Endeavour down safely at Edwards
Operation Golden Barrel deemed successful
The space shuttle Endeavour landed safely at Edwards air force base in California yesterday, completing a 16-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The shuttle had been slated to set down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but weather concerns led to the use of the backup runway. Endeavour will be shipped back to Kennedy piggybacking on a jumbo jet in "7-10 days", according to NASA, before being prepped for a new mission next May.
The just-completed mission was full of incident, with the shuttle astronauts conveying a large consignment of new stuff up to the ISS. Goodies included a useful second lavatory, extra sleeping quarters, and a somewhat troublesome urine-recycler unit. Endeavour's stay at the ISS was extended by one day in order to allow extra time for her crew to wrestle with a recalcitrant centrifuge drum, critical to the process of turning astronaut piss into lip-smacking refreshments. The tinkle-tumble unit's performance is now quite acceptable, apparently.
The various new fixtures installed during the visit form part of preparations to double the permanent crew of the ISS from three to six in future. Spacewalk work was also carried out on the rotating joints of the station's solar arrays. During this, mission specialist Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper - despite being an MIT-qualified naval engineering officer and salvage diver - had the misfortune to lose her tool bag, which is now orbiting the earth separately from the space station.
NASA's next manned mission will see shuttle Discovery launched on 12 Feb next year, bringing the ISS a final pair of solar panels and a new flight engineer to replace Sandra Magnus, just dropped off by Endeavour. ®
COMMENTS
Autoglass
I had the radio advert "Autoglass repair, Autoglass replace." in my head reading Joe's post. Now that would make for a funny phone-call:
"Hi, I've got a crack in my windscreen."
"What hit it sir?"
"A loose toolbag!".
"What is the vehicle make and model?"
"BOEING Space Shuttle."
"Does it have Blue tint or Bronze tint?"
<Sound of laughter at 42 miles up!>
@ Joe Cooper
Yep! All the press (and in particular The Reg?) keep banging on about is the dozy bint dropping her bag, and the school boy water recycler jokes :-\
Good
Good to know it's down safe. The window got smacked by a meteor! Pics here:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2008/11/extensive-process-mmod-strike-endeavour-window/
Apparently this happens often. I wish they'd talk more about this kind of stuff. I know it's hard to resist keeping quiet on dangerous sounding things but this is REALLY interesting.
Who knew the shuttle got routinely smacked by debris and meteorites - on the WINDOW - and happily bends over an takes it without a loss of crew or loss of mission?
Here's a frickin' sweet photo: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/a311.jpg
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