NASA has begun the countdown for the launch of the US space shuttle Columbia on a 16-day research mission that will feature the first spacewalk by a Japanese.
The Columbia's six astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center yesterday, shortly after the countdown began for the planned blastoff just before midnight Dubai time on Wednesday.
US Air Force meteorologists are predicting fair weather for the shuttle's 21/2 hour launch window and ground controllers are facing no technical problems, says NASA spokesman Joel Wells.
The Columbia's multi-national crew includes Takao Doi of the Japanese space agency, NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla, a native of India, and Ukranian astronaut Leonid Kadenyuk.
The crew is led by mission commander Kevin Kregel, who is assisted by co-pilot Steven Lindsey and flight engineer Winston Scott.
The shuttle is carrying a suite of microgravity experiments, an instrument to monitor the distribution of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere, and a satellite that will study the Sun.
Doi will become the first Japanese astronaut to make a spacewalk when he ventures outside the shuttle on a six-hour jaunt with crewmate Scott.
During the spacewalk the two men will release a free-flying robot and test techniques for the construction of the planned International Space Station.
NASA hopes the basketball-sized robot, known as Sprint, can be used to inspect the exterior of the space station.
"It's really going to be a super mission," shuttle skipper Kregel says.
Source: Flight Daily News
