Space Shuttle Discovery STS-116

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-116 mission was shuttle flight number 117, Discovery flight number 33 and the shuttle's 20th mission to the International Space Station flight. The mission duration was 12 days, 20 hours, 45 minutes. The aim of the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-116 mission was:

History

Original launch date for Space Shuttle Discovery STS-116 was 7 December 2006, but was cancelled due to a low cloud ceiling. Discovery was launched at 8.47pm EST on 9 December 2006 from launch pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center on a two day pursuit of the International Space Station.

On December 10 (following day) the crew performed a check-up of the orbiter's heat shield. The astronauts used the orbiter boom sensor system mounted on the end of the shuttle's robotic arm to slowly sweep over the orbiter's surface, as Mission Control in Houston looked for any damage caused during the climb to orbit. Discovery was deemed in good shape and ready for docking.

The chase ended December 12 when the orbiter caught up with the International Space Station. Commander Polansky manoeuvred the shuttle through a slow back flip below the station, allowing Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin to take detailed photographs of the orbiter's belly. Discovery linked up with the station that day. Discovery delivered a new ISS crew member Sunita Williams and more than two tons of equipment and supplies, most of which were located in the SPACEHAB cargo module. Using the shuttle's robot arm, Nicholas Patrick (Payload Specialist) lifted the P5 truss out of Discovery's payload bay and handed it to the station's arm, where it remained suspended overnight.

On December 13, during the first spacewalk of the mission, Curbeam and Fuglesang aligned and installed the P5 on the end of the P3/P4 truss, extending the station's backbone by 11 feet. Up next was the retraction of the station's P6 port side solar array, providing enough clearance for the P4 solar array to begin tracking the sun's motion. Fully extended, the gold-colored array's 31 panels, or "bays," stretched 120 feet along a system of guidewires. The bays are designed to fold up, accordion-style, and retract along the guidewires into storage boxes attached to the truss. Crew members sent the retract command, but instead of folding neatly, the bays repeatedly became hung up and wouldn't budge. After several hours of work in orbit and troubleshooting on the ground, 17 bays had been retracted, enough to allow the crew to continue with the mission's tasks.

The partial retraction cleared the way for the next day's spacewalk, the 75th in the station's history and the second for the STS-116 mission. Curbeam and Fuglesang successfully reconfigured power on channels 2 and 3 of the outpost's electrical system, finishing the work in less than the allotted six hours.

Williams accompanied Curbeam on the mission's third spacewalk two days later as the pair finished the power work outside the station, rearranging power on electrical channels 1 and 4. With this activity completed, the station was ready for additions in the future such as the Japanese Laboratory Module and other European Modules.

Only the issue with the uncooperative P6 solar array remained. Because the array would have to be fully retracted before the arrival of Russian Soyuz modules in the spring of 2007, NASA's Mission Management Team approved an additional spacewalk in which astronauts would try to manually unstick the arrays, hopefully allowing a full retraction.

On December 18, Curbeam and Fuglesang once again floated out of the station's Quest airlock to begin the mission's fourth spacewalk. Williams and Higginbotham used the station's robotic arm to position the spacewalkers near the troublesome array, while Oefelein choreographed the activities outside. After a 6 1/2-hour effort, the astronauts completed the job to praise from crewmates and ground controllers.

Space Shuttle Discovery separated from the International Space Station on December 19 to begin two days of final homecoming preparations, including a focused inspection of the orbiter's heat shield, deployment of three small scientific satellites and a checkout of landing systems. It landed successfully on Earth at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA on December 22, 2006 at 5.32pm EDT.

STS-116 Crew

1. Mark Polansky (Commander)
Polansky is a former Air Force test pilot. He served as pilot on STS-98 Atlantis (February 9-20, 2001). The mission delivered the U.S. laboratory module Destiny.

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Updated: Saturday 5th, July, 2008