Space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-127 launch today was officially scrubbed at 1:55 a.m. EDT when the same type of gaseous hydrogen leak was detected at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP. This is the same location where a similar leak resulted in a launch scrub on June 13.

“We’re going to step back and figure out what the problem is and go fix it,” said Deputy Space Shuttle Program Manager LeRoy Cain during a briefing afterward. “Once we get it fixed and we’re confident that we have a solution that’s going to work and allow us to go fly safely, then we’ll proceed forward.”

Teams followed the same repair method as they did for the GUCP leak encountered during the STS-119 countdown. The STS-119 and STS-127 leaks will both be evaluated in order to determine the cause. Data collected during fueling is expected to help the troubleshooting effort.

Endeavour’s next launch attempt for its STS-127 mission is targeted for July 11 at 7:39 p.m. EDT.

The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

The STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

Aboard the space station, Koichi Wakata, who was slated to come home on Endeavour, said gleefully, ”Another month for me!”

It was one small sip for man and one giant gulp for mankind. On Wednesday evening, astronauts took a ceremonial first drink from the space station’s newly approved purification system.

NASA’s Mission Control gave the Expedition 19 astronaut crew aboard the International Space Station a “go” to drink water that the station’s new recycling system has purified.

Mission Control radioed the news to the crew Wednesday, following a report from the Water Recovery System team that station program managers approved. The decision is an important milestone in the development of the station’s environmental and life support systems, which will begin supporting six-person crews at the end of May.

Expedition 19 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Koichi Wakata celebrated the decision with a toast in the Destiny laboratory.

“This has been the stuff of science fiction. Everybody’s talked about recycling water in a closed loop system, but nobody’s ever done it before. Here we are today with the first round of recycled water,” said Barratt. “We’re really happy for this day and for the team that put this together. This is the kind of technology that will get us to the moon and further.”

“This is an important milestone in the development of the space station,” said Kirk Shireman, International Space Station deputy program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This system will reduce the amount of water we must launch to the station once the shuttle retires and also test out a key technology required for sending humans on long duration missions to the moon and Mars.”

Space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-126 mission delivered the Water Recovery System to the station in November 2008. Mission Specialist Don Pettit and Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke installed the equipment before Endeavour’s departure. The system has been processing urine into purified water since shuttle Discovery’s STS-119 crew delivered and installed a replacement Urine Processing Assembly in March. The system is tied into the station’s Waste and Hygiene Compartment toilet and recovers and recycles moisture from the station’s atmosphere.

The crews of STS-126, Expedition 18 and STS-119 returned samples of the recycled water to Earth. A total of 5.28 gallons (20 liters) of recycled water were tested for purity at the Water and Microbiology Laboratories at Johnson. A special Space Station Program Control Board meeting on April 27 reviewed the analysis, which showed contaminants were well below established limits, and concurred that the water is safe and healthy to drink. Mission managers elected to postpone consumption until a sticky check valve in the Urine Processing Assembly was removed May 18.

Space station crews will monitor the purity of the recycled water with on-board equipment and periodically send down samples for testing on Earth.

By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

Space shuttle Discovery and her seven-member crew returned to Earth this afternoon, completing a 13-day mission to the International Space Station and the 125th flight of the space shuttle program.

STS-119 was highlighted by the installation of the space station’s final set of solar wings. The addition will double power in the ISS and allow the crew to expand from three to six memers later this year.

During the mission, Discovery circled the Earth 202 times and traveled 5.3 million million miles before rolling out on Kennedy’s Runway 15.

Returning home with the STS-119 crew is Sandra Magnus, who spent four months aboard the space station.

The 3:14 p.m., Eastern, landing came on the second — and final — opportunity of the day to bring Discovery home. NASA passed over an earlier landing option because of clouds and high winds that exceeded NASA’s landing criteria.

Discovery glided to a stop 12 days, 19 hours, 31 minutes and one second after its spectacular night-time launch from Kennedy Space Center on March 15. The landing was the 70th at KSC and it completed Discovery’s 36th mission.

“Welcome home, Discovery, after a great mission to bring the ISS to full power,” NASA Mission Control’s capsule communicator George Zamka radioed from Houston to the crew on board the shuttle.

“Thank you very much, it’s good to be back home,” Commander Lee Archambault responded.

Discovery and her crew will land today at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Touchdown is scheduled for 3:14 p.m., EDT, following a 13-day, 202-orbit mission to the International Space Station.

