Discovery ship into the launch pad

Yesterday, 3.5, Space Shuttle Discovery was moved by the US Space and Aeronautics Agency (NASA) to the launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida (USA) to prepare for the flight to the Space Station. International (ISS) on May 31.

Earlier, NASA was expected to launch Discovery on 25.5, but because the vessel's fuel tank had not been arrived in time due to bad weather, NASA had relocated the launch date to 31.5. NASA engineers took about 6 hours and 20 minutes to ship Discovery from the engine assembly to the launch pad on a distance of more than 5.47 km.

In this mission, Discovery will carry the main part of Japan's Kibo laboratory, 11.2 meters long, weighing 15.9 tons, with remote-controlled robotic arms. This is one of the three components that make up the largest and most modern ISS laboratory manufactured by Japan worth $ 3 billion.

The first part is a 4.2-ton, 3.9m-long, 4.4m-long ELM-PS logistics module that was put on ISS by Endeavor on a 16-day flight from 11-26.3. The rest is the telecommunications system is expected to be available on the station in March 2009.

Discovery ship on the launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.(Photo: NASA)

According to NASA's website, on June 6.5, Discovery ship crew will go to Kennedy Space Center to enter training before flying. The Discovery mission this time carries the STS-124 code, expected to last 13 days, including 7 people: commander Mark E. Kelly, pilot Kenneth T. Ham, astronauts Gregory E. Chamitoff, Michael E Fossum, Karen L. Nyberg (female), Ronald J. Garan and Akihiko Hoshide (Japanese, from the Japanese Space Exploration Agency - JAXA).

It is known that the International Space Station worth $ 100 billion will be completed in 2010 after 12 years of placing the first parts. It was also the five NASA shuttle trains that were "retired".