NASA today named three astronauts to the crew of space
shuttle mission STS-111, scheduled to launch in 2002 to
deliver a new International Space Station resident crew and a
Canadian-built mobile base for the orbiting outpost’s robotic
arm. STS-111 is also the second space shuttle mission
dedicated to delivering research equipment to the space
platform.
Veteran space shuttle commander Kenneth D. Cockrell will
command Endeavour on the mission. Paul Lockhart (Lt. Col.,
USAF) will serve as pilot and Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ph.D., will
be a mission specialist. French Space Agency astronaut
Philippe Perrin (Lt. Col., French Air Force) previously was
named an STS-111 mission specialist
During STS-111 Chang-Diaz and Perrin will perform two
spacewalks to install the Canadian Mobile Base System for the
station’s robotic arm. The system will allow the arm to travel
up and down the station truss to aid in station maintenance
and assembly tasks.
Cockrell will be making his fifth space flight. He flew once
as a mission specialist, once as a pilot and twice as
commander. Lockhart, selected as an astronaut in 1996, has
held technical positions in the Astronaut Office Spacecraft
Systems and Operations Branch and will be making his first
space flight. Chang-Diaz will be making his seventh space
flight, as many as any astronaut in history. Perrin, after
service in the French Navy and as a test pilot in the French
Air Force, was selected as an astronaut in 1996 and is making
his first space flight.
Also flying aboard Endeavour to the space station will be the
station’s fifth resident crew. The Expedition Five crew
comprises Commander Valeri Korzun (Col., Russian Air Force)
and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson, M.D., and Sergei Treschev.
Returning to Earth aboard Endeavour will be the Expedition
Four crew, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko (Col., Russian Air
Force) and Flight Engineers Carl Walz (Col., USAF) and Dan
Bursch (Capt., USN).
