Service Module to be Launched on 12 July 2000

A launch date for the Service Module has been announced: 12 July 2000 at 05.02 GMT. The date was set at the ISS Flight1R GDR (General Design Review). The International Space Station team is meeting in Moscow this week to discuss a wide range of issues. In addition to the 1R GDR, A "mini JPR" (Joint Program Review) and a 1P Final GDR were held last Friday. Flight 1P is the 31 July 2000 Progress M1 mission that will fly just after the Service Module is in orbit.

Things are going to be rather busy in space this Summer and Fall. After the Service Module and Progress missions, STS-106 will follow on the 2a.2b logistics mission on 8 September - a near copy of the STS-101 mission flown last month. Shortly after that there will be another Progress M1 mission (2P), and another Shuttle flight, STS-92. STS-92 will fly mission ISS-03-3A and deliver Integrated Truss Structure (ITS) Z1, Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3), the Ku-band Communications System, and the Control Moment Gyros (CMGs).

If all of this goes according to plan, a Soyuz TM will be launched on mission 2R around 30 October 2000 with Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev - the Expedition 1 crew. This will be the first full time crew of the International Space Station.

Related Links

° June 28 Press Conference Will Describe Next International Space Station Component - Zvezda Living Quarters, NASA PAO
° Human Spaceflight, NASA
° International Space Station, SpaceRef Directory
° Space Shuttle Mission Guides, SpaceRef