STS-116
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| This article or section contains information regarding a future spaceflight. Due to the nature of the content, details may change dramatically as the launch date approaches and/or more information becomes available. | Image:Atlas I launching CRRES satellite1.jpg |
| Mission statistics | |
|---|---|
| Mission name: | STS-116
<tr><th>Shuttle:</th><td>Discovery</td></tr><tr><th>Number of crew members:</th><td>7</td></tr><tr><th>Launch pad:</th><td>39-B</td></tr> |
| Launch: | December 7, 2006
09:35 p.m. EST |
| Landing: | NET December 19, 2006 4:36 p.m. EST (21:36 GMT) |
| Duration: | 12 Days |
| Previous mission | Next mission |
|---|---|
| STS-115 | STS-117 |
STS-116 is the next Space Shuttle mission scheduled for December 7, 2006. The main goals of the mission are to deliver and attach the International Space Station's (ISS) third port truss segment, the P5 truss, to carry out a major rewiring of the station's power system, and to exchange ISS Expedition 14 personnel. The vehicle used for this mission will be the Space Shuttle Discovery.
STS-116 is the final scheduled Shuttle flight to be conducted from Pad 39-B, the only remaining use of the pad by the Shuttle program being the potential Launch on Need (LON) mission associated with STS-125 contingency.
Contents |
[edit] Crew
As one of the main goals of STS-116 is to exchange ISS Expedition 14 crew members, the crew of STS-116 will change mid-flight. ISS Flight Engineer Sunita Williams will be part of the STS-116 crew for the first portion of the mission. She will then replace ISS Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter on the Expedition 14 crew and Reiter will join the STS-116 crew for the return to Earth.
- Mark Polansky (2) - Commander - NASA
- William Oefelein (1) - Pilot - NASA
- Robert Curbeam (3) - Mission specialist - NASA
- Joan Higginbotham (1) - Mission specialist - NASA
- Nicholas Patrick (1) - Mission specialist - NASA
- Christer Fuglesang (1) - Mission specialist - ESA Sweden
[edit] Launching ISS Expedition 14 Crew:
- Sunita Williams (1) - ISS Flight Engineer - NASA
[edit] Landing ISS Expedition 14 Crew:
- Thomas Reiter (2) - ISS Flight Engineer - ESA Germany
Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.
[edit] Mission highlights
- The STS-116 mission will deliver and attach the International Space Station's third port truss segment, the P5 truss.
- The STS-116 mission will bring to the Station Expedition 14 crew member Sunita Williams and bring home Expedition 14 crew member Thomas Reiter from European Space Agency (launched by STS-121).
- Christer Fuglesang is Sweden's first astronaut. His flight would also be a rare occurrence of two ESA astronauts flying in space together.
- The third of three SPHERES testbeds will launch to the ISS.
- Major rewiring of the ISS's electrical system in order to bring online the P3/P4 solar array installed by STS-115 in September.
- Additional rewiring to ISS Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA2) to enable Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) commencing with STS-118.<ref>eriolastrada. Re: STS-116/12A.1 Status (bbs posting).</ref><ref>shuttle_guy. Re: STS-116/12A.1 Status (bbs posting).</ref>
- One half of the original P6 solar array installed by STS-97 will be folded to make room for the new P4 array deployed by STS-115 to rotate to track the sun.
- STS-116 is the last STS mission scheduled for launch from pad 39B. The pad will be refitted for upcoming Ares I launches.
[edit] Mission payloads
The primary payload for the STS-116 mission is the P5 Truss segment of the International Space Station. The shuttle will also carry a Spacehab module to resupply the ISS, as well as four satellites, which will be deployed in the course of the mission. These are the ANDE technology demonstrator developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, and three cubesats (RAFT1 and MarsCOM for the United States Naval Academy, and Mepsi-2 for DARPA.) It will be the first mission to deploy satellites since before the Columbia disaster.
[edit] Mission background
STS-116 was planned (post return-to-flight) to launch on December 14, 2006. But, in November 29 NASA announced that the launch team had been asked to aim for a launch on Dec. 7 rather than the original target date of Dec. 14. The launch window for the STS-116 mission opens on Dec. 7 and extends through Dec. 17. The seven-member flight crew will arrive for launch at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility the afternoon of Dec. 3. Primary payloads on the 12-day mission are the P5 integrated truss segment, SPACEHAB single logistics module and an integrated cargo carrier. The STS-116 mission will be the 20th flight to the station. Launch on the new, earlier date would require a night-time launch. Subsequent to the Columbia disaster, NASA had imposed rules requiring shuttle launches to be conducted during the day, when light would be sufficient for cameras to observe falling debris. With the redesign of shuttle tank foam having minimized the amount of falling debris and the availability of in-orbit inspection procedures, the daylight-launch requirement was relaxed.<ref>NASA hopes to launch next shuttle a week early. Yahoo! NEWS. Retrieved on September 30, 2006.</ref>
Rollover of Discovery to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) occurred on October 31, and on November 1 the orbiter was raised into a vertical orientation and moved into High Bay 3 to be mated with the external tank and solid rocket boosters. Rollout to Launch Complex 39B was completed on Thursday, November 9.
