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| Image above: Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria (right)
and Flight Engineers Thomas Reiter and Mikhail Tyurin share a meal
at the galley in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space
Station. Credit: NASA |
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Poor weather delays Shuttle launch until Saturday
The arrival of Space Shuttle Discovery and the STS-116 crew has been
delayed two days.
An unfavorable weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center in Florida forced
mission managers to pass on Thursday’s launch attempt. Discovery
is now slated to lift off at 8:47 p.m. EST Saturday and dock with the
orbital outpost on Monday.
The STS-116 crew will deliver the P5 truss segment and conduct three
spacewalks to install it and reconfigure and redistribute the power generated
by the station’s U.S. solar arrays.
The STS-116 crew’s weeklong stay will also feature the first station
crew rotation during a shuttle mission in four years. NASA Astronaut Sunita
Williams, KD5PLB, will join the Expedition 14 crew and European Space
Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, will return to Earth on Discovery.
NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have named two astronauts and
two cosmonauts to the next International Space Station crew, known as
Expedition 15.
Astronauts Clayton Anderson, KD5PLA, and Daniel Tani, KD5DXE,will travel
to the station next year and work as flight engineers. Cosmonauts Fyodor
Yurchikhin, RN3FI, and Dr. Oleg Kotov will spend six months aboard the
orbiting laboratory.
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