The STS-92 crew eagerly walk out of the Operations and Checkout Building for the second time for their trip to Launch Pad 39A. On the left side, from front to back, are Pilot Pamela Ann Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao and Koichi Wakata of Japan. On the right side, front to back, are Commander Brian Duffy and Mission Specialists Peter J.K. “Jeff” Wisoff, William S. McArthur Jr. and Michael E. Lopez-Alegria. During the 11-day mission to the International Space Station, four extravehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks, are planned for construction. The payload includes the Integrated Truss Structure Z-1 and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter. The Z-1 truss is the first of 10 that will become the backbone of the 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 Station flight and Lab installation on the seventh Station 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. Launch is scheduled for 7:17 p.m. EDT. Landing is expected Oct. 22 at 2:10 p.m. EDT. [Photo taken with a Nikon D1 camera. KSC-00padig039
Summary
The STS-92 crew eagerly walk out of the Operations and Checkout Building for the second time for their trip to Launch Pad 39A. On the left side, from front to back, are Pilot Pamela Ann Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao and Koichi Wakata of Japan. On the right side, front to back, are Commander Brian Duffy and Mission Specialists Peter J.K. “Jeff” Wisoff, William S. McArthur Jr. and Michael E. Lopez-Alegria. During the 11-day mission to the International Space Station, four extravehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks, are planned for construction. The payload includes the Integrated Truss Structure Z-1 and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter. The Z-1 truss is the first of 10 that will become the backbone of the 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 Station flight and Lab installation on the seventh Station 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. Launch is scheduled for 7:17 p.m. EDT. Landing is expected Oct. 22 at 2:10 p.m. EDT. [Photo taken with a Nikon D1 camera.
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.