NASA delays next shuttle mission at least 4 days

William Atkins
Saturday, 13 June 2009 18:43

Science - Space

The LRO/LCROSS is currently scheduled to launch on June 17, 2009, at 3:51 p.m. EDT.

Launch opportunities also exist at 4:01 p.m. and 4:11 p.m.

NASA states, “The 16-day mission [for STS-127] will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.”

The STS-127 crewmembers are NASA astronauts: commander Mark Polansky, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra: and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut  and mission specialist Julie Payette.

Kopra will join the Expedition 20 International Space Station crew as one of its flight engineers.

He will replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

Additional information on LRO/LCROSS is found at: http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/.

The web site states, "The Mission Objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) include confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon’s South Pole. The identification of water is very important to the future of human activities on the Moon."

"LCROSS will excavate the permanently dark floor of one of the Moon’s polar craters with two heavy impactors in 2009 to test the theory that ancient ice lies buried there. The impact will eject material from the crater’s surface to create a plume that specialized instruments will be able to analyze for the presence of water (ice and vapor), hydrocarbons and hydrated materials."