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 design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

(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 196 ...

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, a ...

, 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, Control Moment Gyros, Pressurized Mating Adapter-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 ...

. The Z1 truss was the first exterior framework installed on the ISS and allowed the first U.S. solar arrays to be temporarily installed on '' Unity'' 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 oft ...

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, two teams of space walkers and an experienced robot arm operator collaborated to install the Z1 (Z for zenith port) truss structure on top of the U.S. Unity connecting node on the growing station and to deliver the third Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA 3) to the ISS for the future berthing of new station components and to accommodate shuttle dockings. The Z1 truss 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 assembl ...

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 ...

were mounted on the next shuttle assembly flight,

STS-97 STS-97 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (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 ...

. 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. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

/Receiver/Controller (SGTRC) built by L3 Communications Systems-East in Camden, NJ. John Schina was the Chief Engineer of the

ISS Program The International Space Station programme is tied together by a complex set of legal, political and financial agreements between the fifteen nations involved in the project, governing ownership of the various components, rights to crewing and ...

at L3. The Z1 contains four large gyroscopic 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 tilt ...

(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 a ...

once they were activated following the installation of the U.S.

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: physici ...

. 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 Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...

, astronauts Wisoff and López-Alegría tested the SAFER jet backpack, flying up to 50 feet 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 include ...

to the

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

Media

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

References

External links