Everything goes as planned for the upcoming launch of the US
space shuttle Discovery, which is scheduled to take off on October 23.
On Sunday morning at the STS-120 Launch Readiness News
Conference Sunday morning, LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager, pointed to
the weather as the only question mark for the launch. He reported all is “ready
to move forward to launch on Tuesday.” “We have no issues, no constraints to
launch,” Cain added.
Mike Leinbach, space shuttle launch director, said they are
right on their timeline with no issues in work. He gave credit to the hard work
of the processing teams preparing the shuttle for launch.
Wayne Hale, the manager of the shuttle programme, conceded
last week that the shuttle “is not a safe vehicle by any normal standard,” but
defended the decision that launching the Discovery involved “acceptable risk.”
Since its first flight in 1984, Discovery has completed more
than 30 successful missions, surpassing the number of flights made by any other
orbiter in NASA's fleet.
The space shuttle has undergone some major modifications
over the years. The most recent began in 2002 and was the first carried out at
Kennedy. It provided 99 upgrades and 88 special tests, including new changes to
make it safer for flight.
Last week, NASA considered to delay the launch after an
independent group of engineers raised concerns about microscopic cracks in
three of the 44 heat shield panels that protect the wings from the extreme heat
of atmospheric re-entry.
After a detailed technical review, NASA decided to stick to
the October 23 as launch date.
Discovery is scheduled to dock at the orbiting International
Space Station on October 26.
The seven astronauts on board Discovery have a packed
programme ahead of them, with huge construction projects including an addition
of the first new room in six years to the International Space Station, where
three orbiting astronauts will help in the tasks.
The past several shuttle missions have transported and
mounted huge solar panels outside the station, in preparation for expanding the
orbiting crew and work space by 2010.
The major push on this mission focuses on installing the
Harmony module to serve as a port for additional international laboratories
constructed in Japan, Germany and
elsewhere. The European module Columbus
is to be attached to Harmony in December.
Five spacewalks are scheduled for the tasks, including
repositioning the 17.5-ton solar array and truss that the past several missions
have spent building.
Despite the cautionary signals from the safety team, Pamela
Melroy, the mission's commander, a former Air Force test pilot who becomes the
second woman to lead a shuttle mission, was optimistic about the flight.
"There's a time when you need to talk and the Flight
Readiness Review was the time to talk. And then there is a time to go do it,
and I'm happy to say that we're really here and ready to go do it," she said.
“I think we understand the complexity of what we are
attempting to do," she added. "What I worry about are the things we
did not plan for. That is the motto of test pilots: plan for everything because
the thing you didn't plan for is the thing that will happen."
Expedition 15/16 Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson will
return to Earth from the space station aboard shuttle mission STS-120. Clayton
Anderson has been in orbit since June. The flight will carry his replacement,
Daniel Tani, to the station. Tani will return on shuttle mission STS-122.
