Speaches For 60th Birthdays

Discovery STS-133

is continuing the preparation of ' last launch of Space Shuttle Discovery - STS-133 mission - which takes off the 1 November 2010 to the ISS - International Space Station. The rollout ulltimo has made on September 20 last year and now the orbiter is ready on the launch pad, Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center in Florida.





The journey from the VAB - Vehicle Assembly Building (building assembly Space Shuttle vehicles) to Launch Pad began at 7.23 pm - 1.23 corresponding to 21 September in Italy - lasting about six hours.




Historically the Space Shuttle Discovery was the third of the U.S. shuttle program to become operational and its first flight dates back to August 30, 1984 - STS-41d and it is interesting to recall that it was the Discovery put the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

35 ^ This mission is interesting for the following reasons.

will be brought to the ISS on PMM - Permanent Multipurpose Module, MPLM one of three logistics modules - Multi Purpose Logistics Module Manufacturing Italian, used in recent years for transporting material to and from the ISS aboard the Space Shuttle. The module that has become famous is the PMM module Leonardo, which has been suitably amended by Thales Alenia Space - joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%) - to enable a long stay in space.




well as other replacement parts for the station, the Space Shuttle Discovery will bring the whole orbital also the first robot R2 space - Robonaut 2. See ns. and spaces.




The designation
NASA R2 is humanoid helper astronaut, will initially be tested in the microgravity and then be used as an aid to astronauts outside the station during the spacewalk EVA - Extra Vehicilar Activity. Meanwhile, R2 was prepared to start inserting it in a special container and prepared with great care.

The crew consists of: Steven Lindsey
- captain
Eric Boe - Pilot
Alvin Drew - Mission Specialist 1
Tim Kopra - Mission Specialist 2
Michael Barratt - Mission Specialist 3
Nicole Stott - Mission Specialist 4

News and pictures from: nasa.gov