Mar 8 2001
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Discovery STS-102/ISS-5.A.1~comprising Commander James D. Wetherbee, Pilot James M. Kelly, and Mission Specialists [[Andrew S. W. Thomas] and Paul W. Richards~launched from NASA’s KSC carrying the three-person crew of Expedition 2 to the ISS for their four-and-one-half-month stay. The members of Expedition 2~Russian cosmonaut Yury V. Usachev and NASA astronauts James S. Voss and Susan J. Helms~would replace the first ISS research team. The transfer also entailed a change of command aboard the orbiting research center. American William M. Shepherd, Commander during the first research period, had led a crew of two Russian cosmonauts in installing and calibrating ISS equipment. With many of the initial installation problems resolved, the second crew planned to devote more time to research. The Russian cosmonaut who was to take command aboard the ISS had plenty of space experience. Commander Usachev had spent 376 days on Mir and had performed numerous spacewalks. Although Voss and Helms had both flown on Shuttle missions before, this voyage was their first time traveling to space for a significant research period. The primary purpose of the Shuttle’s 14-day mission was to deliver the new crew, but Discovery also carried, for the first time, the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM). The Italian Space Agency had constructed the module to serve as a “moving van” for carrying experiments and supplies back and forth between Earth and the ISS. (NASA, “Discovery Returns Expedition One to Earth; Launches Second Crew,” news release 01-34, 6 March 2001; NASA, “Space Shuttle Mission Archives: STS-102,” http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/STS-102.html (accessed 2 February 2009); Warren E. Leary, “Shuttle Primed for Crew-Exchange Mission to Station,” New York Times, 7 March 2001; Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, “Discovery Blasts Off with Next Space Station Crew,” 8 March 2001; Reuters, “USA: Corrected~ Shuttle Discovery Launched on Space Station Mission,” 8 March 2001.)
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