Space shuttle Discovery leaps from the billows of smoke below into a clear blue sky on its STS-124 mission to the International Space Station. Launch was on time at 5:02 p.m. EDT. Discovery is making its 35th flight.
The STS-124 mission is the 26th in the assembly of the space station. It is the second of three flights launching components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. The shuttle crew will install Kibo’s large Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, and its remote manipulator system, or RMS. The RMS consists of two robotic arms that support operations outside of Kibo. The lab’s logistics module, or JLM, which was installed in a temporary location during STS-123 in March, will be attached to the new lab. Discovery’s 14-day flight carries the largest payload to the station and will include three spacewalks. The shuttle also will deliver a new crew member and bring back another one after a three-month mission.
Next Mission; Hubble Space Telescope
The next space shuttle mission in the Cape Canaveral launch schedule is STS-125, the final shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission will allow the crew to use the now-familiar Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) on the second day of the flight to conduct comprehensive inspections of the shuttle’s thermal heat shield en route to the telescope. The boom will be used again to survey the reinforced carbon-carbon protection on the leading edges of the shuttle’s wings and other areas of its heat shield on flight day 9 after the crew releases Hubble. It will be used a final time on flight day 10 for a late inspection to ensure that the shuttle heat shield has not been damaged by micrometeoroid particles.