If Discovery doesn't launch by December 18, NASA may be forced to delay the launch until the beginning of 2007, as a launch after this date would force the shuttle to be in orbit through the beginning of the new year. The reason for possible delay is that the shuttle's computers were not built to recognize the beginning of a new year, so the computer would consider January 1, 2007 to be the 366th day of 2006. NASA is considering adding December 6 to the launch window to provide some security. <ref>Computer glitch limits next space shuttle launch. Yahoo! NEWS. Retrieved on November 6, 2006.</ref>
The seven-member crew for the mission arrived at Kennedy Space Center on the November 13 to begin their final four-day prelaunch training for the mission, which included familiarisation activities, rehearsal of emergency procedures and practise on NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft, along with a simulated countdown, which took place on the morning of November 16. The astronauts have now returned to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and will return to Kennedy Space Center on December 3, four days before launch.
The payloads for the mission, including a SPACEHAB module and the P5 truss, were loaded from the payload canister into Discovery's payload bay on 16 November, and, with the sealing of the payload bay doors, all that remains is to fill the external fuel tank before the Discovery shuttle stack is in full launch configuration. With the completion of the Flight Readiness Review over November 28-29 (which evaluated all activities and elements necessary for the safe and successful performance of the shuttle during the mission, including the Orbiter itself, the payload and flight crew), Discovery was given her Certificate of Flight Readiness, the launch date was officially set to December 7, and the mission officially given the "Go" for launch.
[edit] Contingency planning
[edit] STS-301
STS-301 was the designation given to the Contingency Shuttle Crew Support mission which would have been launched in the event Space Shuttle Atlantis had become disabled during STS-115. It was a modified version of the STS-116 mission, which would have involved the launch date being brought forward. If needed, it would have launched no earlier than November 11, 2006. The crew for this mission was a four-person subset of the full STS-116 crew:
- Mark Polansky - Commander and prime Remote Manipulator System (RMS) operator
- William Oefelein - Pilot and backup RMS operator
- Robert Curbeam - Mission specialist 1, Extravehicular 1
- Nicholas Patrick - Mission specialist 2, Extravehicular 2
[edit] STS-317
In the event the Discovery suffers irreparable damage while in orbit during STS-116, the crew will take refuge at the ISS and wait for a Contingency Shuttle Crew Support mission to launch. The mission would be STS-317 and would be flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis no earlier than February 21, 2007. The crew for this rescue mission would be a subset of the full STS-117 crew.
[edit] Mission parameters
[edit] References
<references/>
[edit] See also
- Space science
- Space shuttle
- List of space shuttle missions
- List of human spaceflights chronologically
- 2006 in spaceflight
[edit] External links
- STS-116 News Site - Updated as it happens - from www.exploration-space.com
- STS-116 mission overview - NASA's website
- STS-116 Press Kit PDF
- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
| Manned spaceflights to the International Space Station |
|---|---|
| STS-88 | STS-96 | STS-101 | STS-106 | STS-92 | Soyuz TM-31 | STS-97 | STS-98 | STS-102 | STS-100 | Soyuz TM-32 | STS-104 | STS-105 | Soyuz TM-33 | STS-108 | STS-110 | Soyuz TM-34 | STS-111 | STS-112 | Soyuz TMA-1 | STS-113 | Soyuz TMA-2 | Soyuz TMA-3 | Soyuz TMA-4 | Soyuz TMA-5 | Soyuz TMA-6 | STS-114 | Soyuz TMA-7 | Soyuz TMA-8 | STS-121 | STS-115 | |
| In progress: Soyuz TMA-9 | |
| Upcoming: STS-116 | STS-117 | Soyuz TMA-10 | STS-118 | STS-120 | |
| Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103) |
|---|
| STS-41-D | STS-51-A | STS-51-C | STS-51-D | STS-51-G | STS-51-I | STS-26 | STS-29 | STS-33 | STS-31 | STS-41 | STS-39 | STS-48 | STS-42 | STS-53 | STS-56 | STS-51 | STS-60 | STS-64 | STS-63 | STS-70 | STS-82 | STS-85 | STS-91 | STS-95 | STS-96 | STS-103 | STS-92 | STS-102 | STS-105 | STS-114 | STS-121 |
| Upcoming: STS-116 | STS-122 | STS-125 | STS-127 | STS-129 | STS-131 |
| Status: Operational |
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