STS-108
From The Space Library
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| Organization | NASA-Office of Space Flight (United States) |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Human Crew,Life Science,Resupply/Refurbishment/Repair |
| Launch date | December 5, 2001 |
| Launch vehicle | Space Shuttle |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral, United States |
| COSPAR ID | 2001-054A |
| Experiments | Here |
| Alternate Names | 26995 |
| Additional Information | Here |
| Data Collection | Here |
| Payload Mass Up | 14239.62 kg |
STS 108 is an American shuttle spacecraft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 22:19 UT on 5 December 2001. It carried a crew of seven astronauts (one Russian and six American) and three tonnes of food and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS), and docked with it at 19:59 UT on 7 December 2001. It is the 12th shuttle mission to the ISS, and carried an Italian cargo module that was attached to the Unity module of the ISS. Later the cargo was transferred to the Destiny laboratory. The crew did a spacewalk to install a thermal blanket over the Beta Gimbal Assemblies (BGAs) at the base of the solar panels that are intended to direct the panels sunward at an optimal angle. It carried also a Starshine 2 microsatellite for release. In addition, the shuttle carried four GAS (Get Away Special) containers, one with seven experiments from Utah State University students, the second with three experiments from Penn State University students, the third with Swedish Space Corp experiments, and the fourth with NASA/AMES experiments. An animal enclosure module carried a few mice, and a bird module some quail eggs. The STS landed back in Cape Canaveral at 17:55 UT on 17 December 2001, with the crew that included three astronauts (two Russian and one American) that had spent 129 days on the ISS.
Mission patch:
