At 01:10 Moscow time U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery was launched from
a launch pad at Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station
(ISS). Under the ISS assembly program the mission of the Space Shuttle
bears a designation of 7A.1 (STS-105 according to NASA classification).
The Space Shuttle Discovery carries a crew of U.S. astronauts – Scott
Horowitz (Commander), Friderick Sturckow (Pilot), Patrick Forrester
(First Mission Specialist) and Daniel Barry (Second Mission Specialist)
– as well as the ISS Expedition Three crew – U.S. astronaut Frank L.
Culbertson (ISS 3 Commander) and Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov
(ISS 3 Pilot and Soyuz TM Commander) and Mikhail Tyurin (S.P. Korolev
RSC Energia Research Cosmonaut – ISS 3 Flight Engineer).
The prime objectives of the STS-105 mission are to deliver the Expedition
Three crew (ISS-3) and return the Expedition Two crew – Yury Usachev
(S.P. Korolev RSC Energia Research Cosmonaut – ISS 2 Commander), and
U.S. astronauts Jim Voss (Flight Engineer 1) and Susan Helms (Flight
Engineer 2) – to Earth, which have been working aboard the Station since
March 10, 2001. In addition, the Space Shuttle Discovery will deliver
equipment to outfit the U.S.
On-orbit Segment including complementary laboratory racks, equipment
and consumables carried by the Leonardo Italian Logistics Module installed
in the Shuttle’s payload bay. Two egresses into space are planned to
be performed during the shuttle flight as part of the Station for equipment
installation.
Besides the Leonardo module, the Space Shuttle will return to Earth
two sets of docking hardware Kurs to be reused, which was dismounted
from cargo vehicle Progress M1-6 and manned spacecraft Soyuz TM-32,
and some other cargoes.
The docking of the Space Shuttle Orbiter with the Space Station is slated
on 12.08.01 at 22:38 Moscow Time.
The International Space Station of about 130.3 tons currently consists
of Russian vehicles Progress M1-6, Soyuz TM-32, Russian Service module
Zvezda, Functional Cargo Block Zarya, U.S. modules Unity (outfitted
with solar array trusses and EVA airlock) and Destiny. The Station onboard
systems operate in a normal mode.
The ISS-2 crew is conducting the mission program operations aboard the
Station, making it ready for the Discovery docking.
According to the data from the Lead Operational Control Team, the International
Space Station travels in orbit with the following parameters: inclination
of 51.6*, maximum and minimum altitudes of 411.7 and 385.2 km, respectively.
The orbital period is 92.3 minutes.
