![]() Discovery approaches the ISS with Leonardo in its payload bay | |
Names | Space Transportation System-128 |
---|---|
Mission type | ISS assembly |
Operator | NASA |
COSPAR ID | 2009-045A |
SATCAT no. | 35811 |
Mission duration | 13 days, 20 hours, 54 minutes, 55 seconds |
Distance travelled | 9,262,217 kilometres (5,755,275 mi) |
Orbits completed | 219 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Discovery |
Launch mass | 121,422 kilograms (267,689 lb)[1] |
Crew | |
Crew size | 7 |
Members | |
Launching | |
Landing | |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | August 29, 2009, 03:59[2] | UTC
Launch site | Kennedy, LC-39A |
End of mission | |
Landing date | September 12, 2009, 00:53citation needed] | UTC[
Landing site | Edwards, Runway 22 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Perigee altitude | 219 kilometres (136 mi)[3] |
Apogee altitude | 264 kilometres (164 mi)[3] |
Inclination | 51.6 degrees[3] |
Period | 89.33 minutes[3] |
Epoch | August 29, 2009[3] |
Docking with ISS | |
Docking port | PMA-2 (Harmony forward) |
Docking date | August 31, 2009 00:54 UTC |
Undocking date | September 8, 2009 19:26 UTC |
Time docked | 8 days, 18 hours, 32 minutes |
![]() ![]() Seated (l–r) Ford and Sturckow. Standing (l–r) are Hernández, Olivas, Stott, Fuglesang and Forrester. |
STS-128 (ISS assembly flight 17A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that launched on August 28, 2009. Space Shuttle Discovery carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo as its primary payload. Leonardo contained a collection of experiments for studying the physics and chemistry of microgravity. Three spacewalks were carried out during the mission, which removed and replaced a materials processing experiment outside ESA's Columbus module, and returned an empty ammonia tank assembly.[4]
The mission's first launch attempt was delayed due to weather concerns, including multiple weather violations in NASA's launch rules, beginning over two hours before the scheduled launch.[5][6][7] The second launch attempt, scheduled for August 26, 2009, at 01:10:22 EDT, was called off the previous evening due to an anomaly in one of the orbiter's fuel valves.[8][9][10] The launch finally took place on August 28, 2009, at 23:59 EDT. Discovery landed on September 11, 2009, at Edwards Air Force Base, which was the last landing of a shuttle to occur at the California site.
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