The STS-92 crew wave to onlookers as they exit the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Launch Pad 39A for liftoff at 8:05 p.m. EDT to the International Space Station (ISS). They are (from front to back) Pilot Pamela Ann Melroy and Commander Brian Duffy; and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao and William S. McArthur Jr.; Peter J.K. Wisoff; Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Koichi Wakata of Japan. The mission is the fifth flight for the construction of the ISS. The payload includes the Integrated Truss Structure Z-1 and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter. During the 11-day mission, four extravehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks, are planned. The Z-1 truss is the first of 10 that will become the backbone of the International Space Station, eventually stretching the length of a football field. PMA-3 will provide a Shuttle docking port for solar array installation on the sixth ISS flight and Lab installation on the seventh ISS flight. This launch is the fourth for Duffy and Wisoff, the third for Chiao and McArthur, second for Wakata and Lopez-Alegria, and first for Melroy. Landing is expected Oct. 21 at 3:55 p.m. EDT KSC-00padig037

Similar

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, media representatives interview members of the last astronaut crew to fly aboard space shuttle Discovery, in the background, which is scheduled to depart from Kennedy for the final time tomorrow morning aboard a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Members of the crew of Discovery’s last mission, STS-133, were Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, and Mission Specialists Nicole Stott, Michael Barratt, Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen. Also known as an SCA, the aircraft is a Boeing 747 jet, originally manufactured for commercial use, which was modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. The SCA designated NASA 905 is assigned to the remaining ferry missions, delivering the shuttles to their permanent public display sites. NASA 905 is scheduled to ferry Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. For more information on the SCA, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-013-DFRC.html. For more information on shuttle transition and retirement activities, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs KSC-2012-2299

Eli Wishart, chair of the South Carolina Employment

STS084-375-016 - STS-084 - Various candid views of crewmembers in the flight deck

STS065-37-027 - STS-065 - Hieb in Spacelab

S134E007726 - STS-134 - STS-134 MS Feustel during EVA-1

51I-07-015 - STS-51I - Onboard portrait of STS-51I crew

The STS-92 crew wave to onlookers as they exit the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Launch Pad 39A for liftoff at 8:05 p.m. EDT to the International Space Station (ISS). They are (from front to back) Pilot Pamela Ann Melroy and Commander Brian Duffy; and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao and William S. McArthur Jr.; Peter J.K. Wisoff; Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Koichi Wakata of Japan. The mission is the fifth flight for the construction of the ISS. The payload includes the Integrated Truss Structure Z-1 and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter. During the 11-day mission, four extravehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks, are planned. The Z-1 truss is the first of 10 that will become the backbone of the International Space Station, eventually stretching the length of a football field. PMA-3 will provide a Shuttle docking port for solar array installation on the sixth ISS flight and Lab installation on the seventh ISS flight. This launch is the fourth for Duffy and Wisoff, the third for Chiao and McArthur, second for Wakata and Lopez-Alegria, and first for Melroy. Landing is expected Oct. 21 at 3:55 p.m. EDT KSC-00padig037

description

Summary

The STS-92 crew wave to onlookers as they exit the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Launch Pad 39A for liftoff at 8:05 p.m. EDT to the International Space Station (ISS). They are (from front to back) Pilot Pamela Ann Melroy and Commander Brian Duffy; and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao and William S. McArthur Jr.; Peter J.K. Wisoff; Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Koichi Wakata of Japan. The mission is the fifth flight for the construction of the ISS. The payload includes the Integrated Truss Structure Z-1 and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter. During the 11-day mission, four extravehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks, are planned. The Z-1 truss is the first of 10 that will become the backbone of the International Space Station, eventually stretching the length of a football field. PMA-3 will provide a Shuttle docking port for solar array installation on the sixth ISS flight and Lab installation on the seventh ISS flight. This launch is the fourth for Duffy and Wisoff, the third for Chiao and McArthur, second for Wakata and Lopez-Alegria, and first for Melroy. Landing is expected Oct. 21 at 3:55 p.m. EDT

Space Shuttle Program

The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.