Boeing Supports
Contributions By Canada And Japan To The International Space
Station
(11 March 2008) A Boeing International
Space Station (ISS) team performed the complex task of integrating Canada's
Dextre robotic device and a segment of Japan's Kibo laboratory ahead of their
launch today aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour.
These components
will be added to the ISS during shuttle mission STS-123.
"The transport
of these latest two major additions brings NASA and its partners even closer to
the goal of completing the International Space Station by 2010," said former
astronaut Brewster Shaw, vice president and general manager of Space
Exploration for Boeing. "The mission was also supported by the Boeing Space
Shuttle team, whose extra inspections of shuttle tiles from STS-122 helped make
STS-123 possible."
Kibo, a contribution to the ISS from the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency, will increase the station's research capability
in a variety of disciplines. Dextre will work with the station's Canadarm2
robotic arm to perform delicate tasks.
The segment of Kibo being
delivered on this mission is the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module
Pressurized Section, the smaller of Kibo's two pressurised modules. The Dextre
robotic device -- the final element of the ISS Mobile Servicing System -- will
work with the station's robotic arm to install the pressurised module and other
Kibo components.
The space shuttle's 50-foot Orbital Boom Sensor System
(OBSS) will be stowed on the ISS during the 16-day mission to make room in
Space Shuttle Discovery's payload bay for more Kibo components to be delivered
during STS-124 in May. Boeing built and designed the On-Orbit Support equipment
that will allow the stowage of the OBSS.
Boeing is responsible for
ensuring the successful integration of new hardware on the ISS. The company
worked together with the Japanese and Canadian teams to test the
components.
"Our job is to verify that software from various
organisations can talk to one another, and if they can't, to suggest and
implement corrective actions," said John Royal, Space Exploration Software
integration manager for Boeing.
"In regard to Dextre, we designed and
built a test platform that represented a segment of the space station and
provided commands to the robot to see if it would respond correctly," Royal
said. "We also conducted simulations at Boeing's Software Integration
Laboratory in Houston.
"During the testing, we did find that some
corrective actions were necessary for driving the software on the space
station," Royal added. "Sometimes organisations can interpret requirements
differently, and we are here to make sure everyone is on the same
page."
The ISS is scheduled to be completely assembled in 2010. At that
time, the space shuttle will retire to make way for a new spacecraft that will
return humans to the moon by 2020. Technological advancements and lessons
learned from the space shuttle and ISS will aid future lunar missions and other
space exploration pursuits.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing
Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defence
businesses specialising in innovative and capabilities-driven customer
solutions. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a
US$ 32.1 billion business with 71,000 employees world-wide.
(source:
Boeing)
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