Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday for one of NASA's last servicing and resupply runs before the fleet is retired later this year. Discovery commander Alan Poindexter and his six crewmates, including Japan's rookie astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, reached the orbital space base at 3:44 am EDT (0744 GMT) as the ships sailed 215 miles (346 km) above the Caribbean Sea.
The astronauts used backup systems, including star trackers and hand-held lasers, to navigate to the station due to the loss of the shuttle's primary Ku-band communications system, which took out the ship's radars, television and main data relay. The shuttle is carrying an Italian-built cargo pod filled with 17,000 pounds (7,700 kgs) of equipment and supplies for the station. NASA plans three more missions to the outpost before it retires Discovery and sister ships Atlantis and Endeavour due to cost and safety issues.
The Obama administration wants to cancel a planned follow-on program to send astronauts back to the moon, saying the $108 billion project, known as Constellation, was too expensive and lacked cache. The shuttle, which is scheduled to spend nine days at the station, is due back at the Kennedy Space Center on April 18.
Comments
Comments are closed.