STS-97 was a

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 '' Endeavour''. The crew installed the first set of solar arrays to the ISS, prepared a docking port for arrival of the Destiny Laboratory Module, and delivered supplies for the station's crew. It was the last human spaceflight of the 20th century.

Crew

Spacewalks

;EVA 1 – Tanner and Noriega *EVA 1 Start: 3 December 2000 – 18:35 UTC *EVA 1 End: 4 December 2000 – 02:08 UTC *Duration: 7 hours, 33 minutes ;EVA 2 – Tanner and Noriega *EVA 2 Start: 5 December 2000 – 17:21 UTC *EVA 2 End: 5 December 2000 – 23:58 UTC *Duration: 6 hours, 37 minutes ;EVA 3 – Tanner and Noriega *EVA 3 Start: 7 December 2000 – 16:13 UTC *EVA 3 End: 7 December 2000 – 21:23 UTC *Duration: 5 hours, 10 minutes

Crew seat assignments

Mission highlights

During the 11-day mission, the primary objective was completed, which was to deliver and connect the first set of U.S.-provided solar arrays and the P6 Truss to the

. The astronauts completed three spacewalks, during which they prepared a docking port for arrival of the Destiny Laboratory Module, installed Floating Potential Probes to measure

electrical potential Electric potential (also called the ''electric field potential'', potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as electric potential energy per unit of electric charge. More precisely, electric potential is the amount of work neede ...

surrounding the station, installed a camera cable outside the Unity Module, and transferred supplies, equipment and refuse between ''Endeavour'' and the station. On Flight Day 3, Commander Brent Jett linked ''Endeavour'' to the ISS while above northeast

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. The successful checkout of the

Extravehicular Mobility Unit The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) is an independent spacesuit that provides environmental protection, mobility, life support, and communications for astronauts performing extravehicular activity (EVA) in Geocentric orbit, Earth orbit. Introd ...

s (EMUs), the

Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER) is a small, self-contained, propulsive backpack system ( jet pack) worn during spacewalks, to be used in case of emergency only. If an untethered astronaut were to lose physical contact with the vessel, it w ...

(SAFER) units, the Canadarm (RMS), the Orbiter Space Vision System (OSVS) and the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) were all completed nominally. Also, the ODS centerline camera was installed with no misalignment noted. From inside ''Endeavour'',

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Mission Specialist Marc Garneau used the Canadarm to remove the 8 ton stainless steel P6 truss from the payload bay, maneuvering it into an overnight park position to warm its components. Mission Specialists Joseph Tanner and Carlos Noriega moved through ''Endeavours docking tunnel and opened the hatch to the ISS docking port to leave supplies and computer hardware on the doorstep of the Station. On flight day 4, the Expedition 1 Commander William Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer

Sergei Krikalev Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born 27 August 1958) is a Russian mechanical engineer and former cosmonaut and head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. As a prominent rocket scientist, he ...

– entered the Unity Module for the first time and retrieved the items left for them. At 09:36 EST on 8 December 2000, the crew paid the first visit to the Expedition 1 crew residing in the space station. Until then the shuttle and the station had kept one hatch closed to maintain respective atmospheric pressures, allowing the shuttle crew to conduct their spacewalks and mission goals. After a welcome ceremony and briefing, the eight spacefarers conducted structural tests of the station and its solar arrays, transferred equipment, supplies and refuse back and forth between the spacecraft, and checked out the television camera cable installed by Tanner and Noriega for the upcoming mission. On 9 December 2000, the two crews completed final transfers of supplies to the station and other items being returned to Earth. The ''Endeavour'' crew bade farewell to the Expedition 1 crew at 10:51 EST and closed the hatches between the spacecraft. After being docked together for 6 days, 23 hours and 13 minutes, ''Endeavour'' undocked from the station at 14:13 EST. Piloted by Michael Bloomfield, it then made an hour-long, tail-first circle of the station. The undocking took place 235 statute miles above the border of

and China. The final separation burn took place near the northeast coast of South America. STS-97 was the 15th flight of ''Endeavour'' and the 101st Space Shuttle mission.

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.

Images

Image:STS-97 Tanner EVA 3.jpg, Tanner on the final

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environme ...

of the mission on 7 December 2000. Part of the new solar arrays can be seen on the left. File:P6install.jpg, Illustration of the International Space Station after STS-97

References

External links

NASA mission summary

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sts-97 Spacecraft launched in 2000 2000 in the United States STS-097 2000 in Florida