[meteorite-list] Man-made Bolides

[Pete Pete]

Keep your head up!


>>The agency expects the stanchion to burn up completely, but think pieces 
>>of the ammonia tank may reach the Earth's surface.

"We don't know where it's going to land yet...<<

Cheers,
Pete


http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070718_exp15_toss_preview.html
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070718_exp15_toss_preview.html

  'Refrigerator-Sized' Object to be Tossed From Space Station
By Dave Mosher
Staff Writer
posted: 18 July 2007
05:29 pm ET


The three-man crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will do a 
little housekeeping during a spacewalk next week to make way for future 
expansion of the laboratory.

On July 23, Expedition 15 crewmember Clayton Anderson will journey outside 
of the space station to throw two large hunks of unneeded equipment towards 
Earth, officials said during a press conference today at NASA's Johnson 
Space Center in Houston, Texas.

"This is the first time we've ever done a jettison quite like this on the 
space station," said Bob Dempsey, NASA's lead flight director for Expedition 
15, adding that smaller jettisons have been performed on past ISS and Hubble 
Space Telescope missions.

During the upcoming spacewalk, Anderson will jettison a 1,400-pound 
(635-kilograms) refrigerator-sized container of ammonia, or Early Ammonia 
Servicer (EAS), away from the station at a gentle pace of one mile per hour 
(1.6 kph). He'll also toss a 212-pound (96-kilogram) stanchion used to 
attach a camera to the space laboratory toward the Earth.

Dempsey explained that discarding the equipment during an extravehicular 
activity (EVA), rather than shipping it back to Earth via a NASA shuttle, 
was the best choice because of time and space constraints.

"It's not a decision that's made lightly. Besides the fact that it might 
have some use in the future, it provides space debris that could later 
impact the space station," Dempsey said. He noted that moving the equipment 
around will be necessary to make room for additions and repairs to the ISS 
during future shuttle missions.

Once tossed from the space station, both objects will be tracked by NASA for 
almost a year until they begin entering the atmosphere. The agency expects 
the stanchion to burn up completely, but think pieces of the ammonia tank 
may reach the Earth's surface.

"We don't know where it's going to land yet," Dempsey said, but added that 
it will likely be over the ocean and shouldn't damage satellites or other 
spacecraft in orbit.

In addition to tossing the unneeded equipment overboard, cosmonaut Fyodor 
Yurchikhin, Expedition 15's commander, will join Anderson on the spacewalk 
with cleaning and repair duties. Flight engineer Oleg Kotov will control the 
robotic arm to shuttle the astronauts around outside of the station.

When the EVA is complete, the space station will be boosted to a higher 
orbit to prepare for docking with Endeavour early next month, as well as to 
avoid dangerous encounters with the ejected objects.

"We know the crew's ready," said Daryl Schuck, NASA's lead EVA officer for 
Expedition 15, adding that Anderson and Yurchikhin were trained on Earth for 
the jettisoning procedure. "We've got confidence in our approach to this and 
confidence in our crew."

_________________________________________________________________
Tell us your tech love story in the Summer Lovin Competition for your chance 
to win laptop loaded with Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Windows Live 
OneCare. 
http://www.microsoft.com/canada/home/contests/summerlovin/default.aspx