NASA’s space shuttle Discovery is set for launch on Wednesday on a mission that aims to install two more solar wing panels on the International Space Station and deliver Japan’s first live-aboard crew member.

 

The liftoff is scheduled for 9:20 p.m. EDT (0120 GMT Thursday) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is NASA’s fifth attempt to launch the shuttle after various technological problems forced them to delay the launch. 

 

Besides the $300 million set of solar wing panels and the Japanese astronaut, the shuttle will also deliver a new distiller for the urine recycling system of the ISS, because the processor NASA sent in November malfunctioned repeatedly. The solar wing panels are inside a 16-tonne module and will complete the space station’s exterior backbone. 

 

Meanwhile, 250 miles up in the sky, the ISS crew is getting ready for visitors. Two astronauts aboard the ISS carried out a spacewalk on Tuesday to do some maintenance work. American commander Mike Fincke and Russian astronaut Yuri Lonchakov used a knife to wrap up the chores left over from a space walk carried out before Christmas. The spacewalk went according to plan and it took five hours, considerably less than they were expecting. The two astronauts also photographed the outside of the more than 8-year-old Russian living quarters to check for possible damages. 

 

The third astronaut aboard the ISS, Sandra Magnus, who remained inside the space station during her colleagues’ spacewalk, will end her four-month stay in the ISS when discovery arrives with her replacement.

 

Discovery’s mission will take 14 days. During that time, the 7 members aboard the shuttle will install the solar wing arrays in order to boost the ISS’ electric capacity. Extra electricity is needed to increase the number of crew members on the ISS to six and to operate the station’s expanding laboratories. After the new solar wing panels are installed, the total of eight arrays will generate the amount of electricity needed to power 42 2,800-square foot houses, said space agency spokesman Allard Beutel. 

 

The weather seems to cooperate. Weather forecasts indicate there are 90 percent chances of having good launch conditions and there’s going to be a full moon tonight to add to the epic feeling about this launch and to the quality of the photos taken. 

 

The launch of the Discovery space shuttle has been delayed several times. The last time NASA decided to delay the launch it did it because a valve that controls the flow of hydrogen cracked. A similar valve was damaged during space shuttle Endeavor’s November mission and NASA engineers were concerned it may happen again with Discovery, but this time with possible catastrophic consequences. 

 

Fifteen countries are collaborating to assemble and run the ISS. The space station is situated at about 250 miles above Earth. Besides exploring, the ISS runs laboratories in which astronauts study the effects that space has on humans and grow protein crystals that are used in medical research.