Mar 14 2001
From The Space Library
The first changing of the guard took place aboard the ISS Discovery when the crew of Expedition 2, which included astronauts James S. Voss and Susan J. Helms and cosmonaut Yury V. Usachev, replaced the first ISS research team, Expedition 1. The new crew planned to spend four and one-half months aboard the space station, with Usachev serving as the outpost’s Commander. With the official beginning of her mission on the ISS, Helms became the first long-term female occupant of the space station. The new crew anticipated working well together, having trained as a unit for nearly four years. Because the first crew had completed many of the ISS’s final construction tasks, crew of Expedition 2 looked forward to having more research time than their predecessors had enjoyed. (Todd Halvorson, “Space Crews Ceremoniously Switch Places,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 15 March 2001; NASA, “Space Station Shift~ Change Set with Next Shuttle Launch,” news release, 01-30, 28 February 2001; Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, “Space Station Alpha About To Get Its First Female Resident,” 5 March 2001; Juan A. Lozano for Associated Press, “New Space Station Crew Moves into Orbiting Outpost,” 14 March 2001.)
NASA astronomers linked the world’s two largest telescopes, both located at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Using a process known as interferometry, the scientists used the two telescopes to capture images of a faint star in the constellation Lynx. According to Anne L. Kinney, Director of NASA’s Astronomical Search for Origins program, “combining the light from the two largest telescopes on Earth is a fabulous technical advancement.” Using a tunnel that collects light waves that the telescopes have captured, to combine the images, the two telescopes worked together to allow astronomers to peer farther and more clearly into space than ever before. Scientists hailed the achievement as a significant step toward creating a new class of astronomical telescopes. (NASA, “An Astronomy First: Telescopes Double-Team Hawaiian Night Sky,” news release 01-42, 14 March 2001; Associated Press, “World’s Strongest Telescope Link Created,” 15 March 2001.)
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