STS-127 Mission to Expand Station Science

Recently relieved from STS-400 operations, Space Shuttle Endeavour is set to launch June 13 on a 16-day construction mission to expand the International Space Station’s science facilities.

Scheduled for liftoff at 7:17 a.m. EDT, the seven crewmembers of STS-127 will deliver the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (EF) and the Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section (ELM-ES). Installation of these components will conclude assembly of the Japanese complex facility on the ISS.

The EF is a multipurpose experiment platform to be installed outside the Japanese Experiment module where science experiments to be continuously exposed to the external space environment. The platform measures more than 10 feet long and 18 feet wide and can hold up to 10 experiment payloads. Astronauts can exchange experiment payloads or hardware through the scientific airlock using the Kibo Remote Manipulator System. Designed to operate for at least 10 years, the EF will host an array of experiments focusing on Earth observation, communications, and engineering and materials science.

The ELM-ES is a pallet measuring more than 13 feet long and 16 feet wide that serves as on-orbit storage area for experiment materials, maintenance tools and supplies. On STS-127, the ELM-ES will carry three EF payloads to the ISS and will return to the ground onboard the same flight.

Endeavour’s payload also will carry spare ISS parts including new batteries for the Station’s oldest solar array and a Space to Ground Antennae. The parts will be transferred to External Stowage Platform-3 during the mission’s five scheduled spacewalks.

The main mission construction and maintenance tasks also will take place over the spacewalks with mission specialists David Wolf, Thomas Marshburn, Christopher Cassidy and Expedition 20 flight engineer Tim Kopra teaming into pairs to complete installation and outfitting of the final Kibo components. Mark L. Polansky will serve as STS-127 commander, Douglas G. Hurley will serve as pilot, and Julie Payette, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, also will serve as a mission specialist.

Along with Station construction, STS-127 signals a crewmember rotation aboard the orbiting outpost. Kopra will replace Koichi Wakata who has been aboard the Station since March 2009 and will return to Earth with the STS-127 crew. Kopra is scheduled for an almost three-month stay in orbit.

Another milestone on STS-127 will be when all three of the robotic arms are put to work, sometimes all on the same day. The Shuttle’s Canadarm and the Station’s Canadarm2 will be used for surveys, unloading cargo and moving equipment and spacewalkers, and the new Japanese robotic arm, delivered to the Station aboard STS-126 in November, will be making its debut to transfer science experiments.

This will be Endeavour’s 24th flight and the 29th Shuttle mission to the ISS. Currently, STS-127 is scheduled to land at 12:18 a.m. EDT on June 29.

NASA Human Spaceflight Website

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