STS-121 Press Kit
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STS-121 Press Kit CONTENTS Section Page STS-116 MISSION OVERVIEW: POWER RECONFIGURATION HIGHLIGHTS STATION ASSEMBLY MISSION ...............................................................................................1 STS-116 TIMELINE OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................10 MISSION PRIORITIES.............................................................................................................12 LAUNCH AND LANDING ...........................................................................................................15 LAUNCH...............................................................................................................................................15 ABORT-TO-ORBIT (ATO)......................................................................................................................15 TRANSATLANTIC ABORT LANDING (TAL).............................................................................................15 RETURN-TO-LAUNCH-SITE (RTLS).......................................................................................................15 ABORT ONCE AROUND (AOA)...............................................................................................................15 LANDING .............................................................................................................................................15 MISSION PROFILE...................................................................................................................16 STS-116 DISCOVERY CREW ...................................................................................................17 MISSION PERSONNEL.............................................................................................................27 RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING ..................................................................................................28 UNDOCKING, SEPARATION AND DEPARTURE.......................................................................................31 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM (EPS) ...................................32 ACTIVE THERMAL CONTROL SYSTEM (ATCS) OVERVIEW.....................................................50 SPACEWALKS .........................................................................................................................65 EVA 1...................................................................................................................................................66 EVA 2 ..................................................................................................................................................67 EVA 3 ..................................................................................................................................................69 PAYLOAD OVERVIEW ..............................................................................................................71 INTEGRATED TRUSS SEGMENT P5.......................................................................................................71 INTEGRATED CARGO CARRIER (SPACEHAB)........................................................................................77 LOGISTICS SINGLE MODULE (SPACEHAB LSM) ...................................................................................78 December 2006 CONTENTS i Section Page EXPERIMENTS.........................................................................................................................79 DETAILED TEST OBJECTIVES ...............................................................................................................79 SHORT-DURATION BIOASTRONAUTICS INVESTIGATION (SDBI) .........................................................79 SHORT-DURATION RESEARCH AND STATION EXPERIMENTS ...............................................................80 EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY EXPERIMENTS...........................................................................................84 SPACE SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINE ADVANCED HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ........................89 SHUTTLE REFERENCE DATA ....................................................................................................90 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .........................................................................................103 MEDIA ASSISTANCE ...............................................................................................................118 PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACTS..................................................................................................119 December 2006 CONTENTS ii STS-116 MISSION OVERVIEW: POWER RECONFIGURATION HIGHLIGHTS STATION ASSEMBLY MISSION With its crane still attached, the orbiter Discovery was mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher platform in high bay 3 of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. December 2006 MISSION OVERVIEW 1 Space Shuttle Discovery launches in December Integrated Truss Segment P5, which measures on its 33rd mission to deliver another truss 11 feet long by 15 feet wide by 14 feet high (3.3 segment of the International Space Station and x 4.5 x 3.2 meters). It will serve as a spacer and begin the intricate process of reconfiguring and be mated to the P4 truss that was attached in redistributing the power generated by two September during the STS‐115 mission of pairs of U.S. solar arrays. Atlantis. The shuttle launches with seven astronauts— Attachment of the 4,000‐pound six shuttle and one long‐duration station crew (1,800‐kilogram) P5 sets the stage for the member. This is the first crew member rotation relocation to its final assembly position of the in four years involving a shuttle rather than a P6 truss and the pair of solar arrays that have Russian Soyuz. been located temporarily atop the station’s Unity module for six years. The primary assembly hardware Discovery will deliver to the space station is the $11‐million A computer‐generated artistʹs rendering of the International Space Station after flight STS‐116/12A.1, following the delivery and installation of the third port truss segment (P5) and the retraction of the P6 port solar array wing and two radiators. December 2006 MISSION OVERVIEW 2 Three spacewalks (Extravehicular Activities or the shuttle and station crew members and flight EVAs) spread across the seven days of docked controllers in Mission Control, who will send operations will involve P5 installation and all commands to carefully redistribute power reconfiguration of cables so that flight and thermal management from one location to controllers in Mission Control, Houston, can another. The STS‐118 mission in the summer of send commands to swap power generation and 2007 will deliver an identical short spacer (S5) distribution from half of the P6 arrays to the to the opposite end of the station’s truss. newest P4 pair (power channel 2/3 moves to P4‐2A and 1/4 moves to power channel P4‐4A). Discovery will launch with seven crew members, including Commander Mark In addition to the P5 spacer, Discovery’s Polansky, Pilot William (Bill) Oefelein payload bay also houses a small pressurized (Commander, USN), and Mission Specialists logistics module holding supplies and an Nicholas Patrick, Robert (Bob) Curbeam integrated carrier delivering space station (Captain, USN), Joan Higginbotham, Christer hardware and three small satellites to be Fuglesang representing the European Space deployed after the shuttle has undocked from Agency, and Sunita Williams. Williams will the space station. replace crew member Thomas Reiter (ESA) who will return to Earth aboard Discovery in her th The 20 shuttle mission to the International place. Williams will return home next summer Space Station represents the most following Endeavour’s STS‐118 mission. choreographed assembly flight to date between Attired in their training versions of the shuttle launch and entry suit, astronauts Mark L. Polansky (left), STS‐116 commander, and William A. Oefelein, pilot, occupy the commander and pilotʹs station during a training session in the fixed‐ base shuttle mission simulator (SMS) in the Jake Garn Simulation and Training Facility at Johnson Space Center. December 2006 MISSION OVERVIEW 3 The launch from complex 39B at the Kennedy The first three days of the mission nearly mirror Space Center, Florida, is timed precisely to those of the previous three shuttle flights to occur within the same launch plane (similar to a inspect the thermal protection system tiles and lane on a highway) as the space station to the wing leading edge reinforced carbon‐carbon maximize propellant savings and minimize panels, and rendezvous and dock with the rendezvous time. International Space Station. Because of the excellent performance of the Patrick is the prime shuttle remote manipulator shuttleʹs external tank in minimizing foam system (robotic arm) operator and will lead the shedding during ascent, and the ability to inspection effort using the Remote Manipulator perform a 100 percent inspection of the orbiter System (RMS) extension – the Orbiter Boom thermal protection system for unlikely damage, Sensor System. Polansky and Oefelein serve as the restriction for daylight‐only launches has backup shuttle arm operators. been lifted. This allows Discovery’s launch to take place at night for the first 10 days of its The highest priority tasks of the flight will be to “window,” which opens no earlier than Dec. 7 transfer one station crewmember for another, and