Discovery arrives at ISS

Sun Feb 27, 2011

The space shuttle Discovery, which is on its final voyage, has docked at the International Space Station (ISS) and will spend at least a week at the orbiting outpost.

Discovery is carrying a closet-style chamber full of supplies as well as the first humanoid robot to fly in space, reported USA Today.

The compartment will be attached permanently to the space station early next week.

Altogether, there are 12 people aboard the joined spacecraft, representing the United States, Russia and Italy.

In a historic first, four of the five major partners have vessels docked there right now, including cargo ships from Japan and Europe.

The entire conglomeration has a mass of 1.2 million pounds (540,000 kilograms), including the shuttle.

The station is so sprawling and packed with vehicles that it took longer than usual for Discovery to be tightly cinched down.

Discovery is the first in a fleet of three to be retired this year. Endeavor and then Atlantis will close out the 30-year shuttle program by midsummer.

Discovery is the oldest of the three and the most traveled, with 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) logged over 39 flights and 26 years.

The robot launched aboard Discovery - Robonaut 2 or R2 for short - will remain at the space station, all boxed up for at least another few months.

The robot is an experimental machine from the waist up that will be tested before attempting simple jobs inside the orbiting complex.

The idea is for R2 to eventually serve as an astronaut assistant.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167354.html.