Veteran NASA astronaut Steve Bowen replaces injured Discovery spacewalker. Photo Credit/NASA photo
NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, who was injured in a Jan. 15 bicycle accident, will be replaced as one of two spacewalkers assigned to shuttle Discovery’s upcoming mission, the space agency announced on Wednesday.
Veteran astronaut Steve Bowen will take Kopra’s place aboard Discovery, which is tentatively scheduled to lift off on a long delayed 11-day assembly mission to the International Space Station on Feb. 24.
Discovery’s flight has been on hold since Nov. 5, while shuttle managers complete their troubleshooting of small cracks that surfaced in the stringer region of the orbiter’s external fuel tank.
The change of astronauts is expected to keep the current launch plans intact, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations.
Bowen logged five spacewalks as a mission specialist aboard the 12 and 16-day space station assembly missions in May 2010 and November 2008. The U. S. Navy captain and submariner has been serving as the Astronaut Office branch chief for Extravehicular Activities, making Bowen the most qualified of several candidates to fill in for Kopra, according to NASA Chief Astronaut Peggy Whitson.
Discovery astronaut Tim Kopra sidelined by weekend bicycle accident. Photo Credit/NASA photo
Bowen will team with Discovery astronaut Alvin Drew for two spacewalks. The spacewalkers will clean up a work site on the station’s long solar power system truss where the crew of the orbiting science laboratory replaced a faulty cooling system pump in August. The pump replacement required a fast-paced series of spacewalks to restore electrical power lost in the cooling system failure.
The bulky pump motor was left temporarily fastened to the truss.
Bowen and Drew will vent residual ammonia coolant from the pump and move the bulky hardware back to an external storage rack near the U. S. segment airlock.
NASA hopes to return the motor to Earth aboard Atlantis later this year — if the White House and Congress agree to fund what would be the “final” final shuttle mission.
Kopra was also to serve as Discovery’s flight engineer. Those duties have been re-assigned to Drew during the launch and to Discovery astronaut Nicole Stott during the re-entry.
Kopra, who suffered a hip injury in a bicycle accident near his home, is expected to recover. If Discovery’s flight encountered another lengthy delay, it’s possible he could return to the mission, Whitson said.
The mission will be Discovery’s final flight.
NASA plans to retire the shuttle program after Endeavour’s flight, which is currently scheduled for late April. If the Atlantis mission is funded, it would be flown in the mid to late 2011 timeframe.
“These three remaining flights are absolutely critical to us,” said Gerstenmaier.
“A key piece of mission success is getting the right folks to do the right jobs.”
