Status Report

Atlantis Liftoff Set Sep 8 to open doors of new space station module

By SpaceRef Editor
August 29, 2000
Filed under

Following a thorough review of mission preparations today,
the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis has been set for Sept. 8, 2000 on a
mission that will open the doors to the International Space Station’s new
living quarters.

“This mission begins a series of Station assembly flights
aboard the Shuttle during the next year that will be as complex and
challenging as anything NASA has ever done, including landing a man on the
moon,” Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said. “I believe these
flights will be as impressive as they are complex. The team has done a
fantastic job preparing Atlantis for this mission, and we’re excited and
ready to get started.”

Atlantis’s liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center on Shuttle
mission STS-106 will be targeted for 8:45 a.m. EDT at the opening of a
launch window that will be less than five minutes long. During the planned
11-day flight, the crew of seven will spend a week docked to the
International Space Station, unloading more than one and a half tons of
equipment and supplies from both the Shuttle and from a docked Russian
Progress cargo craft.

This mission will set the stage for the arrival of the first
resident Station crew, planned to launch and begin living aboard the outpost
later this year.

Terry Wilcutt will command Atlantis and Scott D. Altman will
be pilot. The crew also includes Edward T. Lu, Richard A Mastraccchio,
Daniel C. Burbank, Yuri I. Malenchenko and Boris V. Morukov as mission
specialists. While Atlantis is docked to the Station, Lu and Malenchenko are
scheduled to perform one spacewalk to conduct assembly tasks.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at
about 4 a.m. EDT Sept. 19.

SpaceRef staff editor.