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On Earth Orbit – October 24, 2007 – The astronauts on board Space Shuttle Discovery have begun their first full day in space on a two-week mission to set the stage for delivery of new laboratory modules from two more of the International Space Station’s partner agencies.
The main payload on STS-120 is a connecting node, named Harmony. It will expand the pressurized volume in ISS to approximately 18,000 square feet and provide the docking ports for labs furnished by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Those components are due to arrive on orbit late this year and early in 2008.
Shuttle Commander Pam Melroy and her crewmates, Pilot George Zamka and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson, Doug Wheelock, Scott Parazynski, Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency and Dan Tani completed a scheduled inspections of Discovery’s heat shield this morning. They used Discovery’s robotic arm and an attached boom extension to check the spacecraft’s underside, nose cap and leading edges of the wings as well as hard to reach shuttle surfaces.
The inspections are performed to check if any damage occurred to the heat shield during the climb to orbit. Over the next few days, engineers and flight controllers will analyze the data collected by the STS-120 crew.
Spacewalkers Parazynski, Wheelock and Tani also prepared the spacesuits that will be worn during the five spacewalks planned during ten days of docked operations.
The International Space Station’s Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Clay Anderson started their day at midnight. They will set up spacesuits already in the station’s Quest airlock, and conduct a leak check of the Pressurized Mating Adapter where Discovery will dock to the station Thursday morning at 7:35 a.m. CDT.
Anderson, now in the 138th day of his flight, will spend time exercising to prepare himself to experience the pull of gravity again when he returns to Earth with the shuttle crew. Tani will stay onboard to work with Whitson and Malenchenko to put Harmony in its permanent location on the front of the Destiny laboratory so the next mission, targeted to launch in early December, can deliver the European laboratory module Columbus.
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Space shuttle Discovery's robotic arm with the attached boom extension is moved into position shortly after completion of the heat shield inspection. Image credit: NASA.
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