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STS-98
ISS Destiny Lab.jpg
Atlantis' Canadarm grapples Destiny, prior to the module's installation on the ISS
Mission type ISS assembly
Operator NASA
Mission duration 12 days, 21 hours, 21 minutes, 0 seconds
Distance travelled 8,500,000 kilometers (5,300,000 mi)
Orbits completed 171
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft Space Shuttle Atlantis
Launch mass 115,529 kilograms (254,698 lb)
Landing mass 90,225 kilograms (198,912 lb)
Payload mass 14,515 kilograms (32,000 lb)
Crew
Crew size 5
Members
  • Kenneth D. Cockrell
  • Mark L. Polansky
  • Robert L. Curbeam, Jr.
  • Marsha S. Ivins
  • Thomas D. Jones
Start of mission
Launch date 7 February 2001, 23:13 (2001-02-07UTC23:13Z) UTC
Launch site Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Landing date 20 February 2001, 20:33 (2001-02-20UTC20:34Z) UTC
Landing site Edwards Runway 22
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Perigee 365 kilometers (197 nmi)
Apogee 378 kilometers (204 nmi)
Inclination 51.6 degrees
Period 92 minutes
Docking with ISS
Docking port PMA-3
(Unity nadir)
Docking date 9 February 2001, 16:51 UTC
Undocking date 16 February 2001, 14:05 UTC
Time docked 6 days, 21 hours, 14 minutes
Sts-98-patch.png STS-98 crew.jpg
L-R: Robert Curbeam, Mark Polansky, Marsha Ivins, Kenneth Cockrell and Thomas Jones
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STS-98 was a 2001 Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was the first human spaceflight launch of the 21st century. STS-98 delivered to the station the Destiny Laboratory Module. All mission objectives were completed and the shuttle reentered and landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base on 20 February 2001, after twelve days in space, six of which were spent docked to the ISS.

Crew

Position Astronaut
Commander Kenneth D. Cockrell
Fourth spaceflight
Pilot Mark L. Polansky
First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1 Robert L. Curbeam
Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2 Marsha S. Ivins
Fifth and last spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3 Thomas D. Jones
Fourth and last spaceflight

Launch attempts

Attempt Planned Result Turnaround Reason Decision point Weather go (%) Notes
1 19 Jan 2001, 2:10:42 am scrubbed technical 15 Jan 2001, 3:00 pm rollback to VAB for booster separation cable inspection
2 7 Feb 2001, 6:11:16 pm success 19 days, 16 hours, 1 minute 90%

Mission highlights

STS-98 Atlantis on the crawler
A Crawler-Transporter ferrying Space Shuttle Atlantis to launch pad 39-A for the STS-98 mission.
Atlantis launch plume edit
STS-98 following liftoff.
STS98 inflight crew portrait
STS-98 crewmembers pose for the traditional inflight portrait on the flight deck of the Space Shuttle Atlantis

The crew continued the task of building and enhancing the International Space Station by delivering the U.S. Destiny Laboratory Module. It was the first NASA lab to be permanently used since the days of Skylab nearly three decades earlier. It was manufactured by Boeing at the Michoud Assembly Facility and the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1997. Upon transport to Kennedy Space Center's industrial buildings, it was fitted with equipment, machines, racks and cables at the Operations and Checkout Building and Space Station Processing Facility. The U.S. laboratory module is 28 feet (8.5 m) long and 14 feet (4.3 m) wide. It is made from stainless steel and aluminum, and comprises three cylindrical sections and two end-cones that contain the hatch openings through which astronauts enter and exit the module. The ends are colored blue and white respectively for the crew to navigate easily. A 20-inch (510 mm)-diameter window is located on one side of the center module segment.

During the mission, the shuttle docked to PMA 3 located on the nadir of Node 1. The crew relocated PMA 2 to the holding area on the Z1 truss temporarily, before using the Shuttle's robotic arm to lift out the 14.5 ton steel module out of the Shuttle's payload bay, and permanently berthed it on the forward hatch of Node 1. Spacewalks conducted by Thomas Jones and Robert Curbeam reattached electrical cables to the stainless steel hull and connecting ports on Destiny, and also checked the laboratory's nadir window. PMA 2 was replaced to the forward hatch of Destiny.

The Shuttle spent six days docked to the station while the laboratory was attached and three spacewalks were conducted to complete its assembly. The mission also saw the 100th spacewalk in U.S. spaceflight history. STS-98 occurred while the first station crew was aboard the new space station.

Space walks

EVA Spacewalkers Start (UTC) End Duration
EVA 1 Thomas D. Jones
Robert L. Curbeam
10 February 2001
15:50
10 February 2001
23:24
7 hours 34 minutes
Jones and Curbeam went to the payload bay of Atlantis where they disconnected cables and removed protective covers from the outside hatch of Destiny. Once at the installation site and after Destiny had been securely installed, the pair began connecting power and data cables.
EVA 2 Jones
Curbeam
12 February 2001
15:59
12 February 2001
22:49
6 hours 50 minutes
The pair of spacewalkers went outside and assisted the robot arm operator with removing the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA-2) from the Z1 Truss segment and installing it onto the forward end of the Destiny laboratory. Once that task was complete Jones and Curbeam moved to a location on the Destiny lab and installed a Power Data and Grapple fixture and video signal converter, to be used with the Canadarm2.
EVA 3 Jones
Curbeam
14 February 2001
14:48
14 February 2001
20:13
5 hours 25 minutes
During the third and final spacewalk, the two spacewalkers attached a spare communications antenna to the International Space Station's exterior. They also double-checked connections between the Destiny lab and its docking port, released a cooling radiator on the station, inspected solar array connections at the top of the station and tested the ability of a spacewalker to carry an immobile crew member back to the shuttle airlock.

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, which was first used to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. 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.

Flight Day Song Artist/Composer Links
Day 2 "Where You At" Zoot Sims []
Day 3 "Who Let the Dogs Out" Baha Men []
Day 4 "Girl's Breakdown" Alison Brown []
Day 5 "Blue Danube Waltz" Johann Strauss Jr. []
Day 6 "Fly Me to the Moon" Frank Sinatra []
Day 7 "For Those About to Rock" AC/DC []
Day 8 "To the Moon and Back" Savage Garden []
Day 10 "The Trail We Blaze" Elton John []
Day 11 "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" Eiffel 65 []
Day 12 "Fly Away" Lenny Kravitz []
Day 14 "Should I Stay or Should I Go" The Clash []

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: STS-98 para niños

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