Space shuttle blasts off…with a toilet!
Monday, June 2, 2008 at 4:06 am Under World News Alerts
American space shuttle Discovery with a crew of seven astronauts has blasted into orbit for a 14-day mission, carrying a giant Japanese science laboratory and a toilet pump for the international space station. The launch took place from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida into a clear blue sky.
The shuttle will reach the space station in two days time where its crew will install the USD one billion lab “Kibo,” which means hope in Japanese.
The group will spend most of its time in space installing the Japanese Pressurized Module to the ISS and then outfitting it for its work as a space science laboratory. The section is the largest habitable module for the station and is equipped with its own robotic arm.
Since the only toilet on board the ISS broke down last week crew members aboard the ISS have had to resort to plastic bags.
Apart from installing a new toilet the Discovery crew plans to conduct three spacewalks to hook up the new lab work on the space station’s cooling system and troubleshoot a problem hampering the solar panels and while these spacewalks are important perhaps none more important than fixing the toilet, it could after all be the most crucial factor for the success of the remainder of the mission.
A smaller module was taken into space during a previous mission and will be moved during Discovery’s mission to its permanent home atop the pressurized module. “It’s a gorgeous day to launch,” NASA’s launch director, Mike Leinbach, told the astronauts just before liftoff, wishing them good luck. Nearly 400 Japanese journalists, space programme officials and other guests jammed NASA’s launch site, their excitement growing as the hours, then minutes counted down.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
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