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STS-91 Mission Commander Charles J. Precourt (at microphone) talks to the media at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility upon the crew's arrival aboard T-38 jets from Ellington Field, Texas, as part of final preparations for launch. The other crew members are, from left to right, Pilot Dominic Gorie and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Ph.D.; Wendy B. Lawrence; Valery Ryumin, with the Russian Space Agency; and Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ph.D. STS-91 is scheduled to be launched on June 2 on Space Shuttle Discovery with a launch window opening around 6:10 p.m. EDT. The mission will feature the ninth Shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station Mir, the first Mir docking for Discovery, the conclusion of Phase I of the joint U.S.-Russian International Space Station Program, and the first flight of the new Space Shuttle super lightweight external tank. Andrew Thomas, Ph.D., will be returning to Earth with the crew after living more than four months aboard Mir KSC-98pc661
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STS-91 Mission Commander Charles J. Precourt (at microphone) talks to the media at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility upon the crew's arrival aboard T-38 jets from Ellington Field, Texas, as part of final preparations for launch. The other crew members are, from left to right, Pilot Dominic Gorie and Mission Specialists Janet Kavandi, Ph.D.; Wendy B. Lawrence; Valery Ryumin, with the Russian Space Agency; and Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ph.D. STS-91 is scheduled to be launched on June 2 on Space Shuttle Discovery with a launch window opening around 6:10 p.m. EDT. The mission will feature the ninth Shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station Mir, the first Mir docking for Discovery, the conclusion of Phase I of the joint U.S.-Russian International Space Station Program, and the first flight of the new Space Shuttle super lightweight external tank. Andrew Thomas, Ph.D., will be returning to Earth with the crew after living more than four months aboard Mir
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
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