STS-128
Discovery approaches the ISS with Leonardo in its payload bay
|
|
| Mission type | ISS assembly |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 2009-045A |
| SATCAT no. | 35811 |
| Mission duration | 13 days, 20 hours, 54 minutes, 55 seconds |
| Distance travelled | 9,262,217 kilometres (5,755,275 mi) |
| Orbits completed | 219 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Discovery |
| Launch mass | 121,422 kilograms (267,689 lb) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 7 |
| Members |
Frederick W. Sturckow Kevin A. Ford Patrick G. Forrester José M. Hernández John D. Olivas Christer Fuglesang |
| Launching | Nicole Stott |
| Landing | Timothy Kopra |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 29 August 2009, 03:59 UTC |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 12 September 2009, 00:53 UTC |
| Landing site | Edwards Runway 22 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee | 219 kilometres (136 mi) |
| Apogee | 264 kilometres (164 mi) |
| Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
| Period | 89.33 minutes |
| Epoch | 29 August 2009 |
| Docking with ISS | |
| Docking port | PMA-2 (Harmony forward) |
| Docking date | 31 August 2009, 00:54 UTC |
| Undocking date | 8 September 2009, 19:26 UTC |
| Time docked | 8 days, 18 hours, 32 minutes |
|
 Seated (l–r) Ford and Sturckow. Standing (l–r) are Hernández, Olivas, Stott, Fuglesang and Forrester. |
|
STS-128 (ISS assembly flight 17A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that launched on 28 August 2009. Space Shuttle Discovery carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo as its primary payload. Leonardo contained a collection of experiments for studying the physics and chemistry of microgravity. Three spacewalks were carried out during the mission, which removed and replaced a materials processing experiment outside ESA's Columbus module, and returned an empty ammonia tank assembly.
The mission's first launch attempt was delayed due to weather concerns, including multiple weather violations in NASA's launch rules, beginning over two hours before the scheduled launch. The second launch attempt, scheduled for 26 August 2009 at 01:10:22 EDT, was called off the previous evening due to an anomaly in one of the orbiter's fuel valves. The launch finally took place on 28 August 2009 at 23:59 EDT. Discovery landed on 11 September 2009 at Edwards Air Force Base, which was the last landing of a shuttle to occur at the California site.
Nicole Stott was originally scheduled to return aboard Soyuz TMA-15, but a change in the flight plan was made due to the possible flight delays in future shuttle missions, which could have extended Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk's mission beyond the six-month duration preferred for station crew members.
...
Wikipedia