30th shuttle to the Station

When it blasts off, Discovery will be embarking on the thirtieth American space shuttle flight to the ISS, getting back to its roots...

 

Official STS-128 mission crew photo: José Hernandez, Kevin Ford (pilot), John Olivas, Nicole Stott, Christer Fuglesang, Rick Sturckow (commander) and Patrick Forrester. Credit: NASA

Update on 27 August: the launch of space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Centre for mission STS-128 has been postponed. Blast-off is now scheduled for friday 28 august, 11.59 pm local time - 29 august, 03.59 am UT.

The 7 astronauts on board will include the Swede Christer Fuglesang from the European Space Agency. He will be on two of the three planned spacewalks during what will be his second orbital adventure: in December 2006, he was the first person from his country to travel into space on mission STS-116. As the luck of the spaceflight schedule would have it, he'll be on the same shuttle as for his inaugural flight: Discovery.
STS-128 is set to be a 13-day logistics mission. It will deliver 7 tonnes of equipment, scientific experiments and supplies to the International Space Station. Also, American Astronaut Nicole Stott will be taking over from her compatriot Tim Kopra in the Expedition 20 team on the ISS.

Back to its roots
This will be the thirtieth shuttle flight to the International Space Station. Almost one quarter of the American space shuttle's missions will have been dedicated to assembling the orbital complex (STS-128 will be the 128th mission by a shuttle). With its unrivalled carrying capacity (up to 18 tonnes in the hold plus 7 astronauts), NASA's winged machine has been a vital tool in the construction of the ISS. One might even say that it is returning to its roots! Back in the beginning, one of the shuttle's first missions was supposed to focus on Skylab, an American station, raising its orbit and remanning it. Unfortunately, the first shuttle flight (Columbia, 1981) took place two years after Skylab had burned up in the atmosphere: not only was the spacecraft two years behind schedule (the inaugural flight was initially planned for 1979), but high solar activity at that time had also extended the upper layers of the atmosphere - slightly but sufficiently -, "slowing down" Skylab more than expected. The ground controllers could not keep it in orbit any longer.
Working on the ISS, NASA's three shuttles (Endeavour, Atlantis and Discovery) are therefore accomplishing one of the key objectives for which they were designed: to assemble and serve a constantly manned orbital complex.

A shuttle heading towards Skylab, the American laboratory (illustration). A fine project, stumped both by delays in the spacecraft programme and by the fickleness of solar activity! Credit: NASA

STS-128 launch on the net
To watch Discovery blast off live, head straight for NASA TV. Here is a list of useful links.

NASA TV general page

NASA TV flux on Yahoo (high speed - 1200 kb/s)
This link can be copied/pasted into a player such as Quick Time or Windows Media Player

Other video fluxes:  low speed (150 kb/s) - medium speed (300 kb/s) - medium speed 2 (500 kb/s)

If your connection does not allow you to follow video fluxes, NASA also has a real-time launch blog.

Published on 24 August 2009 - updated on 26 august