[sarex] Discovery Undocks From Space Station

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468


	*Discovery Undocks From Space Station*
5 November 2007


Discovery undocked from the International Space Station at 5:32 a.m. EST 
as they flew over the South Pacific.

After STS-120 Pilot George Zamka backs the orbiter about 400 feet from 
the station, he will perform a fly-around to allow crew members to 
collect video and imagery of the station in its new configuration. He 
will perform the final separation engine burn at 7:15 a.m.

Later in the day, shuttle crew members will use the shuttle robot arm 
and the 50-foot long Orbiter Boom Sensor System to conduct a late 
inspection of the thermal protection system.

The crew will spend Tuesday preparing for landing. Discovery’s first 
landing opportunity is at 1:02 p.m. Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

During its stay at the station, which began Oct. 25, the STS-120 crew 
continued the on-orbit construction of the station with the installation 
of the Harmony Node 2 module and the relocation of the P6 truss.

The crew installed Harmony Oct. 26 and did four spacewalks at the 
station. During the third spacewalk, the crew installed the P6 truss and 
solar array pair in its permanent location outboard of the port truss. 
The fourth spacewalk was changed during the mission so that the crew 
could repair a torn solar array on the P6 truss. Following the 
successful repair work, the crew was able to fully deploy the solar array.

Discovery also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer 
Daniel Tani. He replaced astronaut Clayton Anderson. Anderson arrived at 
the station in June with STS-117.