The Way Home: Backdropped by a blue and white Earth, this image taken by the Expedition 20 crew shows Endeavour shortly after the shuttle and station began their post-undocking separation on July 28, 2009. Endeavour's crew has successfully performed the on-orbit check of the vehicle's Flight Control System (FCS). Endeavour was scheduled to land at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility at approximately 10:48 AM EDT.
Good morning Hubble! Time to set you free to gaze at the universe again. Soon starlight will fill your eyes and you can share your wonder with us.
The Beauty of Space: Astronaut Tim Kopra worked to prepare the berthing mechanisms on the Kibo laboratory and the Japanese Exposed Facility (JEF) for the JEF installation on Kibo, during this the first of five planned spacewalks for the STS-127 crew. Kopra, who was joined astronaut Dave Wolf (out of frame) on this spacewalk, holds onto a handrail on Harmony node.
Space Station Node view of Endeavour taken by Japanese Astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
Floating just below the International Space Station, astronaut Nicholas Patrick put some finishing touches on the newly installed cupola space windows last week. Patrick was a mission specialist onboard the space shuttle Endeavor's recently completed STS-130 mission to the ISS.
The International Space Station Program has won the 2009 Collier Trophy, which is considered the top award in aviation. The National Aeronautic Association bestows the award annually to recognize the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America. "We are honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “We're proud of our past achievements to build and operate the space station, and we're excited about the future- there's a new era ahead of potential groundbreaking scientific research aboard the station." The International Space Station is a joint project of five space agencies and 15 countries that is nearing completion and will mark the 10th anniversary of a continuous human presence in orbit later this year. The largest and most complicated spacecraft ever built, the space station is an international, technological and political achievement that represents the latest step in humankind’s quest to explore and live in space.
Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev have completed their mission aboard the International Space Station after 167 days. They entered the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft, then undocked from the Poisk Mini-Research Module at 4:03 a.m. EDT. After entering the Earth’s atmosphere they will parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 7:23 a.m. Staying behind are Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer and new Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov. The trio, who will stay until June, joined Williams and Suraev after arriving in their Soyuz TMA-17 in December 2009. Joining Expedition 23 and expanding the station crew to six will be Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko. They will arrive in the Soyuz TMA-18 on April 4.
Working in Tandem: Dwarfed by space shuttle Discovery and with Earth's horizon and the blackness of space providing the backdrop for the scene, NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio (right) and Clayton Anderson worked in Discovery's aft payload bay during the mission's third and final spacewalk. During the six-hour, 24-minute spacewalk, Mastracchio and Anderson hooked up fluid lines of the new 1,700-pound tank, retrieved some micrometeoroid shields from the Quest airlock's exterior, relocated a portable foot restraint and prepared cables on the Zenith 1 truss for a spare Space to Ground Ku-Band antenna, two chores required before space shuttle Atlantis' STS-132/ULF-4 mission in May.
The ISS Progress cargo craft is scheduled to dock at 7:58 a.m. EDT.
This view of the space shuttle Endeavour, taken from the International Space Station on Feb. 9 as the two spacecraft conducted their rendezvous operations, was downlinked by the Expedition 22 crew on Feb. 19. The Tranquility node and the Cupola can be clearly seen in the shuttle's payload bay.
NASA astronaut Nicholas Patrick, STS-130 mission specialist, participates in the mission's first session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the 6-hour, 32-minute spacewalk, Patrick and astronaut Robert Behnken (out of frame), mission specialist, relocated a temporary platform from the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, to the station's truss structure and installed two handles on the robot. Once Tranquility was structurally mated to Unity, the spacewalkers connected heater and data cables that will integrate the new module with the rest of the station's systems. They also pre-positioned insulation blankets and ammonia hoses that will be used to connect Tranquility to the station's cooling radiators during the mission's second spacewalk.
