Endeavour Returns

Caption:

Backdropped by Earth, space shuttle Endeavour is photographed by an Expedition 20 crew member onboard the International Space Station soon after the shuttle undocked from the station. A Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station is visible in the foreground.

Image credit: NASA

The space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth this morning:

Space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven astronauts touched down at 10:48 a.m. EDT at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bringing an end to a complex mission to install the final section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory on the International Space Station. All of the STS-127 crew members are doing well after today's landing.

Unless otherwise noted, all of the quotes come from the NASA archive page for the most recent shuttle mission. There appear to be no permalinks.

Caption:

The Japanese Experiment Module Kibo laboratory and Exposed Facility are featured in this image photographed by a crew member on the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-127) remains docked with the station.

Image credit: NASA

The mission on this trip was to install the Kibo module front porch and to do some maintenance on the space station. This front porch has a great view, as long as you bring a spacesuit. It's designed to conduct various experiments in vacuum and zero gravity. Several experiments were loaded onto the porch before Endeavour left the ISS. Contrast this picture with a similar view from this article last year.

Caption:

The Japanese Experiment Module Kibo laboratory and newly-installed Exposed Facility are viewed from inside the International Space Station.

Image credit: NASA

A couple of things stand out about this mission. One is that there were five spacewalks, which only one other shuttle mission has performed. The other is the use of the robotic arms on both the shuttle and the ISS:

All three of the available robotic arms will be put to use, sometimes all on the same day. The shuttle’s Canadarm and the station’s Canadarm2 will be put through their regular paces for surveys, unloading cargo and moving equipment and spacewalkers around, and the new Japanese robotic arm will be making its debut to transfer science experiments – it’s been tested since it arrived on the STS-126 shuttle mission in November 2008. Four spacewalks and a great deal of the robotics work will devote some time to installing and outfitting the final pieces of the JAXA’s Kibo laboratory – its external facility, which will provide the Japanese a way to expose science experiments to the extreme environment of space, an exposed experiment logistics module for storage and some experiments to get it started.

STS-127: A Porch In Space

Caption:

A portion of the Japanese Experiment Module - Exposed Facility; along with the space station and space shuttle robotic arms are seen from inside the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-127) remains docked with the station. The blackness of space and Earth's horizon provide the backdrop for the scene.

Image credit: NASA

In at least one instance, a rather large piece of equipment was handed off from one arm to another. The thing they handed off is the Exposed Section cargo carrier, which is essentially the box that the Kibo experiments came in:

In yet another deft handoff maneuver, the space shuttle robotic arm grabbed the Japanese Exposed Section cargo carrier from the space station robotic arm. Endeavour Commander Mark Polansky and Mission Specialist Julie Payette then used the shuttle arm to place the cargo carrier back into the shuttle payload bay.

This is a simple thing for two people on earth to do, but when it's two separate arms on two separate space vehicles, it can be a bit more complicated. I think it's fair to say that the more that can be done with robotic arms, the less will have to be done by spacewalk. Advances in this area represent new ability to perform work in space.

All in all, it was a successful mission. The only negative thing about this mission is that some of the things this mission accomplished won't be possible in a couple of years. The shuttle is scheduled to fly only eight more times. After that, things like bringing home large cargo and using a spaceship's robotic arm may not be possible for years. Nothing that NASA has in the works will be able to do this. It's a shame our leaders lack the vision of their predecessors.