STS-114 and Science on the ISS
Space Shuttle Discovery succesfully launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral this morning at 10:39 EDT. This marks NASA’s first shuttle mission since the loss of Columbia in 2003, hence its designation as the “Return to Flight.”
STS-114 will be primarily a resupply mission to the International Space Station, carrying a new gyroscope to replace a malfunctioning one on the ISS as well as a stowage platform for the Quest airlock to aid in future spacewalks. The astronauts will also be testing out various new repair techniques on several sections of test ceramic tiles in the shuttle payload bay, to see if structural damage like that suffered by Columbia can be repaired during a shuttle mission.
NASA’s human spaceflight is often criticized by scientists as a money pit that diverts funds from scientifically useful projects such as interplanetary probes and data-collecting satellites. The amount of science conducted by the human spaceflight program has significantly decreased since the Columbia accident. Since Russia’s Soyuz and Progress resupply vehicle carry much less payload than the Shuttle, NASA and her sister agencies decided to reduce the permanent crew aboard the ISS to two shortly after the Columbia accident. Science aboard the ISS has always been dependent upon having a large crew, since day-to-day maintenance operations require at least two astronauts. Therefore, the successful return to flight status of the space shuttle is crucial to useful science being conducted aboard the ISS. While critics often cite the lack of science being conducted on the ISS as a reason to cut its funding, it is worthwhile to note that sustained or increased funding could drastically increase the amount of science being conducted on the station by reducing the time until the station reaches its full capacity (probably six) of astronauts and cosmonauts.
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Woah… I was going through my RSS, and I saw this and was like “hey I don’t remember writing anything new…”
Thanks dude! Freakin’ sweet writeup!
Comment by Rian — July 26, 2005 @ 5:25 pm