STS-104 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 n ...

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 ''Atlantis''. Its primary objectives were to install the ''Quest'' Joint Airlock and help perform maintenance on the

. It launched on 12 July 2001 at 09:04 UTC, and returned to Earth without incident after successful docking, equipment installation, and three spacewalks.

Crew

Mission highlights

The primary purpose of the flight was to deliver and install the ''Quest'' airlock. The Joint Airlock is a pressurized flight element consisting of two cylindrical chambers attached end-to-end by a connecting bulkhead and hatch. Once installed and activated, the ISS airlock became the primary path for International Space Station space walk entry and departure for U.S. spacesuits, which are known as Extravehicular Mobility Units, or EMUs. In addition, the Joint Airlock is designed to support the Russian

Orlan spacesuit 270px, Cosmonaut Maksim Surayev next to two Orlan-MK models on the International Space Station image:Sharipov one.jpg, 270px, Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, next to the Orlan-M spacesuit. The Orlan space suit (russian: Орлан, lit=Sea eagle (b ...

for EVA activity. The Joint Airlock is 20 ft (6.1 m) long, 13 ft (4.0 m) in diameter and weighs 6.5

short ton The short ton (symbol tn) is a measurement unit equal to . It is commonly used in the United States, where it is known simply as a ton, although the term is ambiguous, the single word being variously used for short, long, and metric ton. The var ...

s (5.9

metric tons The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

). It is made from steel and aluminum, and manufactured at the

Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's firs ...

(MSFC) by the Space Station main contractor Boeing. The ISS-airlock has two main components: a crew airlock and an equipment airlock for storing EVA gear and EVA preflight preps. STS-104 also carries a spacelab pallet with four High Pressure Gas Assembly containers that were attached to the exterior of the airlock. Mission Specialists Michael Gernhardt and James Reilly conducted three space walks while Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' was docked to the International Space Station. They spent a total of 16 hours and 30 minutes outside. During the first space walk, Gernhardt and Reilly assisted in the installation of the airlock. During the second and third excursions, they focused on the external outfitting of the ''Quest'' airlock with four High Pressure Gas Tanks, handrails and other vital equipment. The third spacewalk was conducted from ''Quest'' itself. STS-104 was the final Space Shuttle mission to have a five-member crew. All succeeding missions would have six or seven (except the final mission

STS-135 STS-135 ( ISS assembly flight ULF7) was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter ''Atlantis'' and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 la ...

, which had 4).

First flight of Block II SSME

STS-104 was the first shuttle mission to fly with a "Block II"

SSME The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel rocket, liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is currently used on the Space Launch System (SLS). Desig ...

. Post-launch analysis indicated an anomaly occurred when the engine was shut down. The cause was determined and the mitigation approach was demonstrated on the

STS-108 STS-108 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Endeavour''. Its primary objective was to deliver supplies to and help maintain the ISS. STS-108 was the 12th shuttle flight to visit the ...

flight in November 2001.

Space walks

*'' Gernhardt and Reilly '' – EVA 1 *EVA 1 Start: 15 July 2001 – 03:10 UTC *EVA 1 End: 15 July 2001 – 09:09 UTC *Duration: 5 hours, 59 minutes *'' Gernhardt and Reilly '' – EVA 2 *EVA 2 Start: 18 July 2001 – 03:04 UTC *EVA 2 End: 18 July 2001 – 09:33 UTC *Duration: 6 hours, 29 minutes *'' Gernhardt and Reilly '' – EVA 3 *EVA 3 Start: 21 July 2001 – 04:35 UTC *EVA 3 End: 21 July 2001 – 08:37 UTC *Duration: 4 hours, 02 minutes STS-104 Payload Bay view

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the

Gemini program Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...

, which was first used to wake up a flight crew during

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to land on the Moon. It was the first J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greater focus on science than ear ...

. Each track is specially chosen, often by their families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.

References

External links

NASA mission summary

{{Use American English, date=January 2014 Space Shuttle missions Spacecraft launched in 2001