata are commander Lee Archambault, 48; pilot Dominic
"Tony" Antonelli, 41; flight engineer and lead spacewalker Steven
Swanson, 48; spacewalkers Joseph Acaba, 41, and Richard Arnold, 45;
and John Phillips, 57, who already has served as a resident space
station crewmember.
The crew plans to conduct three spacewalks to hook up the new
solar wings and prepare the outpost for future additions.
Discovery also will be delivering parts to fix the station's
water purification system, which recycles urine and condensate into
clean water for drinking. The system was delivered during the
shuttle's last mission in November, but stopped working shortly
thereafter.
NASA has eight flights remaining to complete space station
assembly before retiring the shuttle fleet next year. A proposal to
fly a ninth mission to the station to deliver a dark matter
experiment is pending before Congress.
The U.S. space agency also plans to fly a final servicing call
to the Hubble Space Telescope in May.
(Editing by Jim Loney)