KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- An early morning shot of the Space Shuttle Discovery on the Mobile Launcher Platform and Launch Pad 39A. Discovery is being readied for the STS-92 mission launch to the International Space Station (ISS). At the top is the 13-foot-wide “beanie cap,” at the end of the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm, designed to vent gaseous oxygen vapors away from the Space Shuttle. Lower is the Orbiter Access Arm with the environmental chamber, known as the “white room,” extended to the orbiter. The chamber provides entry for the crew into the orbiter and also serves as emergency egress up to 7 minutes 24 seconds before launch. The STS-92 mission payload includes Integrated Truss Structure Z-1, an early exterior framework to allow the first U.S. solar arrays on a future flight to be temporarily installed on Unity for early power; Ku-band communication to support early science capability and U.S. television; and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter to provide a Shuttle docking port for solar array installation on the sixth ISS flight and Lab installation on the seventh ISS flight. The 11-day mission will include four spacewalks. Liftoff is scheduled for Oct. 6 at 9:16 p.m. EDT KSC00pp1495
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- An early morning shot of the Space Shuttle Discovery on the Mobile Launcher Platform and Launch Pad 39A. Discovery is being readied for the STS-92 mission launch to the International Space Station (ISS). At the top is the 13-foot-wide “beanie cap,” at the end of the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm, designed to vent gaseous oxygen vapors away from the Space Shuttle. Lower is the Orbiter Access Arm with the environmental chamber, known as the “white room,” extended to the orbiter. The chamber provides entry for the crew into the orbiter and also serves as emergency egress up to 7 minutes 24 seconds before launch. The STS-92 mission payload includes Integrated Truss Structure Z-1, an early exterior framework to allow the first U.S. solar arrays on a future flight to be temporarily installed on Unity for early power; Ku-band communication to support early science capability and U.S. television; and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter to provide a Shuttle docking port for solar array installation on the sixth ISS flight and Lab installation on the seventh ISS flight. The 11-day mission will include four spacewalks. Liftoff is scheduled for Oct. 6 at 9:16 p.m. EDT
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
Tags
Date
Location
Source
Copyright info