Discovery gets green light for August 25 launch

by Steve Ragan - Aug 20 2009, 17:20

On Wednesday, the Flight Readiness Review for space shuttle Discovery's STS-128 mission concluded, and with that NASA set the launch date for Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 1:36 a.m. EDT. During STS-128, Discovery will carry the Leonardo supply module to the International Space Station, along with a new crew member for the station, Nicole Stott.

While the news of the Discovery launch is important on its own, another item of note is that this mission will install the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT.

NASA selected the treadmill's name after comedian and host Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" took interest during the Node 3 naming poll and urged his followers to post the name "Colbert," which received the most entries. At the end of the day however, NASA chose Tranquility as the name for Node 3 (after the Apollo 11 moon base) and offered the treadmill to Stephen. The treadmill will be the second on the station, NASA said, adding that it will take the astronauts about 20-hours to put it together.

If you’re curious, the image below is the COLBERT.

 

 

The 13-day mission will include three spacewalks to replace experiments outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, and install a new ammonia storage tank and return the used one. Ammonia is used to move excess heat from inside the station to the radiators located outside. Discovery also will deliver a new crew member and bring back another after almost two months aboard the space station.

STS-128 is the 128th space shuttle flight, the 30th to the station, the 37th for Discovery, and the fourth in 2009. Six flights to the station remain after STS-128 before the shuttles retire in 2010.

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