Mission managers have just given the crew permission to start the deorhit burn at 2:08 p.m., EDT.

NASA managers have waived off the first landing attempt of shuttle Discovery today because of winds and clouds at the Kennedy Space Center.

They will now have to determine if those weather conditions improve enough in the next 90 minutes or so to support a landing on the day’s second opportunity.

If NASA procedes, Discovery would end mission STS-119 after 202 orbits at 3:14 p.m. Deorbit burn would take place at 2:08 p.m.

No opportunities are scheduled for either California or New Mexico today.

stronauts Prepare for Landing
Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:55:00 AM PDT

Discovery’s crew of seven is preparing for a 1:39 p.m. EDT landing today at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew was awakened this morning at 5:13 a.m. to the song “I Have a Dream” performed by ABBA. The song was played for Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus.

Flight controllers reported to the space shuttle crew that weather conditions are forecast to be acceptable for their return home and that they could begin deorbit preparations. Discovery will fire its engines at 12:33 p.m. to begin the descent to Florida on a northeasterly track that will cross over Central America and Cuba.

Space shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station at 3:53 p.m. EDT Wednesday. At 5:09 p.m., the first of two separation burns was performed to move Discovery away from the station to start the journey home. The final separation burn occurred at 5:37 p.m.

The crew on Thursday will perform an inspection of Discovery’s thermal protection system using the shuttle robotic arm and the Orbital Boom Sensor System around 10:28 a.m.

Discovery’s first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., will be Saturday at 1:43 p.m.

The return to Earth will conclude a 13-day flight. Nine of those days were spent docked to the station.

During the STS-119 mission, the shuttle and station crews conducted three spacewalks, installing and deploying the final set of solar arrays. The arrays provide the electricity to fully power science experiments and support the station’s expanded crew of six in May. The flight also delivered Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, who replaced space station crew member Sandra Magnus. She spent more than four months aboard the station and will return to Earth aboard Discovery.

Astronauts Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold ended the mission’s third spacewalk at 6:04 p.m. EDT. They helped robotic arm operators relocate the Crew Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart from the Port 1 to Starboard 1 truss segment, installed a new coupler on the CETA cart, lubricated snares on the “B” end of the space station’s robotic arm and performed a few “get ahead” tasks.

They were unable to deploy the Port 3 unpressurized cargo carrier attachment system (UCCAS) and tied it safely in place while engineers evaluate the problem. Because the issue is not yet understood, Mission Control cancelled the installation of a similar payload attachment system on the starboard side.

Today’s spacewalk lasted six hours, 27 minutes. It was the second spacewalk for both Acaba and Arnold and the 123rd spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance, totaling 775 hours. The three STS-119 spacewalks totaled 19 hours, 4 minutes. Steve Swanson has performed four spacewalks totaling 26 hours, 22 minutes. Acaba has two spacewalks totaling 12 hours, 57 minutes. Arnold has two spacewalks totaling 12 hours, 34 minutes.

In preparation for Saturday’s spacewalk, mission specialists Steve Swanson and Joseph Acaba reviewed spacewalk procedures at 7:43 p.m. EDT and will “camp out” overnight in the Quest airlock beginning at 10:08 p.m. The International Space Station crew goes to sleep at 11:13 p.m. followed by the shuttle crew at 11:43 p.m.

The space station has its final pair of solar panels stretching 240 feet tip to tip after a lessons-learned flawless deploy earlier Friday. The orbiting complex now has nearly an acre’s worth of U.S. arrays producing 120 kilowatts of usable electricity – doubling the amount available for science operations to 30 kilowatts.

Astronauts today installed the International Space Station’s final truss segment, Starboard 6, containing the fourth pair of solar arrays. Once the solar array wings are unfurled, the segment will provide the final complement of power to the station.

After station robotic arm drivers John Phillips and Koichi Wakata guided the truss into position, spacewalkers Steve Swanson and Richard Arnold connected bolts to permanently attach S6 to S5. The spacewalkers plugged in power and data connectors to the truss, prepared a radiator to cool it, opened boxes containing the new solar arrays and deployed the Beta Gimbal Assemblies containing masts that support the solar arrays. Mission Control in Houston deployed the radiator, and the stage is set for solar array wing deploy on Friday at 10:58 a.m. EDT.

Today’s spacewalk lasted six hours, seven minutes. It was Swanson’s third spacewalk and Arnold’s first, and the 121st spacewalk in support of station assembly, totaling about 762 hours.