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Today, May 29, 1999, the space shuttle Discovery docked at the International Space Station for the first time. To an old fogey like me, this comes quite a few decades too late for my tastes. After watching Stanley Kubricks ( R.I.P. ) movie " 2001: A Space Odyssey " at the Cinerama Dome theater in Hollywood and Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on live television ( though in black and white ), in the 60s, I have been waiting for the international space station to materialize. Granted today the assembly is quite incomplete and the shuttle only attached to a control and docking module, with the rest of the station to be completed in the near ( hopefully ) future, I still say, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!
The only thing that worries me, is the participation by Russia in supplying sections for the station. I have talked to a few people in the aerospace industry and they express their doubts that Russia can keep up it's end of the bargain. This problem may not just be one of delays, but also one of having the economic resources in general to complete the assigned tasks at all.
Anyhow, the shuttle trip today was to check the sealed environment, to deliver a temporary section and some supplies. Correctly called, Space Station Assembly Flight 2A.1 and/or STS-96, the space shuttle Discovery has brought the SPACEHAB Logistics Double Module to be attached to the ISS assembly. STS-88 brought the Unity connecting module up to the Zarya control module and successfully attached it. NASA reported, " Discovery's four-man, three-woman crew will bring almost two tons of supplies to be stored aboard the station, ranging from laptop computers, a printer, and cameras to maintenance tools, spare parts and clothing for future station crews. Discovery will spend six days linked to the station, transferring and installing gear that could not be launched aboard the modules due to weight limitations. Discovery's mission sets the stage for the arrival of the first station living quarters, the Russian-provided Service Module, scheduled to be launched by Russia later this year ". This is the module that is behind schedule.
Navy Commander Kent Rominger commands Discovery's crew, that includes: cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, as a mission specialist; Canadian astronaut Julie Payette, as mission specialist; Rick Husband, Lt. Col., USAF, as pilot of Discovery; astronauts Tammy Jernigan and Dr. Daniel Barry will do a spacewalk to attach a crane to the ISS's exterior to aid future spacewalkers; and Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa, will attach a Russian crane.
The first crew to live aboard the International Space Station after the Russian-built living quarters are connected is slated to be commanded by U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd and include Russian cosomonauts Yuri Gidzenko as Soyuz Commander and Sergei Krikalev as Flight Engineer. They supposedly will be launched in early 2000 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft ( don't hold you breath? ). The final assembly of the ISS is planned to be completed by 2004.
Oh well, so much for getting a manned mission to Jupiter any time soon ( on schedule with the " 2001 " storyline ), but atleast the Shuttle is named Discovery. The human race is finally starting to move off the planet Earth!
- Bongo ( Open a porthole, would ya'... )
