The gates between the station and the ferry were closed at 22:03 on Sunday (also Israel time)
The STS-120 mission of the space shuttle Discovery is nearing its end. The staff members locked the doors between the station and the ferry on Sunday afternoon at 15:03 EST (22:03 Israel time - as of last night, the USA switched to winter time, so the difference is back to seven hours).
Pictured is the STS-120 crew and the 16th crew of the space station saying goodbye to each other. Photo: NASA TV
The Discovery and Space Station crew members held a farewell party before closing the hatches, and now NASA's attention is drawn to the shuttle's expected departure from the station around 05:30 am (12:30 Israel time) today, Monday.
STS-120 arrived at the station on October 25 with NODE 2 on its cargo deck, renamed Harmony. The crew installed Harmony on October 26 and performed four spacewalks during their stay on the station. On the third spacewalk, they redeployed the solar collector on the P6 component after it was moved to its new location at the end of the station instead of on top of it. The schedule and tasks of the fourth spacewalk were changed to allow the crew members to repair the solar collector, some of its components were wrinkled and disintegrated, in a rather complex operation. Following the successful repair work, the team members were able to deploy the entire solar collector.
Discovery also brought on a new station crew member, Daniel Tanney to serve as flight engineer. He replaced Clayton Anderson who arrived on the station in June on mission STS-117.
Before the shuttle begins its journey home, pilot George Zamke will make a flyover to allow crew members to videotape the station's new configuration.
Discovery is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida shortly after 20:00 p.m. EST (XNUMX p.m. Israel time) on Wednesday.
