When astronaut Garrett Reisman applied to NASA as a potential astronaut, he had to appear before a panel headed by John Young, who had flown two Gemini, two Apollo, and two of the early Space Shuttle flights including the very first one. In pre-flight interviews, Reisman commented on how tough it was to appear in … [Read more…]
The Endeavour launched on its first mission in four and a half years on August 8, 2007. It had been heavily upgraded during the hiatus to allow for longer missions and now included the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS), which would allow it to draw power from the station. The crew included Shuttle Commander Scott … [Read more…]
The Endeavour launched on June 5, 2002, and docked on June 7, delivering Station Commander Valeri Korzun and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev of Russia, and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of America. The older individuals among the people arriving on the Endeavour took some kidding from the Expedition 4 crew, who dubbed them “our fathers of … [Read more…]
The STS-108 mission finally got off the ground on December 5, 2001. The crew included Mission Commander Dominic Gorie, Pilot Mark Kelly, and Mission Specialists Linda Godwin and Daniel Tani. The main purpose was to deliver Expedition 4, which would be commanded by Yuri Onufrienko of Russia and also included Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz … [Read more…]
Canadarm2 The Canadian-built Canadarm2 is installed and goes into action. STS-100 featured a crew representing several of the major partners of the International Space Station, including Chris Hadfield from Canada, Umberto Guidoni from the European Space Agency, Yuri Lonchankov from Russia, and Shuttle Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeff Ashby, and Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and … [Read more…]