Commander Mark Kelly crawled inside space shuttle Discovery and climbed up to his seat on the left side of the cockpit as the STS-124 crew began taking their places for launch. It will take a little while for the six men and one woman to get into place before the hatch is closed and locked for liftoff. Because Discovery is standing with its nose straight up, the astronauts and the technicians helping them have to be extra careful about where they step, though there are protective covers in place around critical systems.

Launch is scheduled for 5:02 p.m. EDT and there are no reported technical issues or weather concerns at the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Image above: From the left are astronauts Gregory E. Chamitoff, Michael E. Fossum, both STS-124 mission specialists; Kenneth T. Ham, pilot; Mark E. Kelly, commander; Karen L. Nyberg, Ronald J. Garan and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Akihiko Hoshide, all mission specialists. Credit: NASA

Meet the Crew

Navy Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly will command the STS-124 shuttle mission to deliver the Pressurized Module and robotic arm of the Japanese Experiment Module, known as “Kibo” (hope), to the International Space Station. Navy Cmdr. Kenneth T. Ham will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists will include NASA astronauts Karen L. Nyberg; Air Force Col. Ronald J. Garan Jr.; and Air Force Reserve Col. Michael E. Fossum. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide also will serve as a mission specialist.

Navy Cmdr. Stephen G. Bowen was previously named to the STS-124 crew but has been reassigned to STS-126. The change allows room for the STS-124 mission to rotate a space station resident.

Astronaut Gregory E. Chamitoff is scheduled to fly to the station as a mission specialist on STS-124. He will take Astronaut Garrett E. Reisman’s place as an Expedition 17 flight engineer and return to Earth on shuttle mission STS-126.

The STS-124 mission is the second of three flights that will launch components to complete the Kibo laboratory. The mission will include two spacewalks to install the new lab and its remote manipulator system. The lab’s logistics module, which will have been installed in a temporary location during STS-123, will be attached to the new lab.

STS-124 is the 26th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Mission Highlights

SPACEWALKS Each will last approximately 6.5 hours.
• On flight day 4, Garan and Fossum will transfer the Orbiter Boom Sensor System back to the shuttle
from its temporary location of the station’s truss, or backbone. The crew will then prepare the JPM for
its removal from the shuttle’s payload bay. Later that day, the JPM will be installed on the port side of
Harmony. The spacewalkers also will do some work on the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, which
has had limited ability for several months. Garan will install a replacement trundle bearing assembly,
while Fossum inspects a potentially damaged area on the joint. Fossum also will test techniques to
clean the surface of the joint’s race ring.
• On flight day 6, Garan and Fossum will install covers and external television equipment on the JPM
and remove covers on the RMS, which will be deployed on flight day 8. The spacewalkers also will
prepare for the flight day 7 relocation of the JLM.
• On flight day 9, Garan and Fossum will primarily work to replace a failed nitrogen tank assembly on
the station’s truss with a spare that was temporarily stored on one of the station external stowage platforms.
They also will retrieve a failed camera system on the truss.

FACTS & FIGURES
• STS-124 is the 123rd space shuttle flight, the 26th flight to the station, the 35th flight for Discovery and
the third flight in 2008.
• The Kibo laboratory—which means “hope” in Japanese—is the country’s major contribution to the station
and will enhance the research capabilities of the space station.
• The JPM will be the largest habitable module on the space station and is equipped with its own airlock
and robotic arm for external experiments.
• The final components of Kibo will be assembled in space on shuttle mission STS-127.
• The RMS main arm can handle up to 14,000 pounds of hardware. The small fine arm, when attached
to the main arm, handles more delicate operations. Each arm has six joints that mimic the movements
of a human arm.
• The JPM is 36.7 feet long and 14.4 feet in diameter, about the size of a large tour bus.
• The main arm measures 32.5 feet long, and the small fine arm measures 6.2 feet.
• Kibo experiments and systems are operated from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s
control center called the Space Station Integration and Promotion Center, just north of Tokyo.
• Experiments in Kibo focus on space medicine, biology, Earth observations, material production, biotechnology
and communications research.
• To help prevent the glove cuts seen in recent missions from recurring, both spacewalkers will wear
gloves with special patches on the thumb and index finger for the first time. The patches are made of
the same protective vectran material already used in the palm of the gloves, but in a much tighter
weave. In this form, the fabric is called TurtleSkin. It is up to four times more resistant to damage.