NASA Preps Discovery For Penultimate Shuttle Mission

NASA and contractor technicians are preparing to mate an external tank and twin solid rocket boosters as the agency continues to gear up for what could be its penultimate shuttle mission.

Now nestled in Orbiter Processing Facility Bay No. 3 at Kennedy Space Center, Discovery is being readied for an International Space Station outfitting mission that remains scheduled for launch on Sept. 16. NASA's fleet leader will haul up an Italian cargo carrier that will be left at the outpost to serve as a storage module.

The 35th shuttle mission to be launched in the assembly and maintenance of the station also will involve attaching an experiment pallet on the exterior of the station. It is one of two remaining on NASA's shuttle manifest. The last currently scheduled flight is slated to blast off in late November, although a slip to February is likely to accommodate the late delivery of the prime payload for the mission: a large particle physics experiment.

Veteran astronaut Steve Lindsey will lead a crew that includes pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Michael Barratt, Al Drew, Tim Kopra and Nicole Stott. Stott is a former Kennedy Space Center engineer and will be making her second spaceflight.

Inside the KSC Vehicle Assembly Building, engineers and technicians are preparing to hoist an external tank into High Bay No. 1 and mate it to twin solid rocket boosters. The mating operation is tentatively scheduled to take place a week from today. A readiness review will be held Friday.

Late last week Discovery's right Orbital Maneuvering System pod was removed from the orbiter and then Monday it was transferred to the Hypergolic Maintenance Facility, where it will be fixed up for the mid-September flight.

One of five liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen fuel cell tank sets is to be removed from the orbiter this week for maintenance. The hydrogen tank is being removed today; the oxygen tank is scheduled to be removed Saturday.

The orbiter is scheduled to roll over to the assembly building around Aug. 9. The fully assembled shuttle is slated to roll out to launch pad 39A in mid-August.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the NASA photo taken last week inside Orbiter Processing Facility Bay No. 3 at Kennedy Space Center, where technicians removed the right-hand orbital maneuvering system, or OMS, pod from Discovery. The pod, which houses one of the shuttle's twin maneuvering engines, was transferred Monday to a maintenance facility equipped to handle hypergolic propellants. The STS-133 mission to the International Space Station is targeted for launch on Sept. 16. Discovery’s six-person crew will take important spare parts to the International Space Station along with the Express Logistics Carrier 4. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller