page_title: STS-114
section_title: 30 July
hierarchical_section_title: STS-114 / Mission timeline / 30 July
caption_attribution_description: Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, STS-114 mission specialist representing Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), participates in the mission’s first scheduled session of extravehicular activity (EVA). Noguchi and crewmate Stephen K. Robinson (out of frame) completed a demonstration of Shuttle thermal protection repair techniques and enhancements to the International Space Station’s attitude control system during the successful 6-hour, 50-minute spacewalk.
context_page_description: STS-114 was the first "Return to Flight" Space Shuttle mission following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Discovery launched at 10:39 EDT, 26 July 2005. The launch, 907 days after the loss of Columbia, was approved despite unresolved fuel sensor anomalies in the external tank that had prevented the shuttle from launching on 13 July, its originally scheduled date.
  The mission ended on 9 August 2005 when Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Poor weather over the Kennedy Space Center in Florida hampered the shuttle from using its primary landing site.
  Analysis of the launch footage showed debris separating from the external tank during ascent; this was of particular concern because it was the issue that had set off the Columbia disaster. As a result, NASA decided on 27 July to postpone future shuttle flights pending additional modifications to the flight hardware. Shuttle flights resumed a year later with STS-121 on 4 July 2006.
context_section_description: 05:46 EDT: T +03:19:07 Noguchi and Robinson begin first spacewalk
  12:36 EDT: T +04:02:57 Spacewalk completed successfully (duration 6 h 50 min)
caption: Soichi Noguchi on his first EVA
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