Currently, the scheduled date for the commemoration is Tuesday at 12:32 PM Eastern Time (19:32 PM Israel Time)
The eye of Hurricane Dean, a Category 4 hurricane, near the top, as photographed by the Endeavor crew on Saturday as they passed over the Caribbean.
The space shuttle Endeavor detached from the International Space Station on Sunday at 07:56 EST (14:56 Israel time), after nearly nine days in close proximity to the station. The STS-118 mission team is currently performing post-detachment checks and a scan of the heat shield.
The astronauts use the shuttle's robotic arm, which is about 17 meters long, and the sensor system at the end to scan the nose dome and the front part of the wings. This process was carried out after detaching from the space station to ensure that the shuttle is ready for reentry into the atmosphere for the first landing opportunity, on Tuesday at 12:21 PM EST (19:32 PM Israel time).
The spotting process was brought forward a day in preparation for a landfall on Tuesday, a date when Hurricane Dean will not yet reach Houston's shores. When the hurricane's landing date approaches, NASA will be forced, as in previous cases in recent years, to evacuate the control center in Houston and transfer control of the space station exclusively to the Russians.
After the scans are completed, the astronauts will have some time off after the many jobs they performed during their days docked at the space station, including four spacewalks that included installing the S5 component as a continuation of the shuttle corridor, and replacing a broken gyroscope.
3 תגובות
Thanks for the answer
gift
The shuttle orbits the Earth in a path determined mainly by physics (gravitational force).
From the moment of completion of the launch until the moment of reentry into the atmosphere, the shuttle engines are capable of making only minor corrections to the orbit. Repairs that allow the shuttle to connect to the space station and disconnect from it or determine the moment of re-entry into the atmosphere (which is why it is so important to be precise at the moment of take-off).
To make sure that the entry into the atmosphere will be in the right place (over the western United States to eventually reach Florida), the astronauts must wait patiently until the shuttle arrives in the right area and in the right direction.
Although the shuttle orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes or so, the wait can take several days because on each lap, the shuttle crosses the relevant longitude at a different latitude and in a different direction (again, physics to blame).
You can see the location of the ferry at any given moment on this website:
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking
To my father
According to my understanding, the distance between the International Space Station and the Earth is about 400 km (correct me if I'm wrong)
Why does the flight back to Earth take almost two days?