Monday's arrival of the shuttle Discovery at the International Space Station (ISS) has hopefully brought some relief for the crew of the ISS in the form of equipment to repair their broken toilet. Of course, the prime purpose of the mission is to deliver the main component of the Japanese experimental module, Kibo, destined to become the largest module of the ISS and be completed next spring. Discovery launched last Saturday evening and was glimpsed from Britain 20 minutes later. Below it, and shining orange in our bright twilight, was the (by then) detached external fuel tank as it began its slow arc back towards disintegration in the atmosphere. Current plans call for the shuttle to undock from the ISS next Wednesday and return to Earth three days later. Also feeling relieved are the controllers of Nasa's Phoenix craft, and not just because it survived its perilous landing in the Martian arctic on May 26. Soil blown away by the lander's thrusters has exposed what seem to be smooth patches of ice - just what researchers hoped to find. Phoenix has three months to investigate before the Martian winter descends and it, too, becomes frozen in ice. GLAST, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, may finally be launched on Saturday afternoon, UK time. Finally, New Horizons crosses Saturn's orbit next Sunday on its way to a flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015. ...
Anytime
