A Real-Life Space Opera: NASA, ISS, and the Shuttles

Those of us whose elementary schools were lucky enough to have been visited by real shuttle astronauts who let us taste astronaut food and showed us pictures of astronaut toilets will always have a bit of hero-worship for space shuttle crews.

In the next couple years, we will witness the biggest, most complex, most difficult-to-schedule-and-manage space project ever. The space shuttles (those grand old ladies of the heavens) have until 2010 to finish the International Space Station (ISS). And those who criticize the space shuttles as expensive and unsafe flying fireworks know that real lives are at risk. For the rest of us, it’s bittersweet that the culmination of the ISS coincides with the end of an era for such heroic spacecraft.

Yes, we just posted an article on the ISS. This here is a “companion piece.”

First of all, what is it like to man the first major mission to the ISS since the space shuttle Columbia exploded in 2003? For Brent Jett, shuttle commander, and the rest of the crew, it’s extremely complex and busy. This ambitious mission will try to do a lot in a few days: going on 3 spacewalks, doing 2 shuttle heat shield inspections, moving the biggest cargo delivery in the history of shuttle orbiters (they’re bringing a truss that’s 17.5 tons and solar arrays that will spread out to 240 feet or 73 meters when its finally extended), and starting the next phase (and most likely final phase) in ISS construction. But the crew is up to the challenge of maneuvering the large pieces needed for this mission and is “very eager to get started,” according to member Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

We’d like to add a couple notes about the heat shield inspections. First, it is now one of the safety measures since the explosion of the Columbia for astronauts to go over the outside of the shuttle while in space to make sure the heatshield was not damaged by flying debris during the launch. After all, NASA and the ISS cannot afford another disaster like Columbia or Challenger. There are already many doubts that NASA can actually finish the ISS (and finally stop flying the old shuttle orbiters) by 2010, and some analysts believe that NASA may have to postpone retirement of the shuttles to 2012 or later (especially if ISS components are delayed, if there are unexpected things to fix, or if the configuration has to be changed and modules have to be moved around).

Still, the announced schedule looks like all the missions will be done by 2010. Then it will be the turn of the next generation of spacecraft.

And for the geeks who want to start a countdown, the launch is 13 days and 13 hours away as of this posting.

Those of us whose elementary schools were lucky enough to have been visited by real shuttle astronauts who let us taste astronaut food and showed us pictures of astronaut toilets will always have a bit of hero-worship for space shuttle crews.

In the next couple years, we will witness the biggest, most complex, most difficult-to-schedule-and-manage space project ever. The space shuttles (those grand old ladies of the heavens) have until 2010 to finish the International Space Station (ISS). And those who criticize the space shuttles as expensive and unsafe flying fireworks know that real lives are at risk. For the rest of us, it’s bittersweet that the culmination of the ISS coincides with the end of an era for such heroic spacecraft.

Yes, we just posted an article on the ISS. This here is a “companion piece.”

First of all, what is it like to man the first major mission to the ISS since the space shuttle Columbia exploded in 2003? For Brent Jett, shuttle commander, and the rest of the crew, it’s extremely complex and busy. This ambitious mission will try to do a lot in a few days: going on 3 spacewalks, doing 2 shuttle heat shield inspections, moving the biggest cargo delivery in the history of shuttle orbiters (they’re bringing a truss that’s 17.5 tons and solar arrays that will spread out to 240 feet or 73 meters when its finally extended), and starting the next phase (and most likely final phase) in ISS construction. But the crew is up to the challenge of maneuvering the large pieces needed for this mission and is “very eager to get started,” according to member Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

We’d like to add a couple notes about the heat shield inspections. First, it is now one of the safety measures since the explosion of the Columbia for astronauts to go over the outside of the shuttle while in space to make sure the heatshield was not damaged by flying debris during the launch. After all, NASA and the ISS cannot afford another disaster like Columbia or Challenger. There are already many doubts that NASA can actually finish the ISS (and finally stop flying the old shuttle orbiters) by 2010, and some analysts believe that NASA may have to postpone retirement of the shuttles to 2012 or later (especially if ISS components are delayed, if there are unexpected things to fix, or if the configuration has to be changed and modules have to be moved around).

Still, the announced schedule looks like all the missions will be done by 2010. Then it will be the turn of the next generation of spacecraft.

And for the geeks who want to start a countdown, the launch is 13 days and 13 hours away as of this posting.

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