STS-127
STS-127 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. It was the twenty-third flight of. The primary purpose of the STS-127 mission was to deliver and install the final two components of the Japanese Experiment Module: the Exposed Facility, and the Exposed Section of the Experiment Logistics Module. When Endeavour docked with the ISS on this mission in July 2009, it set a record for the most humans in space at the same time in the same vehicle, the first time thirteen people have been at the station at the same time. Together they represented all ISS program partners and tied the general record of thirteen people in space with the first such occurrence of 1995.
The first launch attempt, on June 13, 2009, was scrubbed due to a gaseous hydrogen leak observed during tanking. The Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate on the external fuel tank experienced a potentially hazardous hydrogen gas leak similar to the fault that delayed the mission STS-119 in March 2009. Since a launch date of June 18, 2009, would have conflicted with the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter /Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, NASA managers discussed the scheduling conflict with both the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project and the Air Force Eastern Range, which provides tracking support for rockets launched from Florida. A decision was made to allow the shuttle to attempt a second launch on June 17, 2009, allowing LRO to launch on June 18, 2009.
The second launch attempt on June 17, 2009, was also scrubbed due to hydrogen leak issues seen from the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate. Due to conflicts with the launch of the LRO, and due to a beta angle constraint, the next available launch opportunity was scheduled for July 11, 2009. A successful tanking test for leak checks was performed on July 1, 2009, with modified GUCP seals allowing launch preparations to proceed as scheduled. Because of lightning strikes near the launch pad during the evening of July 10, 2009, NASA scrubbed the launch for the third time and rescheduled for July 12, 2009. Due to a Return To Launch Site weather violation, NASA scrubbed the launch for the fourth time on the evening of July 12, 2009.
STS-127's fifth launch attempt, on July 13, 2009, was also scrubbed due to anvil clouds and lightning within of the launch site, which violated launch safety rules. STS-127 finally launched successfully on its sixth launch attempt, on July 15, 2009, at 18:03 EDT. Pieces of foam were observed falling off of the External Tank during the ascent, the same occurrence that had led to the loss of Columbia in 2003. However, Endeavour received only minor scuffs to its heat shield, the damage not enough to cause concern over reentry. The shuttle landed at Kennedy Space Center 16 days later at 10:48 EDT on July 31, 2009.
Crew
Crew seat assignments
Mission payload
Endeavour carried a wide variety of equipment and cargo in the payload bay, with the largest item being the Kibō Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility, and the Kibō Japanese Experiment Logistics Module – Exposed Section. The exposed facility is a part of Kibō that will allow astronauts to perform science experiments that are exposed to the vacuum of space. The exposed section is similar to the logistics module on the Kibō laboratory, but is not pressurized. Once its payloads were transferred to the JEM EF, the ELM-ES was returned to the payload bay.Also inside the payload bay was an Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable, containing a variety of equipment and spare components for the station. The carrier contained six new batteries for installation on the P6 truss, that was installed during two of the mission's spacewalks, as well as a spare space-to-ground antenna and a spare linear drive unit and pump module which was stored on an external stowage platform on the station's truss during one of the spacewalks.
Two satellites were also carried by the orbiter, for deployment when the mission ended. The Dual Autonomous Global Positioning System On-Orbit Navigator Satellite, called DRAGONSAT, gathers data on autonomous spacecraft rendezvous and docking capabilities, and consists of two picosatellites, the AggieSat2, and PARADIGM, which acquire GPS data from a device at NASA and send it to ground stations at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. After release, the two picosatellites remained attached for two orbits to collect GPS data, and separated during the third orbit.
A second satellite, the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment, is part of a United States Department of Defense project flown by the Naval Research Laboratory to provide high-quality satellites, and will measure the density and composition of the low Earth orbit atmosphere while being tracked from the ground, to better predict the movement and decay of objects in orbit. ANDE-2 consists of two spherical microsatellites, ANDE Active spacecraft and the ANDE Passive spacecraft, and will be tracked by the International Laser Ranging Service network as well as the Space Surveillance Network. One of the satellites, Pollux, is running Arduino libraries, with its payload programmed and built by students.
A set of experiments to be deployed on the ISS were carried by STS-127, including Dosimetry for Biological Experiments in Space, Validation of Procedures for Monitoring Crew Member Immune Function, the student-made Image Reversal in Space, Nutritional Status Assessment, NASA Biological Specimen Repository and Tomatosphere-II.
