Shuttle Discovery Set to Dock with ISS Tonight; Only Six More Shuttle Flights Scheduled

Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) tonight at 9:04 pm. The STS-128 mission appears to be proceeding smoothly.

Only six more shuttle flights are planned after this one, although it is possible that additional flights could be flown in response to the options presented by the Augustine committee. Latest rumors are that the committee’s report will be published in mid-September, but it is unclear whether that means no information will be made publicly available prior to that. Originally the due date was September 1.

The six scheduled shuttle missions and their targeted launch dates are:

• STS-129, Atlantis, Nov. 12, 2009, two EXPRESS logistics carriers
• STS-130, Endeavour, Feb. 4, 2010, Tranquility Node 3 and the Cupola
• STS-131, Discovery, Mar. 18, 2010, MPLM and Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier
• STS-132, Atlantis, May 14, 2010, Integrated Cargo Carrier and Mini Research Module (MRM1)
• STS-133 or STS-134, July 29, 2010 (see below)
• STS-133 or STS-134, Sept. 16, 2010 (see below)

NASA has not determined the sequence of the last two flights. One will be Discovery and the other will be Endeavour. One will carry an EXPRESS rack and an MPLM (Multi Purpose Logistics Module); the other will carry an EXPRESS rack and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.