After completing their supply and maintenance mission (STS-128) to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), the crew of NASA’s Discovery space shuttle have bid the station’s residents farewell before embarking on the return trip to Earth.
Heading home. Image: NASA.
“Have a safe trip and have a safe landing, guys,” said ISS commander Gennady Padalka during an exchange of hugs between the departing teams as the shuttle’s seven-strong crew headed back to their docked vehicle for the final time.
During the team’s eight days aboard the ISS, they carried out a total of three spacewalks, which included replacing experiments outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, installing a new ammonia storage tank, installing avionics system cables and also replacing a malfunctioning rate gyro assembly.
The space shuttle Discovery is due to decouple from its moorings at around 19:26 GMT and is scheduled to make a landing at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, this coming Thursday.
As the shuttle undocks from the International Space Station, worries persistent at NASA control concerning the close orbital proximity of potentially dangerous space junk.
Specifically, a slab of debris from a Chinese satellite launched from Earth in 2007 has emerged as the latest piece of problem detritus heading for a close pass with the ISS – which was buzzed late last week when a huge fragment of an Ariane 5 rocket passed at a distance of less than one mile.
According to NASA flight director Tony Ceccacci, the size of the latest chunk of space debris has not yet been determined, although initial projections estimate that it will likely pass the ISS at a distance of around 15 miles.
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