KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-102 Mission Specialist Andrew S.W. Thomas (center), and Expedition Two astronaut James S. Voss (right) talk with two workers inside Leonardo, one of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules in the Space Station Processing Facility. The MPLM, part of the payload on the STS-102 mission, is the first of three pressurized modules that will serve as the International Space Station’s “moving vans,” carrying laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the Space Station aboard the Space Shuttle. STS-102 is scheduled to be launched in early March. On that flight, Leonardo will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. laboratory module Destiny. The mission will also be carrying the Expedition Two crew to the Space Station, replacing the Expedition One crew who will return on Shuttle Discovery KSC01pp0114
Summary
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-102 Mission Specialist Andrew S.W. Thomas (center), and Expedition Two astronaut James S. Voss (right) talk with two workers inside Leonardo, one of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules in the Space Station Processing Facility. The MPLM, part of the payload on the STS-102 mission, is the first of three pressurized modules that will serve as the International Space Station’s “moving vans,” carrying laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the Space Station aboard the Space Shuttle. STS-102 is scheduled to be launched in early March. On that flight, Leonardo will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. laboratory module Destiny. The mission will also be carrying the Expedition Two crew to the Space Station, replacing the Expedition One crew who will return on Shuttle Discovery
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.