The crew of NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour is preparing for a return to Earth on 27 March without the 15m (49.1ft) long, 222kg (488lb) orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS), which will be left on the International Space Station.
With no OBSS, Endeavour's crew will be unable to carry out the post-ISS docking inspection of the orbiter's heat shield carried out by all missions since the Shuttle Columbia disaster.
The US space agency has never left a part of the Space Shuttle on the station before and this first is to accommodate the orbiter Discovery's 25 May STS-124 mission, which will delivers the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Japanese experiment module pressurised module (JEM-PM) and its remote manipulator system for JAXA's three-part Kibo laboratory.
That JEM-PM is so large the OBSS cannot be launched with the orbiter and the JAXA module. Preparations for the boom remaining on station began with mission STS-118 when brackets were fitted to the station's S1 truss to allow the OBSS to be left there.
During Endeavour's 17-day mission five extra-vehicular activities will see Kibo's first part, the Japanese experiment logistics module's pressurised section (ELM-PS) attached to the Harmony module the fitting of Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency-provided special purpose dextrous manipulator, to the ISS mobile servicing system, and stowage of the OBSS. The third part of Kibo is its exposed facility.
European astronaut Leopold Eyharts is returning with Endeavour. He arrived aboard Shuttle Atlantis on STS-122 in February for the installation of the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory.
Source: Flight International
