Has the ISS ever had the shuttle visit so soon after a previous mission. That was quick return to flight.

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I don't know, but I think the answer is no. It might even be the shortest time between shuttle launching, whether going to the ISS or not.

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Endeavour's Payload Bay Doors Are Now Open.

Nope.

I Checked the List with STS Missions at Wiki.
List of space shuttle missions
I Think that would be:
STS-51-D April 12 1985
STS-51-B April 29 1985

But i could have missed one.

Dennis

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Hint: this is at heart a scientific forum, and underneath the fooling around there are some diamond-hard minds hanging about, ready to tear you to shreads. -- mike alexander --

Yes, but by only a few days.

These three flights in 2001 were very close together,

February 7 2001 STS-98
March 8 2001 STS-102
April 19 2001 STS-100

STS-98 was a construction flight and STS-102 was only a crew rotation.

The last two flights have both been construction flights.

I Did.

June 27 1995 STS-71
July 13 1995 STS-70

But i might still have missed one.

Dennis

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Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true. -- Niels Bohr --

Ipsa scientia potestas est. ~ Knowledge itself is power.---- Bacon

Hint: this is at heart a scientific forum, and underneath the fooling around there are some diamond-hard minds hanging about, ready to tear you to shreads. -- mike alexander --

I stayed up late hoping to catch sight of the launch. I only live 100miles south of the Cape and night launches are spectacular even from this distance.

Checked the sky at 11pm and it was mostly clear.... then at 2am I checked again only to find that a layer of clouds had rolled in, blocking all hope of seeing the launch.

I checked again 20 seconds after liftoff but no joy.
Had to watch it on CNN like everyone else.

(The lauch was moving northwards away from me anyway but had it been clear I would have been able to see it from my front door....)

I've looked through the NASA site and BAUT and can't find the reason for the early morning launch. Has it to do with staying in synch with the new Japan mission operations facility?

From the STS-123 Factsheet:

I suppose it could have some potential for synchronizing the Japanese module's ascent with the wakefulness of the Japanese who paid for it, but then what of the Candians who paid for Dextre?

Somehow, I think the Japan ops facility could accomodate whatever schedule was thrown at them. A little graveyard shift pay could work wonders.

I'm entirely guessing, but I suppose the launch time was just selected to optimize from among many competing interests, ISS position, week of launch, sun angles for lighting, increased risk for night launch, and a hundred other factors.

CBS News Space Place said this:

Anyone know if there's more than one time of day that happens this week? (I think not. Usually, the launch windows are roughly, but not exactly, 24 hours apart. Two or three weeks from now, such opportunities might arise only during daylight.)

Useful links (so we don't have to flip to another page to find them):
NASA Space Shuttle Mission Pages
NASA STS-123 Mission Information
NASA Mission Overview: All Aboard for STS-123: The Station Goes Global
Wikipedia: STS-123
NASA Launch Schedule
NASA Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Countdown Status
NASA Shuttle Launch and Landing
NASA Shuttle Launch Blog (active about 6 hours before liftoff)
CBS News Space Place
SpaceFlightNow STS-123 Mission Coverage (sparse at first)
BAUT Forum topic STS-122 Shuttle Mission (previous mission)
NASA TV

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CBS News Space Place

So far, they've done a little post-launch inspection and a little prep for docking, and will continue similar for the workday.

Coming up (times EDT and mission elapsed day..hour..minute):

(In some woo-wooish minds, of course, NASA and the crew of Endeavour are actually using this time to visit secret invisible space stations. Pity them. Google "secret space stations".)

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Lame STS-123 joke#3:
What did Dextre say when they accidentally put it inside Kibo?
"Get out of my laboratory!"

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CBS News Space Place

Coming up (times EDT, mission elapsed day..hour..minute):

Docking.

NASA TV

Approaching ISS, 3000 feet
approachingiss.jpg

Shuttle approaching, about 600 feet
shuttleapproaching.jpg

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Fresh redshirts arrive
redshirtsarrive.JPG

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Even worse, when you check NASA.gov for the crew rooster of STS-123, it lists them as "Crewman # 2".

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

CBS News Space Place

Coming up (times EDT, mission elapsed day..hour..minute):

Spacewalk. Try to get power to Dextre on pallet. Nothing works. Have a couple more tricks to try. Can power from arm, too.

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Maybe "Gigantor" will fight "Godzilla". ;-)

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

Watching the spacewalk now. These folks take a ton of pictures. Is there anywhere we can see at least some of them?

I don't know if it's everything (so far), but it might be enough to make your head spin. NASA Human Spaceflight: Gallery :: Shuttle :: STS-123 Shuttle Mission Imagery

(Most so far is old stuff, pre-launch. No EVA shots yet.)

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CBS News Space Place

Second half of workday, coming up (times EDT, mission elapsed day..hour..minute):

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