Discovery thrills thousands of onlookers with Thursday lift off. Photo Credit/NASA
Shuttle Discovery’s crew of six astronauts raced toward a linkup with the International Space Station on Friday, as they carefully scanned the heat shielding on the wings and nose of the spacecraft for signs of damage from their drama-tinged lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The shuttle crew, led by Commander Steve Lindsey, was on course to dock with the space station on Saturday, shortly after 2 p.m. EST.
Discovery lifted off on her final mission on Thursday at 4:53 p.m., thrilling thousands of onlookers, some who had driven hundreds of miles to Central Florida for a look.
“Welcome back to space,” radioed NASA’s Mission Control, as the storied spacecraft settled into orbit for the 39th and final time.
“Thanks a lot,” responded Lindsey, who like the rest of the crew have been waiting since early November to start the 11-day assembly and supply mission. “It’s good to be here.”
As standard procedure, he joins pilot Eric Boe, Mike Barratt, Nicole Stott, Al Drew and Steve Bowen on Friday for the shuttle damage assessment. Using a camera and laser tipped boom in the grip of the shuttle’s robot arm, they will sweep the edges of the wings and the nose cap for signs of impact damage from debris that separated from the shuttle at lift off.
Recordings of the scans will be transmitted to NASA’s Mission Control, where experts will spend several days assessing the data.
Tracking cameras and radar indicate that at least four pieces of insulating foam, the largest 10 by 8 inches, separated from the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The largest piece appears to have struck a strut on the disposable fuel tank.
However, the debris losses occurred nearly four minutes into Discovery’s climb to orbit. At that point, Discovery was well above the densest part of the Earth’s atmosphere, where the debris can stall and pose an impact hazard.
“They were all after the aerodynamic sensitive time,” Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations told a post-launch news briefing. “So, they were not of concern to us.”
Discovery’s rather routine countdown turned tense during the final minutes, as the U. S. Air Force Eastern Range experienced a computer problem that threatened to delay the mission yet once again. The Eastern Range is responsible for the radar tracking of the shuttle as it soars from the launch pad.
Discovery lifted off at 4:53 pm., with two seconds to spare before the day’s launch window closed. Thursday’s window spanned just three minutes, and the Air Force raced to address the issue in time for Discovery to fly.
The flight was delayed in November by a hydrogen leak and unassociated damage to the external fuel tank. NASA under took extensive troubleshooting to devise a modification and repair strategy for the tank to prevent further damage.
The fuel tank was the least of Discovery’s concerns as the ship thundered off the launch pad and pierced a sunny Florida sky.
The shuttle carries a new storage compartment for the station as well as an external platform to secure spare parts and nearly five tons of research gear and other cargo.
The cargo includes Robonaut 2, an experimental humanoid. Future space station crews will evaluate how safe it is for Robonaut to work around them. Eventually, NASA hopes Robonaut can move around the inside of the station on its own, clearing air filters and talking on other routine chores.
Drew and Bowen plan to embark on the first of two space station spacewalks on Monday morning.