NASA Reports that Shuttle STS-123 Successfully Lifts Off

David Heath
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 18:32

Science - Space

Launching at the very unusual time of 2:28am EDT from NASA’s Cape Kennedy Space Centre (the first night launch since 2006), Endeavour’s 16-day mission is the longest flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in history.  It will also include a record 5 space walks.

Kibo (‘Hope’ in Japanese), has been in development since 1990 and had to be developed in three separate pieces in order to allow the shuttle to bring it to the ISS.  A Japanese astronaut is on the shuttle to assist with the installation of the laboratory.  The first component, on the current shuttle mission, is a small pressurised module and will be temporarily mounted on a docking port adjacent to the recently delivered Harmony module.

The remainder of Kibo will be delivered by STS-124 and STS-127.  In each case a Japanese astronaut will supervise the installation.  Once completed and activated, Kibo operations will be managed from the Space Station Integration and Promotion Centre, a dedicated facility in Tsukuba in Japan.

Dextre is a major improvement to the ISS-mounted robotic arm, allowing detailed video signals back to the space station along with force-sensitive grippers.  This unit is mounted on the end of the previously-delivered Canadarm2, completing Canada’s commitment to the International Space Station.  This is a multi-armed devise that has been described as looking like a human stick-figure.

As usual, the first mission of the shuttle will be a full survey of the exterior of the vessel to ensure the launch was without mishap.  In addition, a dedicated experiment will test the ability of the crew to perform emergency maintenance of the heat-resistant tiles in space.  This experiment was deferred from a previous launch due to excessive work load.

Weather-permitting, the shuttle is due to land at Kennedy Space Centre on March 27th.