Mar 15 2009
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Discovery launched from NASA’s KSC at 7:43 p.m. (EDT). STS-119 carried the fourth and final set of solar-array wings, which would complete the ISS’s truss when installed. The schedule for the 13-day mission included three spacewalks to install the S6-truss segment on the starboard side of the ISS and to deploy the solar arrays. The seven-member crew was composed of Commander Lee J. Archambault, Pilot Dominic A. “Tony” Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Joseph M. Acaba, Steven R. Swanson, Richard R. Arnold II, John L. Phillips, and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata would remain at the ISS, replacing Expedition 18 crew member Sandra H. Magnus, who had been aboard the station for more than four months. Acaba and Arnold, former teachers who had become fully trained NASA astronauts, were on their first mission, scheduled to undertake critical spacewalking tasks. STS-119 was one month behind schedule; NASA had delayed the launch four times because of fragile valves inside the Shuttle’s propulsion system. On 11 March, NASA had postponed Discovery’s launch because, during fueling, engineers had detected a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system. Because of the delays, NASA had shortened the STS-119 mission by one day and had dropped one of the four spacewalks originally scheduled.
NASA, “NASA’s Shuttle Discovery Launches To Fully Power Space Station,” news release 09-060, 15 March 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/mar/HQ_09-060_Discovery_launches.html (accessed 4 May 2011); Robert Block, “Discovery Heads to International Space Station,” Orlando Sentinel (FL), 16 March 2009.
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