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ESA's Johannes Kepler ATV mission begins. Photo Credit/NASA TV
The European Space Agency’s Johannes Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle hurtled into orbit from Kourou in French Guiana on Wednesday, initiating an eight-day trip to the International Space Station with seven tons of cargo.
The Ariane 5 rocket with ESA’s second unmanned ATV lifted off at 4:50 p.m, EST, shortly after two of the station’s Russian cosmonauts carried out a spacewalk in which they installed and retrieved external science experiments.
Kepler’s departure has cleared the way for the launching of shuttle Discovery’s long-delayed, 11-day assembly and supply mission to the space station as early as Feb. 24. The date and preparations for Discovery’s final flight will be formally reviewed on Friday during a NASA executive level Flight Readiness Review at the Kennedy Space Center.
Discovery’s flight has been stalled since Nov. 5, when a launch pad hydrogen leak prompted a scrub. Since then, shuttle program managers have repaired small cracks subsequently discovered in the stinger section of Discovery’s external fuel tank and made other modifications to prevent further cracking.
Discovery undergoes preparations for 39th, final mission. Photo Credit/NASA
The shuttle’s six astronauts have trained to deliver and equip the station with an equipment storage module, the final habitable component for the orbiting lab’s U. S. segment. Discovery also carries an external platform for the long term stowage of spare parts, Robonaut 2 and other supplies.
Two of the shuttle fliers are prepared for a pair of space station maintenance spacewalks as well.
Europe’s ATV was on course to dock with the station a day ahead of Discovery’s lift off.
On Sunday, the station’s crew will jettison Russia’s Progress 39 supply capsule, freeing the aft docking port for the Johanne Kepler’s arrival.
Early Wednesday, cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka floated from the station’s Russian segment airlock to begin a five hour spacewalk.
They secured the Molniya-Gamma and Radiometria experiments to the outside of the Zvezda service module. The first will monitor cosmic gamma ray flashes and the optical radiation from the lightning of terrestrial thunderstorms. The second will monitor microwave emissions from the Earth’s surface for the prediction of seismic activity and possible Earthquakes.
Cosmonauts Dmitri Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka, center left, equip space station with seismic experiment. Photo Credit/NASA TV
Kondratyev and Skripochka completed their activities well ahead of schedule by collecting a pair of materials science experiments called Komplast. The two Komplast panels contained exposed samples of candidate materials for the fabrication of future long duration spacecraft. The materials were furnished by several countries.
The outing concluded at 1:21 p.m., EST.