STS-92 was a

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially 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. Its official program na ...

mission to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Discovery''. STS-92 marked the 100th mission of the

. It was launched from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, 11 October 2000.

Crew

Spacewalks

*'' Chiao and McArthur '' – EVA 1 *EVA 1 Start: 15 October 2000 – 14:27 UTC *EVA 1 End: 15 October 2000 – 20:55 UTC *Duration: 6 hours, 28 minutes *'' López-Alegría and Wisoff '' – EVA 2 *EVA 2 Start: 16 October 2000 – 14:15 UTC *EVA 2 End: 16 October 2000 – 21:22 UTC *Duration: 7 hours, 07 minutes *'' Chiao and McArthur '' – EVA 3 *EVA 3 Start: 17 October 2000 – 14:30 UTC *EVA 3 End: 17 October 2000 – 21:18 UTC *Duration: 6 hours, 48 minutes *'' López-Alegría and Wisoff '' – EVA 4 *EVA 4 Start: 18 October 2000 – 15:00 UTC *EVA 4 End: 18 October 2000 – 21:56 UTC *Duration: 6 hours, 56 minutes

Mission highlights

STS-92 was an ISS assembly flight that brought the

Z1 truss The Integrated Truss Structure (ITS) of the International Space Station (ISS) consists of a linear arranged sequence of connected trusses on which various unpressurized components are mounted such as logistics carriers, radiators, solar arrays, ...

, Control Moment Gyros,

Pressurized Mating Adapter The Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA) is a class of spacecraft adapters that convert the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) used on the US Orbital Segment to APAS-95 docking ports. There are three PMAs located on the International Space Station (IS ...

-3 (PMA-3) (mounted on a

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

pallet) and two DDCU (

Heat pipes A heat pipe is a heat-transfer device that employs phase transition to transfer heat between two solid interfaces. At the hot interface of a heat pipe, a volatile liquid in contact with a thermally conductive solid surface turns into a vapor ...

) to the

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

. The

was the first

exterior In mathematics, specifically in topology, the interior of a subset of a topological space is the union of all subsets of that are open in . A point that is in the interior of is an interior point of . The interior of is the complement of the ...

framework installed on the ISS and allowed the first U.S. solar arrays to be temporarily installed on ''

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

'' for early power during flight 4A. The Ku-band communication system supported early science capabilities and U.S. television on flight 6A. The CMGs (Control Moment Gyros) weigh about and provide non-propulsive (electrically powered) attitude control when activated on flight 5A, and PMA-3 provides shuttle docking port for solar array installation on flight 4A and

Destiny Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often ...

Lab installation on flight 5A. The mission included seven days of docked operations with the

, four EVAs, and two ingress opportunities. Over the course of four scheduled

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

, two teams of space walkers and an experienced

robot arm A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...

operator collaborated to install the Z1 (Z for zenith port) truss structure on top of the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

connecting node on the growing station and to deliver the third Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA 3) to the

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

for the future berthing of new station components and to accommodate shuttle dockings. The

was the first permanent lattice-work structure for the ISS, very much like a girder, setting the stage for the future addition of the station's major

trusses A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembla ...

or backbones. The Z1 fixture also served as the platform on which the huge U.S.

solar arrays A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and c ...

were mounted on the next shuttle assembly flight, STS-97. The Z1 truss included many elements of the Communications and Tracking subsystem. The hardware included a

Transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

/Receiver/Controller (SGTRC) built by L3 Communications Systems-East in Camden, NJ. John Schina was the Chief Engineer of the ISS Program at L3. The Z1 contains four large

gyroscopic A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotat ...

devices, called

Control Moment Gyroscope A control moment gyroscope (CMG) is an attitude control device generally used in spacecraft attitude control systems. A CMG consists of a spinning rotor and one or more motorized gimbals that tilt the rotor’s angular momentum. As the rotor tilts ...

(CMGs), which are used to maneuver the

into the proper orientation on

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

once they were activated following the installation of the

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

. During the fourth

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 environmen ...

, astronauts Wisoff and López-Alegría tested the

SAFER In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...

jet backpack, flying up to 50

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

while remaining

tethered A tether is a cord, fixture, or flexible attachment that characteristically anchors something movable to something fixed; it also maybe used to connect two movable objects, such as an item being towed by its tow. Applications for tethers includ ...

to the

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

Media

File:STS-92 launch.ogv File:STS-92 landing.ogv

References

External links