Thursday, March 26, 2009

DISCOVERY UNDOCKS WITH ISS


A video camera aboard space shuttle Discovery captured this image of the International Space Station shortly after undocking

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 STS-119 crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 10:13 p.m. EDT. They will wake at 6:13 a.m. Thursday and perform a late 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.

Commander Lee Archambault leads Discovery's crew of seven, along with Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Sandy Magnus on mission STS-119.

The STS-119 crew members flew the S6 truss segment and installed the final set of power-generating solar arrays to the International Space Station. The S6 truss completes the backbone of the station and provides one-fourth of the total power needed to support a crew of six.


[SOURCE: NASA.GOV]

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