Jul 12 2006
From The Space Library
Astronauts Michael E. Fossum and Piers J. Sellers performed their third and final spacewalk for Mission STS-121. The mission’s management team had delayed the return flight to Earth by one day to conduct the spacewalk, so that the crew could test repair techniques and a thermal imaging camera. During the spacewalk, Fossum and Sellers tested a technique in which they made repairs to Discovery’s damaged thermal protection panels, using an experimental sealant called nonoxide adhesive experimental (NOAX). NOAX was a preceramic polymer sealant containing carbon-silicon carbide powder. In addition, Fossum and Sellers installed a grapple bar on an ammonia tank inside the ISS’s S1 truss, so that the crew could move the tank later.
NASA, “STS-121”; NASA Mission Control Center, “STS-121 Mission Control Center Status Report #17,” NASA status report STS-121-17, 12 July 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts121/news/STS-121-17.html (accessed 28 June 2010).
A privately funded experimental spacecraft called Genesis I launched from Russia’s Ural Mountains at 12:53 (UT). The launch was the first for Bigelow Aerospace, a United States–based company founded by American Robert T. Bigelow. The company had designed Genesis I as an inflatable spacecraft. Bigelow Aerospace planned to launch similar spacecraft and to connect them to Genesis I to form an expandable space station. The company reportedly planned to use the completed structure as a hotel, scientific laboratory, or sports arena, providing services for a commercial spaceflight business.
Alicia Chang, “Private Spacecraft Takes Off,” Houston Chronicle, 13 July 2006.
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