STS-98 was a 2001

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

mission to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Atlantis''. It was the first human spaceflight launch of the 21st century. STS-98 delivered to the station the ''Destiny'' Laboratory Module. All mission objectives were completed and the shuttle reentered and landed safely at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

on 20 February 2001, after twelve days in space, six of which were spent docked to the ISS.

Crew

Crew seat assignments

Launch attempts

Mission highlights

The crew continued the task of building and enhancing the

by delivering the U.S. ''Destiny'' Laboratory Module. It was the first NASA lab to be permanently used since the days of

Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Skylab was constructe ...

nearly three decades earlier. It was manufactured by

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

at the

Michoud Assembly Facility The Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an industrial complex for the manufacture and assembly line, structural assembly of aerospace vehicles and components. It is owned by NASA and located in Eastern New Orleans, New Orleans East, a section of N ...

and the

Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...

in 1997. Upon transport to Kennedy Space Center's industrial buildings, it was fitted with equipment, machines, racks and cables at the Operations and Checkout Building and

Space Station Processing Facility The Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF), originally the Space Station Processing Facility, is a three-story industrial building at Kennedy Space Center for the Manufacturing of the International Space Station, manufacture and Process manufac ...

. The U.S. laboratory module is long and wide. It is made from

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

, and comprises three cylindrical sections and two end-cones that contain the hatch openings through which astronauts enter and exit the module. The ends are colored blue and white respectively for the crew to navigate easily. A -diameter window is located on one side of the center module segment. During the mission, the shuttle docked to PMA 3 located on the nadir of Node 1. The crew relocated PMA 2 to the holding area on the Z1 truss temporarily, before using the Shuttle's robotic arm to lift out the 14.5 ton steel module out of the Shuttle's payload bay, and permanently berthed it on the forward hatch of Node 1. Spacewalks conducted by Thomas Jones and Robert Curbeam reattached electrical cables to the aluminum hull and connecting ports on ''Destiny'', and also checked the laboratory's nadir window. PMA 2 was replaced to the forward hatch of Destiny. The Shuttle spent six days docked to the station while the laboratory was attached and three spacewalks were conducted to complete its assembly. The mission also saw the 100th spacewalk in U.S. spaceflight history. STS-98 occurred while the first station crew was aboard the new space station.

Space walks

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the

Gemini program Project Gemini () was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and ...

, which was first used to wake up a flight crew during

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the Apollo program and the fourth Moon landing. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greate ...

. Each track is specially chosen, often by their families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.

Popular culture and media

STS-98 was the designation for the fictional NASA mission to destroy an asteroid in ''Armageddon'' (1998 film).

References

External links

NASA mission summary

STS-98 Post Flight Presentation
{{DEFAULTSORT:STS-098 Space Shuttle missions Edwards Air Force Base Spacecraft launched in 2001