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Discovery arrives at space station for final time   Discovery arrives at space station for final time
By Salar Golestanian @ 26 Feb 2011 :: Article Rating
 
Discovery and the STS-133 astronauts arrived at the International Space Station Saturday afternoon, bringing a logistics module and Robonaut 2. The mission's first spacewalk is set for Monday. It's not science fiction. A humanoid robot is headed to space on the shuttle Discovery. Additionally, fascinating research and technology is also aboard with 5 investigations for the crew to perform and 24 studies with hardware or samples.

The shuttle has docked at the orbiting complex for the last time today. Sadly After this mission, Discovery will be retired and placed in a museum. This is the 13th time it's flown to the space station. The 12 astronauts will spend at least a week together. Discovery will leave behind a compartment full of supplies as well as the first humanoid robot in space.

space stationIt is a very sad for this Discovery's last launch. Discovery and its six-astronaut crew are in an 11-day mission to deliver supplies, spare parts, an extra storage module and a humanoid robot assistant to the International Space Station. Two spacewalks are also planned during the shuttle's week-long stay at the orbiting lab.

Please see the following videos:
STS-133 Daily Mission Recap - Flight Day 2
This Week @ NASA, February 25, 2011

Couple of days ago On 24th of February a huge Cargo Ship Arrives at Space Station Ahead of Shuttle Discovery A huge European cargo ship linked up with the International Space Station, delivering tons of supplies for the outpost's crew just hours before NASA's last planned launch of the shuttle Discovery.

The robotic spacecraft, which is the size of a double-decker bus, docked with the space station at 10:59 a.m. EST (1559 GMT) as the two vehicles soared high over the Atlantic Ocean. Known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle 2, or ATV-2, the hefty space freighter is packed with 7 tons of supplies for the station's six-person crew.

The ATV-2 is named the Johannes Kepler and is the second robotic cargo spacecraft built by the European Space Agency to ferry supplies to the International Space Station. It launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket on Feb. 16. The cargo ship hooked up with the space station less than six hours before the space shuttle Discovery's planned launch toward the orbiting laboratory, clearing the way for the orbiter's flight, NASA officials said.

Before docking, Discovery is performing a slow 360-degree backflip so space station cameras so to capture any signs of launch damage. According to AOL News, at least four pieces of debris broke off the fuel tank during Thursday's liftoff, and one of the strips of insulating foam struck Discovery's belly.

Here is the story at Nasa.gov for the Docking of Discovery to International Space Station

At 2:14 p.m. EST, Commander Steve Lindsey backed space shuttle Discovery into pressurized mating adapter #2 on the International Space Station’s Harmony node. The two spacecraft were flying about 220 miles above western Australia at the time they docked. 

Discovery was the first space shuttle to dock to a space station when it docked to Russia’s Mir station on mission STS-91 on June 4, 1998. Discovery also was the first shuttle to dock to the International Space Station on STS-96 on May 29, 1999. This was Discovery’s 13th and final docking to the space station.

The shuttle and station crews will open hatches and hold the traditional welcome ceremony at about 4:18 p.m. Discovery’s crew of Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen, Mike Barratt and Nicole Stott will join Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri, Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli, and Cady Coleman. 

After the ceremony and a safety briefing, the crews will begin transferring cargo from Discovery to the station. Drew, Boe, Barratt and Stott will use the shuttle and station robotic arms to remove the Express Logistics Carrier 4 from the shuttle payload bay and attach it to the right hand side of the station’s truss, or backbone. There, it will be used to store spare parts, including the spare radiator that launched with it.

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These are various short and long News Articles, Reviews and Blogs by Salar Golestanian and employees of SalarO.com as well as contributors of Scifiwood.com. The subject matter are mixed topics with Pure Science to Science Fiction as well as general topics on Web Trends, Technology, Software Engineering genre, or whatever subject that can affect the convergence of today's technology with Science Fiction in any shape or form.  These Blogs and Reviews don't have commercial or corporate aspiration, so they are indeed completely independent views. Some of these entries may be short and just link you to the actual news or site that can expand further on the subject of interest.  In Phase II we plan to incorporate some Social Networking applications within the portal.