Shuttle and station dodge debris
Posted: Mon, Mar 23, 2009, 10:08 AM ET (1408 GMT)
As the crews of the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station worked on a urine recycling device, the docked vehicles maneuvered to avoid a small piece of space debris. Discovery fired its thrusters Sunday to move the shuttle and the station out of the path of a piece of Chinese orbital debris approximately 10 centimeters long. The maneuver ensures that the debris would not pose a risk to astronauts during an EVA on Monday. The crew, meanwhile, worked on a urine recycling unit added to the station last year but in need of a new distillation assembly brought to the station by the shuttle. Early tests of the unit encountered unexpectedly low flow rates of fluid through the system, but replacing a filter appeared to at least partially solve the problem. Monday's spacewalk, by Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold, is the third and final one of the STS-119 mission; the two will attempt to finish some tasks left uncompleted during Saturday's EVA as well as perform other station maintenance.
As the crews of the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station worked on a urine recycling device, the docked vehicles maneuvered to avoid a small piece of space debris. Discovery fired its thrusters Sunday to move the shuttle and the station out of the path of a piece of Chinese orbital debris approximately 10 centimeters long. The maneuver ensures that the debris would not pose a risk to astronauts during an EVA on Monday. The crew, meanwhile, worked on a urine recycling unit added to the station last year but in need of a new distillation assembly brought to the station by the shuttle. Early tests of the unit encountered unexpectedly low flow rates of fluid through the system, but replacing a filter appeared to at least partially solve the problem. Monday's spacewalk, by Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold, is the third and final one of the STS-119 mission; the two will attempt to finish some tasks left uncompleted during Saturday's EVA as well as perform other station maintenance.
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