Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: All set for a spacewalk

All set for a spacewalk
================================================================================
NewsByte on 03 June, 2008 01:48:22
 
Washington, June 3: Astronauts prepared for the first of three planned
spacewalks on Tuesday to detach a large Japanese laboratory from the US shuttle
Discovery so it can be installed on the International Space Station (ISS).
Mission specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan will venture out of the orbiting
station to unlock the lab from Discovery’s payload bay, which will give Japan
a permanent outpost to carry out experiments in space.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will then operate
the station’s robotic arm to attach the lab to the ISS.
"Obviously its going to be a big day for Japan, they’ve been working very
hard on this module and all of the systems in it," said ISS flight director
Emily Nelson. "It’s a big day for us as well, bringing the largest laboratory
that we’ll have on the space station on orbit and getting it up and running."
Nasa officials said everything was ready for the space walk, which comes the
day after Discovery linked up with the International Space Station about 338 km
above the south Pacific following a two-day trip around earth.Two hours after
docking, Hoshide, Fossum, Garan and Discovery’s four other astronauts floated
into the ISS, where they exchanged hugs and handshakes with the ISS’s three
occupants."You have a beautiful house," US robotics specialist Mr Greg Chamitoff
told ISS crew member Garrett Reisman before the hatches opened.
Mr Chamitoff is replacing Mr Reisman, who will return to earth aboard Discovery
after a three-month mission.
About an hour before docking, Commander Mark Kelly steered Discovery into a
rollercoaster-like maneuver, flipping the shuttle just 180 metres below the
station to allow ISS astronauts to photograph its underside. The images taken by
the station crew members were downloaded to engineers on earth who were
inspecting them for signs of damage to the shuttle’s thermal shield.
This manoeuvre, two days after the shuttle lifted off in Florida for its 14-day
flight, has become a regular safety feature during flights allowing the space
agency to ensure that the shuttle is free of potentially devastating damage.
Ground cameras spotted several pieces of foam coming off Discovery’s external
fuel tank during Saturday’s launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, but Nasa has
downplayed the risk posed by the debris.
Nasa said Saturday’s launch caused unprecedented damage to the shuttle’s
launch pad, but the space agency was confident that it had caused no damage to
Discovery.
Lead shuttle flight director Mr Matt Abbott said the mission had been
"flawless" so far.
"It’s one big happy spaceship now (with) the International Space Station and
Discovery, and it’s great to have the Kibo pressurised module part of the ISS.
All we have to do now is install it," he said.
The Japanese Pressurised Module (JPM) is the central segment of three parts
that will make up Japan’s Kibo ("hope") laboratory. The 11.2-metre long,
14.8-tonne module will be the single largest room on the ISS, with space for
four scientists. —AFP