STS-116 Astronauts Honored at the White House (photo)
President Bush recognizes NASA astronauts Joan Higginbotham, right, and Robert Curbeam, during a ceremony honoring African-American History Month, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. Curbeam and Higginbotham were crew members of Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-116 mission to the International Space Station in December 2006. It was the first shuttle mission with two African-American crew members
During the 13-day mission — the 20th shuttle flight to the International Space Station — the crew rewired the outpost’s power system and continued constructing the station by installing the P5 integrated truss segment. As the only STS-116 crew member to participate in all four spacewalks, Curbeam set a shuttle program record for the most spacewalks performed by one astronaut during a single mission. Higginbotham directed the transfer of 5,800 pounds of much-needed supplies and equipment to the station from the SPACEHAB single logistics module in the orbiter’s payload bay.
Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
