May 19, 1999. Copyright 1999. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

DISCOVERYÕS CREW MAKE FIRST STATION VISIT

LONDON, May 19, Graphic News: THE SHUTTLE DiscoveryÕs international crew of seven will become the first visitors to the new International Space Station on mission STS-96, preparing the Station for the arrival of its living quarters and laying out a welcome mat for the first station crew.

But delays caused by the cash-strapped Russian Space AgencyÕs inability to finish work on the stationÕs command module has resulted in some improvisation in DiscoveryÕs mission. U.S. Navy Commander Kent Rominger must manoeuvre Discovery more than 200 miles (320 km) above Earth and dock with the International Space Station as both pass over a Russian ground site. 

The command module was supposed to be in place to provide motion control for the space station. Instead, the massive Russian power station Zarya Ð already mated to the U.S. Unity Node 1 module in orbit Ð will handle motion control under command of the Russian ground station. A function for which it was not designed, says Rominger.

Discovery will then spend six days linked to the new outpost as the crew transfers and installs gear that could not be launched aboard the Zarya and Unity modules due to weight limitations. The Shuttle will carry more than 3,600lb (1,632kg) of supplies to be stored aboard the station, ranging from food and clothes for the first crew to laptop computers, a printer and cameras.

DiscoveryÕs crew, led by astronaut Rominger, 42, reflects the global nature of the station with three of five international partners represented. Included are cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, 46, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette, 35, who will become the first Canadian to board the station. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Husband, 41, will serve as pilot, and a spacewalk will be performed by astronauts Tammy Jernigan, 40, and Dr. Daniel Barry, 42. Jernigan and Barry will attach a United States-built spacewalkersÕ ÒcraneÓ and parts of a Russian-built crane to the exterior for use on future missions. Astronaut Ellen Ochoa rounds out the crew as flight engineer and operator of the ShuttleÕs mechanical arm.

DiscoveryÕs mission will set the stage for the launch this autumn of the Russian-provided Service Module, the first station living quarters, and the arrival in early 2000 of the first three-person station crew.

More than 40 shuttle missions are planned during the five-year construction phase of the $60 billion International Space Station, a 16-nation effort to create a permanent research outpost in space.

Sources: NASA, Reuters, Associated Press




PICTURE CAPTION

International crew of Space Shuttle Discovery mission to the International Space Station. Left to right, anti-clockwise: Rick D. Husband, pilot; Tamara E. Jernigan, mission specialist; astronaut Kent V. Rominger, mission commander; Julie Payette, mission specialist, representing the Canadian Space Agency (CSA); Daniel T. Barry, mission specialist; Ellen Ochoa, mission specialist; and RussiaÕs Valery Ivanovich Tokarev, mission specialist
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