In the countdown for Discovery’s final flight
After 26 years servicing the International Space Station (ISS), space shuttle Discovery is counting down to its last lift-off towards the end of an era. Right there at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight Simonetta Di Pippo met several space agencies representatives before the historical launch of this spacecraft conceptually designed for reuse.
"This Discovery’s final flight comes when we are celebrating the ISS's tenth anniversary, two milestones that remind us the long road we have taken and the new challenges ahead of us. I am committed to have Europe playing a significant role in the future of space exploration", said ESA Director of Human Spaceflight.
Due to electrical problems and weather conditions, the launch has been rescheduled for Friday. Di Pippo shared the countdown with the international space community in Cape Canaveral, among them NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean. She chaired together with Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations, a series of bilateral meetings between NASA and ESA experts.
The meetings tackled new ways to increase and optimise flight opportunities for Europe to the ISS beyond 2015. They discussed an approach to offset ISS common costs by Europe which will eventually also take into account new European system developments in addition to cargo upload by the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV).
These bilateral discussions are critical in finalising the scenario for the expected European participation to ISS utilisation at least up to 2020. All other ISS partners have already confirmed their commitment to support ISS beyond 2015.
Last Tuesday Simonetta Di Pippo was also invited by the Italian space agency (ASI) management to follow the live re-transmission of the last COSMO-SkyMed launch attempt atop of a Delta II rocket. Together with Senator Simona Vicari and ASI president Enrico Saggese, she followed the countdown of this fourth satellite promoted by the Italian government as part of an Earth observation system. After scrubbing for the third time in a row, this launch has also been delayed until Friday.
During her visit to the Kennedy Space Center, Simonetta Di Pippo met the European astronaut Roberto Vittori, who will be flying next February 2011 to the ISS on an opportunity provided by the Italian space agency. Vittori will be launched on the last flight of the space shuttle Endeavour and will share its final journey with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometrer (AMS-02). With 115 days left to go, AMS-02 integration and testing are going on according the schedule.
