Big events for NASA as the 50th anniversary also means end of an era
This week the National Aeronautical Space Administration, better known as NASA, is really busy what with celebrating the 50th anniversary of the space program and the final flight for shuttle Endeavour. Only one more space flight using a shuttle (Atlantis) is planned for July of this year then that part of the space program will be shut down permanently.
The current mission involves several space walks, a video phone call from Pope Benedict XVI, and the usual repairs done on the international space station. The space walking tasks primarily were aimed at lubricating what has been called power system “critical joint”. After dropping a washer which got stuck in a crevice, then losing a bolt, the lube job was going to be called off before completion. A leaky radiator was already repaired and astronauts Mike Fincke and Andrew Feustel were disappointed they could not complete their tasks. The plan was to do an especially good job because it may be a while before astronauts will be back to do repairs on the space station.
Pope Benedict is the first Pope to make such a special “call to the heavens” and he spoke in Italian to the two Italian’s on board the space station. He also spoke to Commander Mark Kelly regarding how awful the shooting of his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, state Representative from Tucson, Arizona was and that he prayed for her safe recovery (which is a miracle in itself).
Mike Fincke is going to hold the record for most days in space (previous record was 377 days) after this mission and he will be known as the most traveled American is space. Monday, May 23rd will see three residents of the International space station head for their homes in Russia on their Russian Soyuz capsule. They have been on the space station for five months, and leave behind three others who haven’t been there nearly so long. The shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to return to earth on the first day of June.
