* Astronomy

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RE: STS121 launch

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STS-121 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery.

After two weather-related delays, the shuttle successfully launched on Tuesday, 4 July 2006 at 14:37:55 EDT.

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Urania è il notiziario settimanale che parla di astronomia e astrofisica curato dall'Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica

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Credit Nasa

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STS121 Return

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The STS-121 mission has come to a conclusion today, with the re-entry and landing of Shuttle Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center.

The return of Discovery at 14:14 GMT (09:14 local time), marks the end of her mission, and also the resumption of regular Shuttle operations - starting at the end of next month with the launch of Atlantis on STS-115.

Blobrana · L

RE: STS121 launch

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The space shuttle Discovery has undocked from the international space station.

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NASA'S Space Shuttle Discovery Set to Land Monday

Commander Steve Lindsey and his crew onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery will complete their mission, STS-121, with a landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., set for 9:07 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 17. Discovery began its 13-day mission to the International Space Station on July 4.

Landing at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility is slated to occur on orbit 203 at the mission-elapsed time of 12 days, 18 hours and 29 minutes. The deorbit burn will occur at 8:04 a.m. A second Kennedy landing opportunity is available at 10:42 a.m., with the deorbit burn at 9:40 a.m.

Two landing opportunities are available at the back-up landing location on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Monday. However, mission managers are expected to attempt a landing only at Kennedy Monday unless there are technical reasons that would necessitate other plans. The first opportunity at Edwards would be 12:11 p.m. EDT and the second at 1:46 p.m.

If landing occurs as scheduled, this will be the 62nd landing at Kennedy in the history of the shuttle program. Discovery will be serviced and prepared for its next mission, STS-116, targeted for December.

About an hour after touchdown, the STS-121 crew members will meet with their families and undergo initial physical examinations. A post-mission press conference with the crew is scheduled at Kennedy's News Center no earlier than six hours after landing.

If Discovery lands at Edwards, an augmented Kennedy convoy team will be onsite to safe the vehicle, disembark the crew and move the orbiter to the mate/demate device, the structure used to prep the shuttle for its ferry flight back to Kennedy atop NASA's modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

Kennedy's News Center will open for landing activities at 10 a.m. EDT Sunday, July 16, and close at 4 p.m. On landing day, the News Center will open at 5 a.m. and close at approximately 5 p.m. The STS-121 mission badges are in effect through landing. The pass and identification building on State Road 3 will be open on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Monday from 5 to 7 a.m. The last bus will depart from Kennedy's Press Site for the Shuttle Landing Facility an hour before landing.

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During the space walk on Wednesday, a $2700 putty knife drifted out of astronauts Piers Sellers's tool kit while he was conducting repair tests outside the shuttle Discovery.

"My spatch has escaped ... it was tethered to me...It's gone, gone, gone. Nobody's going to find it." - Piers Sellers.

Fellow astronaut Steven Lindsey, managed to filmed the space junk through his window as it floated out of the cargo bay.

NASA and the US Space Surveillance Network is currently tracking the 350g astronauts putty knife as it orbit at 8km a second.
The new bit of space junk orbits the Earth every 90 minutes just ahead of the space station. After each orbit, the distance between them grows by 3.2km.