Endeavour astronauts circle space station at close range prior to rendezvous test. Photo Credit/NASA TV
The shuttle Endeavour crew departed the International Space Station late Sunday, ending a marathon visit that concluded with a successful flight test of the rendezvous and docking sensors NASA is developing for the shuttle’s successor, a four person capsule designed to launch astronauts on future missions to a range of deep space destinations.
Mission commander Mark Kelly and his crew departed the orbiting science laboratory at 11:55 p.m., EDT, ending an ambitious 12-day stay that featured delivery of the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, large volume spare parts for the station’s thermal control, communications and electrical systems as well as four spacewalks.
“You’ve really left us in good shape,” said Ron Garan, one of three U. S. and Russian station astronauts who served as hosts to the six shuttle astronauts.
Endeavour’s 16-day mission is scheduled to end Wednesday with a pre-dawn landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. If the weather cooperates, Endeavour’s touchdown is scheduled for 2:35 a.m., EDT, ending a 16-day flight.
As the shuttle undocked, pilot Greg H. Johnson steered the winged orbiter in a looping maneuver around the station so his crewmates could gather photo documentation of the changes they made to the outside of the orbital outpost.
Then Kelly took the controls for the Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation and Risk Mitigation. Over the next four hours, he maneuvered the ship up and over the station and out to a distance of 30,000 feet behind and below the orbiting science laboratory.
All the while, Endeavour astronaut Drew Feustel monitored a new flash LIDAR instrument mounted in the shuttle’s cargo bay. The instrumentation was developed to provide the distance and relative velocity measurements needed for future spacecraft to conduct orbital rendezvous and docking maneuvers as well as planetary encounters.
The new sensors will be available to future robotic as well as crewed spacecraft. Recently, NASA announced that Orion will transition from the cancelled Constellation Program to a new project, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
From 30,000 feet, Kelly began to guide Endeavour back toward the space station, halting the test as planned at 950 feet below.
All the while, the flash Lidar pinged the station 30 times a second. The results were recorded aboard the shuttle for engineers to examine later.
The STORRM hardware acquired the desired “lock” with the station at a distance of 16,500 feet.
Eventually, the development team for the flash LIDAR and high definition camera sensors believes it will achieve a 16-fold improvement in rendezvous target acquisition capability.