| Discovery mission last |
|
| Written by Natascia |
| Friday, 25 February 2011 23:47 |
|
 Along with Steve Lindsey, pilot was aboard the Eric Boe and mission specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Nicole Stott and Steve Bowen. It can be said that Bowen had a good fortune, being called at the last minute to replace Tim Kopra, injured in a bike accident last month. Discovery is regarded as the "fleet leader" of the spacecraft and one that was resumed shuttle flights after the Challenger and Columbia accidents. Launched first in 1984, bears the name of several historical ships and has successfully accomplished more than the other shuttle missions, visiting both the ISS and the Russian Mir station. You could say that Discovery has written the history of space exploration: it carried the Hubble Space Telescope has spent 352 hours in orbit and made 5628 orbits around the Earth, was the first who recovered a satellite spacecraft and brought back to Earth and the list could continue. This is the 39th out in space and on return to Earth in two weeks, will be cumulative distance traveled 230 million miles - compared, the distance between Earth and the Sun is 149 million kilometers. Once all veteranele retired U.S. space program, NASA plans to send astronauts into space aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket, an operation that will last, probably until the middle of this decade. By that time, several American companies hope to be able to develop the spacecraft so as to provide NASA the ability to buy space launch services. NASA plans to turn to channel their efforts towards the development of a large rocket - Space Launch System - that can send astronauts beyond the space station, for destinations such as asteroids. Congress set 2016 as deadline for when the rocket will be inserted in the space exploration program, although NASA has warned that time is too short and too small a budget for a result so important. Neither this mission is not unimportant for Discovery. The shuttle will deliver the Italian ISS module called Leonardo. Module, which is used as a storage box for reserves for astronauts, returning to Earth with every mission, but this time it will leave Discovery station to serve as additional storage space. Most interesting, however, is Robonautul2 passenger shuttle, or R2, the first humanoid robot sent into space, well packed inside the module Leonardo. R2 is the product of 15 years of NASA-General Motors joint research. For now consists only of a head, arms and torso on a pedestal, but in time will end and legs, could move to the ISS. In a few years, his body will be upgraded in order to perform several functions. Before the end of this decade, R2 should be able to accompany them outside the space station astronauts, eventually reaching out repairs on satellites. NASA intends for these robots to be sent in a good day, space missions, and even reach Mars before the astronauts. ziare.com |
| Last Updated on Friday, 25 February 2011 23:59 |
