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Fifth STS-123 Spacewalk Complete

N5VHO – March 23, 2008 – 02:44
Space Shuttle

Mission Specialists Robert L. Behnken and Mike Foreman completed the fifth spacewalk of STS-123 at 10:36 p.m. EDT. Rick Linnehan, also a mission specialist, coordinated their activities from inside the orbiting complex made up of space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station.

Robot arm operators grappled the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), and the two spacewalkers assembled an umbilical designed to keep the boom safe during its time in the harsh space environment. Then, the robot arm handed the OBSS off to Behnken and Foreman, who stowed it on the station’s S1 Truss.

The next component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory, which will be delivered on space shuttle Discovery during the STS-124 mission, is too large to accommodate the OBSS in the shuttle’s payload bay. Once the next element of Kibo is installed on the station, Discovery’s astronauts will detach the OBSS left behind by space shuttle Endeavour, use it to perform tile inspections and bring it home.

After the STS-123 spacewalkers attached the boom to the S1 Truss, Behnken installed the Materials International Space Station Experiment 6 on the outside of the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, and Foreman inspected the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint.

The spacewalkers also completed a few get-ahead tasks, installing trunnion covers on the Japanese Logistics Module – Pressurized Section and stowing tools in a toolbox on the airlock before ingressing the hatch.

With the final STS-123 spacewalk complete, flight day 14 will see the crew of Endeavour prepare for the end of their visit to the station. The orbiter will undock Monday and return to Earth Wednesday.

Source http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Space Shuttle
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ISS-Orbit-decay and Re-orbiting Manoeuvre's Weather-effects

klasse35 – March 23, 2008 – 05:43

I am very interested to learn data about ISS' "natural" Orbit-decay (10-50 km/month) and the effects of Re-boostering Manoeuvres (last yielding 7 miles difference on 11.Febr 2008).
Where and when are the next Manoeuvres intended ? Where are the data published ?
The latest History of ISS-Altitude was published by NASA ending in Jan. 2006.
Why is it not possible to say in advance: on the orbit (Nr... Date... Localisat....between .. and .. h EAT)
the boostering manoeuvre will be performed by (f.i.Shuttle + ISS-linked Soyuz...+ Progress...)
The Air-Quality and Health-observing Satellites will certainly be able to track possible alterations induced
by the vertically downward directed Thrusters from 1/millionth of tropospheric Pressure into the next
downward layers of the Meso-Stratospheric Protective layers, which are to be used as "Mass to resist
the upward intended Thrust (ISS etc. to be lifted onto outer higher orbit).
Isn't it possible, that by activities of this sort the Turbulences necessarily caused to the 3 Ozone-layers
are linked to Ozone-downward-Displacement into Troposphere,
where the O3-gas must appear as H2O2
in the rain-water causing heterogenous reactions ?
Reactions like f.i. the SO2 to be dissolved in H2O2 yielding H2SO4
(instead of the normal reaction with H2O --> H2SO3),
which means the acidification of rainwater to be increased from pH 5.5 to 3.5 ?!
The powerful Thrusters to lift up the 500+ To mass of ISS+Shuttle-Complex must have far reaching
effects especially as this is performed as inflight-correcting manoevre with 7770 m/sec and over
several 100 to some 1000 km distance, unavoidably over populated areas, over Thunderstorms and
also Snow-bearing clouds, where the effects may be "astounding" and unpredictable just like GRITs ?
Perhaps the Effects of STS-123-Start on the US' and Canadian East-Coast and on Winter-Blizzards
over SE-EU-States and Southern Mediterranean Coast (11-13.3.) might have to be revisited within this
Context too ?

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Good Heavens, what's in the weather next ?

klasse35 – March 25, 2008 – 17:36

Thankyou Kenneth, for the useful link of the "Heavens above" GmbH, but it does not give the
full former NASA-Info of Peri- & Apogee, which appears to be missing on NASA-Tracking pages now.
The Radio-link is more for your other fan-amateurs,
and the ARISS has been under repair now 2 d 11h,
Where can I get answers to the other questions, when and over which regions the Re-Boost is intended?
The Ariane-Start -as it shot into the same orbit just 2 days before- may have caused the Weather-Condis
for the STS-123 to have been not as optimal as intended and esp. the downward-effects mentioned over Canada
were as a combination-effect astonishing with Blizzard and Huge Masses of Snow. Nothing much to mention.
And SE-EU-States and Mediterran.Africa-Coast- nothing in the Weather-Reports found yet.
Thanks anyway.

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Heavens-above

N5VHO – March 23, 2008 – 13:15

This might get you started on your data search.
http://heavens-above.com/IssHeight.aspx?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=CET

Kenneth - N5VHO
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/
Support ARISS http://www.amsat-na.com/donation.php (select "Human Spaceflight (ARISS))

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