14 DAY TRIAL // Under the new guidelines set forth by the White House and President Barack Obama, the American space agency only has four shuttle flights remaining before it needs to decommission its shuttle fleet. There were a total of five missions planned for this year, but Endeavor has already completed the STS-130 flight successfully, and now it's Discovery's turn. The shuttle will fly the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), in the final flight ever to feature rookie astronauts. All remaining shuttle missions – one by Atlantis, one by Endeavor, and another one by Discovery – will be flown by experienced crews, Space reports.
On Friday, all seven astronauts composing the STS-131 mission engaged in a dress rehearsal for their planned April 5 flight, which included everything except fueling the external shuttle tank with nearly half a million gallons of supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Other than that, the astronauts exited the Operations & Checkout Building, at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Industrial Area, then boarded their “Astro-Van” for the traditional 30-minute ride to the take-off site. The Launch Pad 39A structure is located some 3.4 miles away from the Vehicle Assembly Building, where shuttles are processed.
Before every single mission, NASA conducts a similar dress rehearsal, with the goal of assessing whether all systems are go for launch, and to make astronauts feel confident in the entire process. This particular crew is led by Alan Poindexter, the NASA astronaut that will be acting as Commander for the STS-131 flight. The mission is the third ever to carry three female astronauts, mission specialists Dorothy M. Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, and Naoko Yamazaki, of the Japanese space agency JAXA. The rest of the crew is made up of mission specialists Clayton Anderson and Richard Mastracchio, alongside Discovery's pilot, James Dutton.
Discovery is scheduled to begin its penultimate flight at 6:21 am EDT (1021 GMT) April 5. Once docked to the ISS, it will deliver new supplies and equipment, including the last Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), Leonardo. Three extra-vehicular activities (EVA) will be performed during this mission, in which astronauts will use the Station's robotic arm (SSRMS) to maneuver a new ammonia tank assembly (ATA) into its position on the ISS. At the same time, they will collect the old tank, and place it into their shuttle's cargo bay, for a safe trip back home.