The Discovery crew yesterday bid farewell to their two hosts in space and readied for the home journey of the first space shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
"What we're telling them here is we thank them for being such great hosts," Discovery Commander Eileen Collins said.
"These are memories we'll have for ever," she told the two residents of the International Space Station.
Live footage broadcast by NASA showed the seven Discovery astronauts, including a Japanese national, hugging and shaking hands with the Russian and US astronauts who hosted them in space for eight days.
Following a brief farewell ceremony, the Discovery crew sealed the hatches, and later undocked from the orbiting space lab in what NASA described as "the first step on the road home to the Kennedy Space Center."
Pilot James Kelly then maneuvered the space shuttle into position to fly around the space station to photograph it and check it for eventual wear and tear. After the maneuver, Discovery was scheduled to head to the orbital position needed for tomorrow's reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
The crew was earlier given the green light for their return after NASA decided loose fibers on the orbiter's thermal blanket should not compromise the shuttle's safety as it reenters the atmosphere.
But once it is back, Discovery will be grounded with the rest of the fleet until nagging problems with the shuttle's thermal insulation have been fixed, though NASA managers still hope they can launch another flight on Sept. 22.
Foam insulation had fallen off the shuttle's external fuel tank as the craft blasted into orbit on July 26.
The same problem doomed Columbia, after debris hit the orbiter's left wing, causing a crack that eventually allowed superheated gases to penetrate the structure upon re-entry into the atmosphere.
A key goal of Discovery's 13-day mission was to test improvements made to the shuttle since Columbia burst into flames on Feb. 1, 2003.
"We've got every objective accomplished on this mission. We now have data we've never had before," said Michael Griffin, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Collins agreed.
"We've been happy to finally put the icing on the cake through this mission, we are so happy things have worked out so well, see you next week, see you on the ground," she said. "It's been a wild ride."
The crew still faces some nerve-wracking moments when it starts reentry into the atmosphere.
"You only get one shot at it," said Paul Hill, lead shuttle flight director.
"De-orbit is not a risk-free activity," he said.
"During de-orbit, I'm sure I'll have a thought or two about Rick Husband and his crew," he said of the seven astronauts who perished aboard Columbia.
The shuttle is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center, on Florida's Atlantic coast, at 4:46am tomorrow.
NASA could leave the shuttle in orbit an extra two days if the weather turns bad.
Before the descent, officials will check data to confirm Discovery is in good shape. New detectors pinpoint any abnormal temperature rise on reentry.
The mission initially had be scheduled to last 12 days, but an extra day was added on so the crew could transfer as much material and provisions as possible to the space station, amid uncertainty over the date of the next shuttle flight.
The crew also retrieved waste and equipment to clear out space in the cramped orbiting lab.
During the mission Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and his US counterpart Stephen Robinson conducted three spacewalks.
On Wednesday Robinson became the first astronaut ever to carry out a space walk beneath the shuttle during orbit, to extract two protruding pieces of fiber that risked overheating during the shuttle's re-entry.
In another spacewalk, Noguchi and Robinson tested repair techniques adopted after the Columbia tragedy.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Four days after last scanning in for work, a 60-year-old office worker in Arizona was found dead in a cubicle at her workplace, having never left the building during that time, authorities said. Denise Prudhomme, who worked at a Wells Fargo corporate office, was found dead in a third-floor cubicle on Aug. 20, Tempe police said. She had last scanned into the building on Aug. 16 at 7am, police said. There was no indication she scanned out of the building after that. Prudhomme worked in an underpopulated area of the building. Her cause of death had not been determined, but police said the preliminary
‘DISCONNECTED’: Politics is one factor driving news avoidance, a professor said, adding that people who do not trust the government are more likely to tune it out Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced the territory’s Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news firms in the territory willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she has gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that has swept up democracy-leaning journalists, rights advocates and politicians in the territory, a lot of people
RSS