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  (Source: NASA TV)
Shuttle lands Wednesday after 16-day mission to the ISS

To get the ISS complete in time for the scheduled retirement of the aging space shuttle fleet, NASA has stepped up shuttle missions. The latest shuttle mission, STS-123, made some serious inroads on construction of the ISS.

Endeavour lifted off March 11, 2008 at 2:28 a.m. from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The STS-123 mission accomplished the main goals of transporting the first section of the Japanese Kibo lab to the ISS and affixing the Dextre robotic system to the exterior of the ISS. These mission goals were accomplished without incident.

NASA reports on the STS-123 mission page that astronauts spent Tuesday making preparations for re-entry and landing. Among the preparations was a test of the thrusters that were used to position the shuttle for re-entry and the control surfaces for Endeavour’s flight through the atmosphere.

Astronauts set up a special recumbent seat for Mission Specialist Leopold Eyharts who returned to Earth aboard the Endeavour after a prolonged stay aboard the ISS. The seat is designed to help lessen the strain of gravity on the astronaut after long periods in weightlessness.

STS-123 also transported Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman to the ISS to replace Eyharts.

The Endeavour landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida tonight at 8:39 p.m. DailyTech covered the rare night lift-off of the Endeavour on March 11.

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shuttle end of life
By jb102 on 3/27/2008 12:50:45 AM , Rating: 2
Does anyone know why NASA isn't planning on leaving the shuttles in space, perhaps attached to the ISS on their last flight before retirement? It seems a waste to bring them back to earth only to retire them. It would seem to me that they would still have a useful life in orbit if for nothing other than cargo storage? Any thoughts?




RE: shuttle end of life
By Wizard on 3/27/2008 4:43:21 AM , Rating: 2
might be wrong, but i reckon they will recycle as much as they can and use that for the new ones


RE: shuttle end of life
By aeroxander on 3/27/2008 8:25:24 AM , Rating: 2
And how do you propose the Astronauts get back with the shuttle left in space?

Also it becomes a giant hazard in space.

Wonder how much they could actually reuse, I'm thinking it wouldn't be much.


RE: shuttle end of life
By Wizard on 3/27/2008 9:02:46 AM , Rating: 2
if that is the case, they will be turning them into art
http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogisti...


RE: shuttle end of life
By Wizard on 3/27/2008 9:16:34 AM , Rating: 2
and space shuttle atlantis will be used for spare parts to help keep Discovery and Endeavour healthy through to the end of the program.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0602/17atlanti...


RE: shuttle end of life
By 91TTZ on 3/27/2008 1:22:28 PM , Rating: 2
They won't recycle them. They're worth much more as museum pieces.


RE: shuttle end of life
By EODetroit on 3/27/2008 10:34:06 AM , Rating: 2
That's a pretty good idea, but unfortunately it wouldn't work. The biggest issue from what I can see is that the shuttle, to simplify a bit, burns fuel to maintain power in orbit. It doesn't have any solar panels. So after two weeks it needs to return to earth, for nothing else than to recharge its "batteries". It could and does connect to the space station for power, but the solar arrays won't have extra capacity to power a space shuttle indefinately once all the modules are added to the ISS.

I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons why they couldn't leave one or two of the shuttles up there to use as additions to the ISS but that's the best reason that immediately comes to mind. It would be interesting to ask that question to someone at NASA if anyone ever gets the chance.


RE: shuttle end of life
By Tryek25 on 3/27/2008 12:10:11 PM , Rating: 2
The shuttle has a lot of mass and when orbit readjustments are required more fuel would need to be burnt in order to move the station as a whole. Not to mention the amount of energy that the shuttle requires to "stay on" (Life support systems, computers, maintaining pressure and whatnot). Using it as an escape module would be a good idea but there are multiple Soyuz modules already attached to the ISS to provide emergency escape.


video
By vijay333 on 3/26/2008 10:08:49 PM , Rating: 5
RE: video
By daftrok on 3/27/2008 12:30:45 AM , Rating: 2
I wonder what it must feel like to land on Earth after 48 days of not feeling gravity.


RE: video
By Wizard on 3/27/2008 4:40:57 AM , Rating: 3
heavy :)


RE: video
By Janooo on 3/27/2008 9:39:57 AM , Rating: 2
48 days is a fraction compare to:

* Valeri Polyakov, launched 8 January 1994 (Soyuz TM-18), stayed at Mir LD-4 for 437.7 days, during which he orbited the earth about 7,075 times and traveled 300,765,000 km, (186,887,000 miles) returned March 22, 1995 (Soyuz TM-20).
* Sunita Williams holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days set on the International Space Station Expedition 15 in 2007. She landed with STS-117, June 22 2007.


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