SPACE EXPLORATION | Expanding the boundaries of human understanding
06 March 2008
Equipment from Japan, Canada To Launch with Shuttle on March 11
Mission represents five station partners, including U.S., Russia, Europe
Washington -- After a spectacular launch planned for the early morning darkness of March 11, space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-123 mission will represent for the first time the interests of all five International Space Station partners -- the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Major mission elements include delivery of the first pressurized component of the Japanese Kibo laboratory, a two-armed Canadian robotic device called Dextre and five spacewalks. Endeavour’s 16-day flight is the longest shuttle mission so far to the space station.
“This is a big day,” Kirk Shireman, deputy manager for the International Space Station program said during a March 3 NASA briefing. “Since November 20, 1998, the day we launched the first piece of the International Space Station, our partnership has been looking forward to this flight. [After this flight] the entire partnership will have elements on orbit.”
Dominic Gorie, 50, a veteran of three spaceflights and a retired U.S. Navy captain, will command Endeavour. The spacecraft’s pilot is Gregory Johnson, 45, a U.S. Air Force colonel. STS-123 mission specialists are Robert Behnken, 37, a U.S. Air Force major; U.S. Navy Captain Mike Foreman, 50; Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, 53; Rick Linnehan, 50, a veteran of three shuttle flights; and Garrett Reisman, 39.
Reisman will stay aboard the station with Commander Peggy Whitson and fellow flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko. He will replace Leopold Eyharts, a French air force general and ESA astronaut who will return to Earth on Endeavour. Eyharts launched to the station aboard Atlantis on STS-122 in February.
KIBO AND DEXTRE
The Kibo laboratory eventually will be berthed to the left side of the station’s Harmony node, which provides a passageway among three station science experiment facilities -- the U.S. Destiny Laboratory, the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module and the newly installed European Columbus Laboratory.
The Japanese Experiment Logistics Module-Pressurized Section (ELM-PS), the smaller of two pressurized modules of Kibo and the first to reach the station, will be attached temporarily to a docking port on the space-facing side of Harmony.
Kibo is the major Japanese contribution to the station and will increase its research capability in a range of disciplines. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) chose the name, which means “hope,” after a national contest.
Dextre, the Canadian device, will work with the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2. Dextre is designed for station maintenance and service; it can sense forces and movement of the objects it manipulates and automatically compensate for the forces and movements to move an object smoothly.
Dextre is the final element of the mobile servicing system, part of Canada’s contribution to the station. Canadian students entered a national contest to choose the name, which replaces the original name -- the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator.
Once assembled, according to NASA, Dextre will look a little like a stick figure of an human upper torso. It will have two arms and be able to perform delicate tasks and use tools. Four cameras will let crew members inside the station watch its activities. Dextre will be able to work from the end of Canadarm2 or from the orbiting laboratory’s moveable work platform, also built by Canada.
MISSION CONTROL
Before March 11, two new mission control centers will begin operations that will be integrated with mission control centers in the United States, Russia and Germany.
In Japan, the Space Station Integration and Promotion Center at the Tsukuba Space Center in Ibaraki prefecture will monitor Kibo operations.
On March 9, Jules Verne, the ESA’s first automated transfer vehicle, will launch to the space station on a modified Ariane 5 rocket. With the launch, its mission control, the ATV Control Centre in the French Space Agency’s Toulouse Space Centre, will come online.
The two new control centers, Shireman said, “add a significant amount of complexity and also capability to the ground operations.”
More information about the STS-123 mission, including images and interviews with the crew, is available at the NASA Web site.
