Photo courtesy of NASA
On August 9, at 9:11 pm (Japan Standard Time), Space Shuttle Discovery returned safely to earth. Throughout the journey, the Japanese media published scenes of Japanese Astronaut Soichi Noguchi in action; his spacewalk astounded everyone, and was only the second Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) performed by a Japanese astronaut.
With the memories of the Columbia tragedy of 2003 fresh in everyone's thoughts, Noguchi and fellow mission specialist Stephen Robinson conducted essential check and repair activities on the orbiter and performed maintenance on the International Space Station. In addition, the pair successfully removed two strips of protruding filler from the heatshield on the orbiter's belly, an operation unprecedented in the Shuttle program.
Nikon was also represented on Discovery by the F5-based digital camera (produced by Kodak) and several types of Nikkor lenses and Speedlight flashes. The SB-800 Speedlight flashes, encased in a special sealed housing designed by NASA, were used when the exterior surface of the orbiter was photographed during the EVA. This is the first time Speedlight has been used in such a way. From within the Shuttle, Nikkor optics were used to photograph the Shuttle as it maneuvered near the Space Station, then rolled over to reveal the heat-shielded underside to a photographer stationed in the space station. As the roll-over took place, an astronaut using a telephoto Nikkor optic photographed the underside of the craft.
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