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STS-121: The mission
Tony Ceccacci, the lead shuttle flight director for STS-121, provides a highly informative day-by-day preview of Discovery's mission using animation and other presentations. Then Rick LaBrode, the lead International Space Station flight director during STS-121, explains all of the activities occurring onboard and outside the outpost while Discovery visits.

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Detailing the EVAs
Discovery's STS-121 mission to the International Space Station will feature two scheduled spacewalks and perhaps a third if consumables permit. Spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will test whether the 50-foot inspection boom carried on the shuttle could be used as a work platform for repairing the heatshield and conduct maintenance chores outside the space station. Tomas Gonzalez-Torres, the mission's lead spacewalk officer, details all the three EVAs in this pre-flight news briefing.

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Discovery's crew
The five men and two women who will launch aboard space shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission to the International Space Station met the news media June 8 at the Johnson Space Center for the traditional pre-flight briefing. The crew is led by commander Steve Lindsey, with pilot Mark Kelly, mission specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers, and station Expedition flight engineer Thomas Reiter.

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STS-121 program perspective
A comprehensive series of press briefings for space shuttle Discovery's upcoming STS-121 begins with a program overview conference by Wayne Hale, NASA's manager of the shuttle program, and Kirk Shireman, the deputy program manager of the International Space Station. The two men discuss the significance of Discovery's mission to their respective programs. The briefing was held June 8 at the Johnson Space Center.

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Exploration work
NASA officials unveil the plan to distribute work in the Constellation Program for robotic and human moon and Mars exploration. This address to agency employees on June 5 was given by Administrator Mike Griffin, Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Scott Horowitz and Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley.

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Exploration news briefing
Following their announcement on the Exploration work assignments to the various NASA centers, Mike Griffin, Scott Horowitz and Jeff Hanley hold this news conference to answer reporter questions.

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Delta 4 launches GOES
The Boeing Delta 4 rocket launches from pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the GOES-N spacecraft, beginning a new era in weather observing for the Americas.

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Testing technologies at the heart of next Delta launch
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: June 15, 2006
Updated with revised launch window

Editor's note: Launch was delayed after this story was published. The new launch date is Wednesday, June 21.

An experimental U.S. military project to test whether the advanced technologies embedded in two miniature satellites and a new upper stage kick motor can operate through the rigors of spaceflight will launch into orbit Tuesday evening from Cape Canaveral aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket.

 
MiTEx mission logo. Credit: DARPA
 
The Micro-Satellite Technology Experiment, or MiTEx for short, is slated for liftoff at 5:34 p.m. EDT (2134 GMT). A four-hour launch window is available through 9:34 p.m. EDT (0134 GMT).

"MiTEx will investigate and demonstrate advanced space technologies such as lightweight power and propulsion systems, avionics and spacecraft structures; commercial-off-the-shelf processors; affordable, responsive fabrication/build-to-launch techniques; and single-string components," DARPA officials explained in mission information provided to Spaceflight Now.

The 12-story rocket will roar away from pad A of Complex 17 with its main engine and six strap-on boosters firing to create 789,000 pounds of thrust. A minute later, the three remaining solid-fuel boosters will light as the six ground-lit motors burn out and fall away.

Heading eastward across the Atlantic, the blue and white Delta will leave a smokey contrail from the solid boosters until the final three are extinguished just over two minutes into flight and separate more than 30 miles above the ocean.

That will leave the RS-27A first stage engine, consuming refined kerosene and supercold liquid oxygen, to push the rocket onward for another two minutes to an altitude of 70 miles before shutting down. The spent stage then jettisons, allowing the hypergolic-fueled second stage to ignite.

Moments later, the two-piece nose cone that shrouded the payload during ascent through the atmosphere is commanded to spring open and separate.

Delta 7925
This illustration shows the Delta 2 rocket and MiTEx payload. Credit: Boeing/DARPA
 
The second stage engine will deliver the rocket into an initial orbit with a high point of 154 statute miles and low point of 103 miles when it shuts down at T+plus 10 minutes, 22 seconds after liftoff.

The vehicle will coast in that orbit for 12 minutes before the engine is re-started for a 73-second burn to reach an intermediate orbit with a high point of 1,380 statute miles and low point of 105 miles. Tiny thrusters on the side of the rocket then spin up the third stage in preparation for separation. The two stages split at T+plus 23 minutes, 31 seconds, followed 37 seconds later by ignition of the solid-fuel third stage for its 86-second burn.

The third stage targets a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit with a high point of 22,490 statute miles, low point of 115 miles and inclination of 25.24 degrees to the equator.

 
These artist's concepts depict the Orbital- and Lockheed-built MiTEx satellites and the Navy upper stage. Credit: DARPA
 
At T+plus 30 minutes and 24 seconds while cruising 375 miles above south-central Africa, the third stage releases from the MiTEx upper stage with its still-attached satellites. That will complete the Delta 2 rocket's role in the MiTEx mission.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is spearheading the MiTEx effort to evaluate the usefulness of small satellite technologies and the prototype upper stage to support future military programs.

But before the two satellites can begin their year-long missions, the stage has to place the craft into the intended orbit.

Developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the experimental motor will put several new technologies to the test including:

  • Platinum/rhodium bi-propellant attitude control thrusters
  • High-performance coated columbium delta-V thruster
  • Commercial off-the-shelf manual valve tested to aerospace standards
  • Light-weight Inconel-718 composite overwrap pressure vessels
  • Lightweight titanium propellant tanks with internal propellant management devices
  • Triple junction solar cells
  • Lithium-ion batteries
  • A low-cost/high-performance star tracker

The stage will ferry the two MiTEx satellites from the egg-shaped geosynchronous transfer orbit reached by the Delta 2 rocket to the circular geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above the equator. That high orbit allows spacecraft to match the planet's rotation and appear fixed over one location.

Once arriving in geostationary orbit, the satellite pair will be deployed from the stage to begin independent lives examining the value of operating miniature craft from such a high vantage point above Earth. The demonstration will give military planners real-life experience to draw upon when designing new projects.

The MiTEx spacecraft weigh about 500 pounds each. Orbital Sciences built one satellite and Lockheed Martin the other.

"The satellites will conduct a variety of experiments in autonomous operations and maneuvering and station-keeping. MiTEx will also demonstrate the ability to launch multiple small satellites into GEO orbit," according to DARPA officials.

Geostationary orbit is the home to government and commercial communications satellites, plus spy spacecraft for eavesdropping reconnaissance missions and missile-launch detection.

The price tag for MiTEx has not been released. And the exact parking spots in geostationary orbit for the two spacecraft aren't being revealed.



MISSION STATUS CENTER