WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Members of the STS-114 crew pose for a photo with workers installing the 30-foot-diameter C-band antenna and a smaller X-band antenna (behind them) north of the Haulover Canal. The astronauts are Mission Specialist Stephen Robinson and Pilot James Kelly, in the back row at left; and in front, Mission Specialists Wendy Lawrence, Charles Camarda and Soichi Noguchi, and Commander Eileen Collins. The antennas are being tested during the launch of a Delta II rocket carrying NASAs MESSENGER spacecraft bound for the planet Mercury that will work together to create an image of the Delta rocket in flight. The test will evaluate the use of the radars as part of NASAs Return to Flight program for the Space Shuttle to observe possible debris coming from the Shuttle during launch. If successful, the radar configuration could be used on ships downrange, including on one of the solid rocket booster retrieval ships. And it may enable the return to launching Space Shuttles at night. The launch window for Return to Flight mission STS-114 is May 12 through June 3, 2005.