Astronauts
took a hard-earned break from work aboard the International Space Station
Friday as they hit the midpoint of a busy mission to boost the outpost's
science gear and supplies.
The 13
astronauts aboard the docked station and shuttle
Discovery had a half-day off from their joint mission, time enough to gaze
down at their home planet or simply enjoy flying in weightlessness.
"Sometimes,
you've just got to look out the window and enjoy the view," shuttle astronaut
Jose Hernandez told reporters in a televised interview this week. "It's just
breathtaking and I can't describe it with words. It's just indescribable."
Hernandez,
a former migrant
farm worker who applied for 12 straight years to be an astronaut, said the mission
has been busy, but also one to savor. He has been posting daily updates in
English and Spanish via Twitter as @Astro_Jose.
"It's a great,
great experience," he said. "A great feeling."
Hernandez
and his crewmates plan to discuss their mission late Friday night with
reporters on Earth.
Space
debris misses station
Friday's
time off came hours after a large chunk
of space debris buzzed by the space station at about 11:07 a.m. EDT (1507
GMT).
The orbital
junk, part of a 3-year-old European rocket booster, came within a mile (1.3 km)
of the linked space station and shuttle when it zoomed ahead of the
spacecraft from the left to the right. NASA had tracked the space debris for
days and found that it posed absolutely
zero risk of hitting the station-shuttle complex or endangering its astronaut
crew.
"We knew
that it was going to be a near-miss without a threat of collision," station flight
engineer Ron Spencer told reporters late Friday. "Because this object was so
well-tracked, we calculated that the probability of collision was zero."
Time off
in space
The space junk's
near-miss went relatively unnoticed by the station and shuttle crews Friday
morning since the astronauts were in the middle of their sleep period. They
woke up at noon for their rest day in space.
"We will
certainly give them some time to enjoy for themselves," space station flight
director Heather Rarick told reporters early Friday. "We're hoping that they do
take some time to rest up."
It is only
the second time ever that 13 astronauts, seven
on the shuttle and six on the station, have been together in space.
Discovery
commander Rick Sturckow and his crew are in the midst of a 13-day mission to
deliver nearly 8 tons of new science gear and supplies to the space station.
They have already completed most of their cargo transfer and performed two of
three planned spacewalks, with the last one set for Friday.
Discovery
is due to undock from the space station on Tuesday.
SPACE.com
is providing complete coverage of Discovery's STS-128 mission to the
International Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik and Staff Writer
Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click
here for shuttle mission updates and a link to NASA TV.
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