International Space Station Science Operations 8 Mar 2001

The Payload Operations Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala., began around-the-clock support of International Space Station science
operations today with the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery and the
station’s Expedition Two crew.

The Center’s Shuttle Operations Coordinator (SOC) will monitor the progress
of payloads as astronauts transfer them to the station from the Shuttle
middeck and the Multi Purpose Logistics Module, a “moving van” for payloads
that is making its first flight. The SOC is responsible for station payloads
during ascent, docked operations and landing. The SOC also serves as the
interface between the Payload Operations Center and Shuttle Mission Control
Center in Houston.

Among the payloads being transferred to the station will be the Human
Research Facility, the station’s first full science rack, slightly larger
than a refrigerator. The crew and ground controllers will activate and check
it out during the five-month Expedition.

Other science payloads on the Shuttle scheduled for transfer to the station
include radiation detectors – Bonner Ball Neutron Detector and the
Dosimetric Mapping experiment, and the Hoffmann Reflex neurological
experiment.

Editor’s Note: The Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages all science research experiments aboard
the International Space Station. The center is also home for coordination of
the mission-planning work of a variety of international sources, all science
payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and payload safety
programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel.