Space Shuttle Discovery Docks

After an unusual and spectacular night-time launch, the American space shuttle Discovery, carrying a seven member crew, has reached its destination, docking at the International Space Station, an orbiting laboratory. The flight lasted two days, reaching the space station late Monday.

The docking itself was quite uneventful. However, the crew members did make use of the robotic arm of the space station to check the shuttle’s left wing. Sensors detected a minor disturbance in this area, which officials from NASA were quick to dismiss as nothing disturbing or worrying. Images transmitted from the shuttle showed an orange-colored cellophane-like material jutting out of the door of the left external fuel tank. This was another thing that the crew would look into, according to John Shannon, the Mission Management Team Chairman. He was quick to state this to be not much of a deal, that it was nothing like a tile damage scenario, which can be worrisome.

During their week-long stay at the space station, the crew of Discovery will be carrying out repairs and overhauls at the space station. Most of the repair work is major, and involves upgrading the electrical and thermal configuration of the station. Also on the agenda of the crew are three space walks, to repair outer areas of the space station.

The first of these walks is scheduled for Tuesday, and will be aimed at completing a major task – adding a new segment to the backbone of the station. The purpose of this new component, weighing roughly two tons and costing a cool $11 million, is to bridge routing power, coolant, and data to the laboratory. According to Tony Ceccacci, the Lead Flight Director, the space walk is aimed at correcting and upgrading the different thermal and electrical components of the station. He further stated the purpose of the exercise was to switch over the space station’s functioning from a temporary electrical system, which is what it was running on ever since it went up in 1998, to a permanent one.

The Indian interest in this story is the presence of crew member Sunita Williams, who will actually stay back on the space station for the next six months in place of Thomas Reiter of Germany, who will be returning home.