Space Shuttle Discovery taking its last space trip…..

 

 

The Space Shuttle Discovery mated to it’s booster rockets waits for it last voyage…..

(AP)

“Am I sad because this is Discovery’s last mission? I am. I would love to see Discovery continue to fly, as would everybody else that I work with as well,” says Stephanie Stilson of Kennedy Space Center in Florida, who leads the ground crews that take care of Discovery between its flights. “We all would love to see the shuttle program continue for years and years.”

But NASA plans to retire its aging fleet this year. Each of the shuttles has just one flight left. After that, they are slated to become museum exhibits. And NASA astronauts will have to be ferried up to the International Space Station first by the Russian space program, then possibly by commercial space companies…..

 

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From Politicaldog101……

 

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Daniel…..The Space Shuttle is up from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida….with a full house onboard……

Morning Dog!

Space Shuttle “Discovery” blasted off this morning on a bright Monday at 6.21pm ET from the Kennedy Space Center. The Shuttle is now safely in Orbit. On Board are 7 Astronauts including one Japanese Woman. Assisting Commander Alan Poindexter is James P. Dutton who is one of the youngest Astronauts ever serving as Pilot.
Daniel G.

From AviationWeek…..

With seven astronauts on board, Discovery raised the number of spacefarers to 13. On Sunday a Russian Soyuz capsule docked with the ISS, delivering NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko to the orbiting facility where three more station crew members awaited them.

Early Wednesday Discovery will dock at the forward end of the Harmony pressurized node, kicking off nine days of joint operations between the two massive spacecraft. In addition to moving 6,700 pounds of cargo out of Leonardo, and then refilling it with scientific samples, worn-out gear and other “down mass,” the two crews also are scheduled to conduct three spacewalks to replace an ammonia-coolant tank and a gyro, and install a camera on Canada’s “Dextre” robotic dexterous manipulator in preparation for a robotic repair this summer.

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