shuttle discovery to launch on monday, april 5
sts-131's crew includes five licensed ham operators
discovery is poised to launch seven astronauts on a 13-day mission to the international space station, on what is one of nasa's last few remaining shuttle missions before the orbiter fleet is retired later this year. there is an 80 percent chance of clear skies for monday's shuttle launch. it is the last shuttle flight scheduled to lift off in darkness. launch is planned for 6:21 a.m. edt
navy capt. alan poindexter commands the four-man, three-woman sts-131 crew. six of the seven crew members are licensed ham radio operators. air force lt. col. james p. dutton, jr., ke5hoe, will serve as the pilot. mission specialists are nasa astronauts rick mastracchio, kc5zte, clayton anderson, kd5pla, dorothy metcalf-lindenburger, ke5dat, stephanie wilson, kd5dze and japan aerospace exploration agency astronaut naoko yamazaki, ke5das. dutton, metcalf-lindenburger and yamazaki will be making their first trip to space
discovery is slated to launch one day after a russian soyuz spacecraft arrives at the space station. that soyuz tma-18 spacecraft blasted off friday morning, april 2, at 12:04 edt carrying two russian cosmonauts and one american astronaut, tracy caldwell dyson (photo left). she holds a doctorate in chemistry. the three will join the expedition 23 crew aboard the space station.
when discovery arrives on april 7, the number of people on board the space station will increase to 13 astronauts. discovery's primary payload is the "leonardo" multi-purpose logistics module (mplm) filled with some 8 tons of food, supplies and science racks to be transferred to laboratories on the international space station.
basically, leonardo serves as a moving van for the space station, allowing the shuttle to deliver shipments of equipment and supplies larger than any other vehicle could accommodate, and to return science experiments, unneeded hardware and trash to the ground – all other cargo transfer vehicles burn up in the earth's atmosphere.
leonardo will return to the station once more on the last space shuttle mission later this year. sts-131 will be its last round trip – leonardo will remain permanently at the station after sts-133.
mastracchio and anderson will conduct three six-and-a-half-hour-long spacewalks on flight days 5, 7 and 9 to switch out an ammonia coolant tank and a gyroscope assembly. (photo: sts-131 crew)
discovery's landing is scheduled for april 18, 2010, at 8:35 a.m. edt. nasa plans to fly three more shuttle missions this year before retiring the shuttle fleet in the fall. after that, the space agency will rely on russian spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.
