STS-108

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem STS-108
Mission dates
Mission: STS-108
COSPAR-ID : 2001-054A
Crew: 7th
Begin: December 5, 2001, 22:19:28  UTC
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39B
Space station: ISS
Coupling: December 7, 2001, 20:03:29 UTC
Decoupling: December 15, 2001, 17:28:00 UTC
Duration on the ISS: 7d 21h 24min 31s
Landing: December 17, 2001, 17:55:10 UTC
Landing place: Kennedy Space Center, Lane 15
Flight duration: 11d 19h 35min 42s
Earth orbits: 185
Track height: Max. 377 km
Covered track: 7.7 million km
Payload: MPLM Raffaello, STARSHINE 2 satellite, spare parts
Team photo
V. l. To the right: Mark Kelly, Linda Godwin, Daniel Tani, Dominic Gorie
V. l. To the right: Mark Kelly, Linda Godwin, Daniel Tani, Dominic Gorie
◄ Before / After ►
STS-105 STS-109

STS-108 ( English Space Transportation System ) is the mission designation for a flight of the US Space Shuttle Endeavor (OV-105) of NASA . The launch took place on December 5, 2001. It was the 107th space shuttle mission, the 17th flight of the space shuttle Endeavor and the 12th flight of a shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS).

team

Shuttle crew

ISS crew outward flight

ISS expedition 4 :

replacement

ISS crew return flight

ISS expedition 3 :

(Returned to Earth after a flight time of 128 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes; one-way flight on STS-105 )

Mission overview

A large number of different scientific experiments were delivered to the ISS on this flight with the Italian multipurpose module Raffaello. In addition, the long-term crew of the International Space Station was replaced by a new team. In total, the Endeavor remained connected to the station for eight days, during which a space exit was carried out.

Mission history

The Endeavor brought the fourth regular crew of ISS Expedition 4 to the International Space Station. On board was the Raffaello logistics module, in which almost 3 t of supplies, experimental materials and spare parts were transported. The docking with the station took place on December 7th, 8:03 pm UTC. Almost 3 hours later, the hatches were opened and, after a brief welcome ceremony, the unloading of the cargo began. The following day the logistics module was lifted out of the shuttle's loading bay and attached to the Unity module.

On December 9th, command of the station was handed over to the new crew. Previously, the bucket seats in the rescue spaceship had been replaced and the personal belongings of the previous crew had been packed. The hatches were closed again for a planned exit maneuver.

On December 10th, astronauts Godwin and Tani worked in space for 4:12 hours. To get out, they used the Endeavor lock. First, they installed several thermal covers over the motors, which are used to align the solar cell panels with the sun. Previously, intermittent voltage peaks had been identified that could lead to damage. The cause was suspected to be the large temperature differences between points exposed to sunlight and shadows. The subsequent securing of a bracket on one of the solar cell panels failed. Then an antenna cover was recovered that had been temporarily stored in an outer container during an earlier mission. Finally, Godwin and Tani attached two switch boxes outboard of the station, which will be needed for a later disembarkation.

After disembarking, the connecting hatches could be opened again. Now the shuttle crew also took part in the loading and unloading work in the Raffaello freight module. A total of around 2.4 t of food, clothing, experimental material and maintenance material were unloaded and 0.8 t of consumables and experiments (Advanced Protein Crystal Facility and DreamTime complete, Dynamically Controlled Protein Crystal Growth and CBOSS samples only) were returned to Earth. The flight was extended by one day for additional repairs. The repairs related primarily to the treadmill and a compressor in the climate system of the module Zvezda .

During the joint flight, the complex's orbit was raised 17 kilometers during three scheduled propulsion phases. On December 15th, the shuttle's engines were used again to avoid an old rocket power stage from the 1970s. Raffaello was previously deposited again in the hold of the Endeavor.

After uncoupling from the station, the shuttle flew around it partially, taking many detailed photos. Later, the small Starshine 2 satellite, encased with 845 mirrors and 20 laser reflectors, was launched. It served students from 23 countries as a reference point for orbit measurements for about 8 months. With the help of these measured values, the density of the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere can be calculated.

In the loading bay of the shuttle (Hitchhiker Payloads, picture on the right) there were several automatic scientific experiments. These included an experiment to test a vibration-free pump system (Capillary Pumped Loop Experiment) which uses capillary forces for heat absorption and for the fluid cycle, an experimental measurement system for cosmic background radiation (Prototype Synchrotron Radiation Detector), a material science experiment (Collisions Into Dust Experiment 2), in which the interactions between rocks of small size and speed are investigated and a whole series of international experiments in a Space Experiment Module (Argentina, Portugal, Morocco, Australia).

In the middle deck of the Endeavor there was an incubator (Avian Development Facility), which contained 36 eggs from Japanese quails, the development of which was stopped at various stages with the help of a fixative. The incubator has precise controls for temperature , humidity , carbon dioxide and oxygen content and can be observed and operated from the ground. The quail eggs were stored vibration-insulated and could be exposed to a dosed artificial gravity substitute in a centrifuge . 24 laboratory mice were kept in the Commercial Biomedical Testing Module Experiment (CBTME). Twelve of them were treated for osteoporosis with the drug osteoprotegerin . The other twelve animals received a placebo . The spread of smoldering fires in weightlessness (microgravity smoldering combustion) was also examined.

On December 9th and 11th, several ceremonies were held on earth and in space to commemorate the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. There were also flags and symbols from various organizations on board the Endeavor. This included the New York Fire Department and Police.

After a successful flight, the Endeavor landed on the concrete runway of the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida.

photos

  • Shuttle crew with the crews from ISS expeditions 3 and 4

  • Launch of the Starshine-2 satellite

See also

Web links

Commons : STS-108  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files