physics

STS-126

STS-126 is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand STS-126 rather than just read about it. In short: STS-126 was the one hundred and twenty-fourth NASA Space Shuttle mission, and twenty-second orbital flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) to the International Space Station (ISS). The purpose of the mission, referred to as ULF2 by the ISS program, was to deliver equipment and supplies to the station, to service the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ), and repair the problem in the starboard SARJ that had limit…

Key takeaways

STS-126 belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect STS-126 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of STS-126 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

STS-126 was the one hundred and twenty-fourth NASA Space Shuttle mission, and twenty-second orbital flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (OV-105) to the International Space Station (ISS). The purpose of the mission, referred to as ULF2 by the ISS program, was to deliver equipment and supplies to the station, to service the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ), and repair the problem in the starboard SARJ that had limited its use since STS-120. STS-126 launched on 15 November 2008 at 00:55:39 UTC from Launch Pad 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with no delays or issues. Endeavour successfully docked with the station on 16 November 2008. After spending 15 days, 20 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds docked to the station, during which the crew performed four spacewalks, and transferred cargo, the orbiter undocked on 28 November 2008. Due to poor weather at Kennedy Space Center, Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base on 30 November 2008 at 21:25:09 UTC.

Crew

Crew notes Joan E. Higginbotham was originally scheduled to fly on STS-126, she was previously mission specialist 4 on STS-116. On 21 November 2007, NASA announced a change in the crew manifest due to Higginbotham's decision to leave NASA to take a job in the private sector. Stephen G. Bowen was originally assigned to STS-124 but was moved to STS-126 to allow Discovery to rotate Greg Chamitoff with Garrett E. Reisman.

Mission payloads STS-126 was scheduled to be a sixteen-day mission with four spacewalks (EVA), largely dedicated to servicing and repair of the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ). An additional docked day was added to the flight plan to give the crew more time to complete their tasks. The starboard SARJ had shown anomalous behavior since August 2007, and its use has been minimized pending diagnosis and repair. Both the port and starboard SARJs were serviced. In addition to lubricating both bearings, the remaining 11 trundle bearings in the starboard SARJ were replaced. Trundle bearing assembly No. 5, one of the 12 assemblies, was removed during an Expedition 16 EVA for further examination in December 2007. STS-126 included the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) on its fifth spaceflight. Leonardo held over 6,400 kg (14,100 lb) of supplies and equipment. Among the items packed into the MPLM were two new crew quarters racks, a second galley (kitchen) for the Destiny laboratory, a second Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) rack (lavatory), the advanced Resistive Exercise Device (aRED), two water reclamation racks, spare hardware, and new experiments. Also included in Leonardo was the General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator, or GLACIER, a double locker cryogenic freezer for transporting and preserving science experiments. The shuttle also carried irradiated turkey, candied yams, stuffing and dessert for a special Thanksgiving meal at the station, as well as an Official Flight Kit with mementos for those who supported the astronauts and helped them complete their mission successfully. Also carried was a Lightweight MPESS Carrier (LMC) carrying a Flex Hose Rotary Coupler (FHRC) and returning a Nitrogen Assembly Tank from Quest for refurbishment.

Educational outreach STS-126 carried the signatures of over 500,000 students that participated in the 2008 Student Signatures in Space program, jointly sponsored by NASA and Lockheed Martin. In celebration of Space Day last May 2008, students from over 500 schools signed giant posters, their signatures were scanned onto a disk, and the disk was flown on the STS-126 mission. The Student Signatures in Space project has been active since 1997, and has flown student signatures on seven other shuttle flights, starting with STS-86.

Agricultural camera (AgCam) Also aboard STS-126 was the Agricultural Camera (AgCam) which was installed in the Destiny module and is used to assist farmers and provide educational opportunities for students around the country. Students and faculty at the University of North Dakota built the Agricultural Camera (AgCam), that was to be delivered and installed on the International Space Station. The students will operate the camera from their campus and work with NASA engineers and station astronauts to take visible and infrared light images of growing crops, grasslands, forests and wetlands in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains regions. The information from AgCam provided data to agricultural producers in North Dakota and neighboring states, benefiting farmers and ranchers and providing ways for them to protect the environment. AgCam imagery also may assist in disaster management, such as flood monitoring and wild fire mapping.

Cow embryos and pig cells in space STS-126 also flew the first bovine embryos as well as porcine embryonic stem cells on an American spacecraft for an experiment to evaluate effects of the environment of space on embryonic development. The project was a joint project of ZeroGravity Inc., University of Florida and USDA ARS.

Crew seat assignments

Mission background The mission marks:

155th NASA crewed space flight 124th Space Shuttle mission since STS-1 99th post-Challenger mission 11th post-Columbia mission 22nd flight of Endeavour 27th shuttle mission to the ISS 31st night launch

Shuttle processing

Space Shuttle Endeavour was moved from the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-2) at Kennedy Space Center to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on 11 September 2008. Rollout to launch pad 39B took place overnight on 18 September 2008 and was completed at 12:00 UTC on 19 September 2008. Endeavour was originally moved to launch pad 39B ahead of the normal schedule to be on standby as the Launch on Need (LON) flight for STS-125. In the event that something happened to Atlantis during its flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope, a rescue flight could be performed with Endeavour. With both Atlantis and Endeavour on the pads, it was the 18th time that two flight-ready orbiters were in position at both launch pads at the same time. On 29 September 2008, NASA announced that due to a problem with the Hubble telescope, they would be revising the manifest to postpone STS-125 until 2009, so a solution to the issue with the telescope could be integrated into the flight plan. This moved STS-126 to the next flight, so on 23 October 2008 Endeavour was moved from launch pad 39B to 39A. The payload for STS-126, including the MPLM Leonardo, arrived at launch pad 39A early on 22 October 2008.

Mission timeline

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with STS-126

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what STS-126 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to STS-126 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about STS-126 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of STS-126

In research: STS-126 appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses STS-126 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: STS-126 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Edwards Air Force Base, Human spaceflights to the International Space Station, Space Shuttle missions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for STS-126 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study STS-126 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what STS-126 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain STS-126 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is STS-126 in simple terms?

Why does STS-126 matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study STS-126?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on STS-126.