Space enthusiasts will be in for a treat tonight as the shuttle Discoveryis expected to be visible across Irish skies just minutes after its Florida launch.
Astronomy Ireland predicts the shuttle should be seen about 18 minutes after its departure at around 10pm Irish time.
It will then travel for up to three days to catch up with the International Space Station (ISS) where it will deliver logistical supplies, including a Japanese laboratory.
Astronomy Ireland chairman David Moore said depending on the weather star gazers could get the chance to see the two ships in the sky.
“We should see the extremely rare sight of the shuttle with its huge external fuel tank trailing behind it, an extremely rare and very impressive sight,” he said.
“To see two brilliant space ships, which are up to 100 times brighter than the brightest star in the sky, chasing each other across the sky is an extremely impressive sight.
Astronomy Ireland is urging people to look out for the shuttle and e-mail any sightings to is astronomy.ie.
In delivering Japan's bus-sized Kibo laboratory to the station, the United States will fulfill an agreement reached two decades ago to join with other countries in building and operating an orbital base.
Once in orbit, the Discoverycrew plans to conduct three spacewalks to hook up the new lab, work on the station's cooling system and troubleshoot a problem that is hampering a pair of solar wing panels from tracking the sun for power.
After Kibo is attached, the space station will be 71 per cent complete, with seven construction missions remaining. One of those flights will be to deliver the final segment of Kibo, a unique porch complete with robot arms for tending to experiments in the open environment of space.
NASA wants to have the space station in perfect working order and fully stocked with spare parts before September 30th, 2010, when the shuttle fleet is due to be retired.
In addition to the construction missions and two resupply flights, NASA plans a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope, scheduled for October.
The ISS is the most expensive object ever built, at a cost of around $100 billion (€64 billion). It orbits the Earth every 1.5 hours at near 30,000 km/hour (17,000mph) some 340km above the Earth's surface There are three astronauts on board the ISS and seven on the Discovery.
Agencies