The STS-127 Official Flight Kit included water samples from each of the five Great Lakes, a resin statue of a water droplet for the One Drop Foundation, and a copy of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, among other mementos.
The docking module was also mounted with the DragonEye 3D Flash LIDAR ranging system manufactured by Advanced Scientific Concepts, Inc. The module was launched to test the docking system which will be used by the commercial SpaceX Dragon re-usable cargo carrier to send supplies to the ISS during the post-shuttle era. The Dragon spacecraft made its successful maiden flight in December 2010.
| Location | Cargo | Mass |
| Bays 1–2 | Orbiter Docking System EMU 3003 / EMU 3018 SpaceX DragonEye LIDAR | ~ |
| Bay 3P | Shuttle Power Distribution Unit | ~ |
| Bay 3S | APC/SSPL Dragonsat | 6 k |
| Bays 4–7 | Kibō JEM Exposed Facility | |
| Bay 5P | APC/ECSH | ~ |
| Bay 5S | APC/PPSU | |
| Bay 6S | APC/PPSU | |
| Bays 8–9 | Kibō ELM Exposed Section | |
| Bay 11 | ICC-VLD | |
| Bay 13P | APC/ECSH | ~ |
| Bay 13S | SPA/CAPE/ANDE-2 ICU container ANDE Active satellite ANDE Passive satellite | |
| Starboard Sill | Orbiter Boom Sensor System | ~ |
| Port Sill | Canadarm | |
| Total: |
Mission milestones
The mission marked:- 158th NASA crewed space flight
- 128th Space Shuttle mission
- 127th shuttle mission since STS-1
- 23rd flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour
- 29th shuttle mission to the ISS
- 102nd post-Challenger mission
- 14th post-Columbia mission
- 1st time that two Canadians have been in space at the same moment
Shuttle processing
Endeavour moved from Launch Pad 39B to 39A on May 31, 2009, in preparation for STS-127. The crew of STS-127 arrived at Kennedy Space Center on June 2, 2009, for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test that concluded with a full launch dress rehearsal. The Flight Readiness Review, a meeting during which NASA managers assess mission preparations and officially set the launch date, concluded on June 3, 2009. For the first time, live status updates about the FRR were published periodically during the meeting via NASA's Twitter stream.
Launch attempts
The launch countdown began June 10, 2009, but on June 13, 2009, as tanking was underway, a gaseous hydrogen leak on a vent line near the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate was observed, and the June 13, 2009, launch was scrubbed at 00:26 EDT. As liquid hydrogen fuel is pumped in, some of it boils off as the extremely cold liquid enters the warm external tank. The vent line valve controls the resulting buildup of gas pressure by allowing excess gas to escape into a ground-side vent line, which leads to a flare stack at a safe distance away from the pad. A similar leak situation was seen during the first launch attempt of STS-119. NASA managers met on June 14, 2009, and June 15, 2009, and evaluated the leak, discussed steps that had to be taken, and set a new launch date of June 17, 2009, at 05:40 EDT.A second launch attempt was made on June 17, 2009, for which NASA moved the planned launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to a new date. On June 17, 2009, loading of the shuttle's external tank with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen was delayed three hours due to poor weather around the launch site, but tanking began once the weather cleared. Approximately two hours after tanking began, engineers saw leak indications in the GUCP similar to those seen during the first launch attempt. The launch was officially scrubbed at 01:55 EDT.
Following the launch scrub, Chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team LeRoy Cain noted that engineers would work to understand the hydrogen leak issue and come up with a solution to the problem. Cain said managers were hopeful that the issue could be resolved in time for the next available launch opportunity on July 11, 2009. Due to the delay of STS-127, managers noted that it was likely that the launch of STS-128 on August 7, 2009, would be pushed back slightly.
On July 1, 2009, the shuttle managers conducted a new series of tanking tests to confirm a hypothesis that a misaligned vent port housing was the root cause of the leaks. The existing rigid seal was replaced with a flexible one in the hope that it would maintain a tight fix even under the cryogenic conditions that seem to cause the leak. The test was declared a success with no leaks detected on the GUCP. The mission was announced to be targeting a July 11, 2009, launch. On the evening of July 10, 2009, the launch pad region was hit by eleven strikes of lightning, which pushed back the July 11, 2009, launch time by at least 24 hours. Two of the strikes were strong enough to trigger an evaluation by NASA engineers. The inspections revealed that no damage had been done to the Space Shuttle.
NASA scrubbed Endeavour