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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
"It will be very sad to see Discovery's last launch," said Anita Pinkosky, who has worked on all of NASA's space shuttles, before the start of Discovery's farewell STS-133 mission.
Discovery is zooming toward a Saturday afternoon check-in at the International Space Station, its final visit before being parked at a museum. Shuttle commander Steven Lindsey and his crew spotted the space station from 40 miles out.
Fox News reports Discovery and its six-astronaut crew are flying an 11-day mission to deliver supplies, spare parts, an extra storage module and a humanoid robot assistant to the International Space Station. Two spacewalks are also planned during the shuttle's week-long stay at the orbiting lab.
Before docking, Discovery will perform a slow 360-degree backflip so space station cameras can capture any signs of launch damage. According to AOL News, at least four pieces of debris broke off the fuel tank during Thursday's liftoff, and one of the strips of insulating foam struck Discovery's belly.
Space.com reports part of Pinkosky's job will be to inspect images taken Feb. 25, the second day of flight, to assess whether the orbiter's heat shield suffered any damage during the day’s launch.
As a precaution, every shuttle crew since the 2003 Columbia disaster has had to check thoroughly for possible damage to the thermal shielding, which must be robust for re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
NASA officials do not believe the shuttle was damaged.
According to msnbc.com, software developer Neil Monday shot pictures of Thursday’s liftoff with his iPhone through the window of a commercial airplane flying out of Florida's Orlando International Airport. A member of the flight crew can be heard on the intercom, telling passengers to look out "the right side of the aircraft" ... and joked, "we don't want to have anybody complain because we were late."
More stunning views were captured from an even higher altitude, using an unmanned helium balloon that was festooned with smart phone cameras and other gadgets.
Commander Lindsey is scheduled to dock Discovery at the orbiting laboratory at 2:16 p.m. Saturday.
CBS News reports Discovery is the oldest of the surviving shuttles that first flew in 1984. Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit in 1990, returned Mercury astronaut John Glenn to space at age 77, and got NASA flying again after the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters.
Discovery has flown to the space station 12 times; the upcoming trip will be No. 13. Overall, it's spent 352 days in space and circled Earth 5,628 times.
