8 August 2007 22:36 GMT. Landing Date: 2007-08-21 16:32:00. Flight Time: 12.75 days. Flight Up: STS-118. Flight Back: STS-118. Call Sign: Endeavour. Crew: Kelly Scott, Hobaugh, Caldwell, Mastracchio, Williams Dave, Morgan, Drew. Program: ISS. The mission delivered consumables, and completed necessary supplementary assembly, repair, and external equipment moves necessary for the next major stage of ISS assembly. Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched on Aug 8 at 2236 UTC. The STS-118 stack comprised Orbiter OV-105, solid rockets RSRM-97 and external tank ET-117. The solid boosters separated 2 min after launch. At 2245 UTC the orbiter main engines cut off and ET-117 separated into an approximately 57 x 225 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The OMS-2 burn at 2313 UTC put Endeavour in a higher 229 x 317 km orbit as the ET fell back to reentry around 2346 UTC. Crew of STS-118 are Scott Kelly, Charles Hobaugh, Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dafydd Williams, Barbara Morgan, and Al Drew.
During ascent a large chunk of external tank foam was observed to hit the underside of the orbiter. Examination in orbit using the robotic arm showed a hole in a heat shield tile that went down to the felt mounting pad. There was considerable press discussion of the danger, but as the mission drew to a close NASA decided that no lasting damage would be incurred during reentry to the orbiter structure, and called off a potential extra spacewalk to repair the tile.
Endeavour docked at the PMA-2 adapter on the Station at 18:02 GMT on 10 August; the hatches were opened at 20:04.
The 14036 kg of cargo broke down as follows:
- Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System, 1800 kg
- Bay 1-2: EMU 3010, 130 kg
- Bay 1-2: EMU 3017, 130 kg
- Bay 3: Tunnel Adapter, 112 kg
- Bay 5-7: Spacehab-SM Single Module, 5480 kg: Loaded with research experimental equipment and consumables to be left at the station.
- Bay 8P: SPDU: Station Power Distribution Unit, will be left at the ISS and allow the Orbiter to draw electricity from the station while docked, allowing longer missions
- Bay 8-10: S5 Truss, 1584 kg: a short spacer truss installed at the end of the ISS S4 truss during the mission, to eliminate interference with the S6 solar panels when they would be added later
- Bay 11-12: ESP-3, 3400 kg: External Stowage Platform 3, left at the ISS, provided external storage for spare parts, and was delivered with a spare nitrogen tank for the truss cooling system, a spare truss battery charge/discharge unit (BCDU), a spare Canadarm-2 robot arm pitch roll joint, and a replacement Control Moment Gyro for the Z1 truss
- Bay 11-12: CMG-3R ORU, 540 kg
- Sill: OBSS, 450 kg
- Sill: RMS 201, 410 kg
The shuttle's RMS 201 robotic arm moved the S5 truss from the payload bay at 20:50 on 10 August. It was handed over to the station's Canadarm-2 robotic arm, which then attached it to the S4 truss at 17:30 on 11 August, with astronauts assisting on the first of four spacewalks of the mission. On 14 August, ESP-3 was unberthed from Endeavour's payload bay and attached to the P3 truss on the Station, where its spare parts can be reached if needed.
Following successful completion of all cargo delivery and station assembly tasks, the crew returned to Endeavour on 18 August, undocking the next day at 11:56 GMT. Landing was moved up a day ahead of schedule because of concern a hurricane might force evacuation of the Houston Control Center on the originally-planned return date. Endeavour began its deorbit burn at 15:25 GMT on August 21 and lowered its orbit from 336 x 347 km to -28 x 342 km. It landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 16:32 GMT. Landing mass was 100,878 kg.
STS-118 Chronology - 2007 Aug 8 - STS-118 Crew: Kelly Scott, Hobaugh, Caldwell, Mastracchio, Williams Dave, Morgan, Drew. Spacecraft: Endeavour. Payload: Endeavour F20 / S5, Spacehab. Mass: 14,036 kg (30,944 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Duration: 12.75 days. Perigee: 337 km (209 mi). Apogee: 348 km (216 mi). Inclination: 51.60 deg. Period: 91.40 min.
Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched on Aug 8 at 2236 UTC. The STS-118 stack comprised Orbiter OV-105, solid rockets RSRM-97 and external tank ET-117. The solid boosters separated 2 min after launch. At 2245 UTC the orbiter main engines cut off and ET-117 separated into an approximately 57 x 225 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The OMS-2 burn at 2313 UTC put Endeavour in a higher 229 x 317 km orbit as the ET fell back to reentry around 2346 UTC. During ascent a large chunk of external tank foam was observed to hit the underside of the orbiter. Examination in orbit using the robotic arm showed a hole in a heat shield tile that went down to the felt mounting pad. There was considerable press discussion of the danger, but as the mission drew to a close NASA decided that no lasting damage would be incurred during reentry to the orbiter structure, and called off a potential extra spacewalk to repair the tile.
Endeavour docked at the PMA-2 adapter on the Station at 18:02 GMT on 10 August; the hatches were opened at 20:04.
The 14036 kg of cargo broke down as follows:
- Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System, 1800 kg
- Bay 1-2: EMU 3010, 130 kg
- Bay 1-2: EMU 3017, 130 kg
- Bay 3: Tunnel Adapter, 112 kg
- Bay 5-7: Spacehab-SM Single Module, 5480 kg: Loaded with research experimental equipment and consumables to be left at the station.
- Bay 8P: SPDU: Station Power Distribution Unit, will be left at the ISS and allow the Orbiter to draw electricity from the station while docked, allowing longer missions
- Bay 8-10: S5 Truss, 1584 kg: a short spacer truss installed at the end of the ISS S4 truss during the mission, to eliminate interference with the S6 solar panels when they would be added later
- Bay 11-12: ESP-3, 3400 kg: External Stowage Platform 3, left at the ISS, provided external storage for spare parts, and was delivered with a spare nitrogen tank for the truss cooling system, a spare truss battery charge/discharge unit (BCDU), a spare Canadarm-2 robot arm pitch roll joint, and a replacement Control Moment Gyro for the Z1 truss
- Bay 11-12: CMG-3R ORU, 540 kg
- Sill: OBSS, 450 kg
- Sill: RMS 201, 410 kg
The shuttle's RMS 201 robotic arm moved the S5 truss from the payload bay at 20:50 on 10 August. It was handed over to the station's Canadarm-2 robotic arm, which then attached it to the S4 truss at 17:30 on 11 August, with astronauts assisting on the first of four spacewalks of the mission. On 14 August, ESP-3 was unberthed from Endeavour's payload bay and attached to the P3 truss on the Station, where its spare parts can be reached if needed.
Following successful completion of all cargo delivery and station assembly tasks, the crew returned to Endeavour on 18 August, undocking the next day at 11:56 GMT. Landing was moved up a day ahead of schedule because of concern a hurricane might force evacuation of the Houston Control Center on the originally-planned return date. Endeavour began its deorbit burn at 15:25 GMT on August 21 and lowered its orbit from 336 x 347 km to -28 x 342 km. It landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 16:32 GMT. Landing mass was 100,878 kg.
- 2007 Aug 15 - EVA STS-118-3 Crew: Mastracchio, Anderson Clayton. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.23 days.
The crew exited into free space at 14:36 GMT. The SASA antenna was relocated from the P6 to the P1 truss, and two CETA carts were moved from S1 to P1. As a precautionary measure Mastracchio retreated to the airlock when he found minor damage to his glove, but Anderson continued working outside for another hour.
- 2007 Aug 18 - EVA STS-118-4 Crew: Williams Dave, Anderson Clayton. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.21 days.
The astronauts began work outside at 13:16 GMT. They removed two external exposure experiments for return to earth, installed a communications antenna on the Destiny module, and mounting brackets for the Orbiter Boom Sensor Syste) on the S1 truss.
- 2007 Aug 21 - Landing of STS-118
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