While politicians banter about NASA’s budget and the future of manned space flight, the space agency is prepping the critical technology its remaining four space shuttle missions will deliver to complete the International Space Station.
The space shuttles’ retirement follows almost 30 years of service and will after September leave the US without any major way of launching astronauts into space (NASA has plans to fly astronauts onboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft after 2011). NASA today told reporters that it could ramp the program back up if it were instructed to do so. NASA program manager John Shannon said it costs $200 million a month to keep the shuttle fleet flying. Shannon noted to that NASA has the external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters for at least one more shuttle mission beyond the four remaining flights, should it be needed in case of emergency.
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With that as a backdrop, production is well under way to finish out the program with some key missions. First, the next space shuttle, Discovery, currently is sitting on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. NASA technicians are testing out is propellant system. The shuttle uses what NASA calls hypergolic propellants which it says are the fuels and oxidizers which ignite on contact with each other and need no ignition source. The fuel is monomethyl hydrazine and the oxidizer is nitrogen tetroxide, NASA says. The shuttle uses these fuels for its Orbital Maneuvering system that handles orbital insertion, major orbital maneuvers and deorbit, NASA said.
On this mission, which is set to launch April 5, Discovery will carry a multi-purpose logistics module which is basically a big storage unit that in this cxase will be filled with science racks for ISS laboratories. The mission has three planned spacewalks, with work to include replacing an ammonia tank, retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior, and switching out a gyro, NASA stated.
In May, shuttle Atlantis will use a 12 day mission to deliver an Integrated Cargo Carrier and a Russian-built Mini Research Module to the International Space Station. The Russian Mini Research Module will be attached to the bottom port of the ISS’s Zarya module. The module also will carry US cargo.
Three spacewalks are planned to stage spare components outside the station, including six spare batteries, a boom assembly for the Ku-band antenna and spares for the Canadian robotic arm extension. Other parts such as a radiator, airlock and European robotic arm for the Russian Multi-purpose Laboratory Module also expected top be on this flight, according to NASA.