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Before entering the orbiter Discovery, STS-96 Mission Specialist Valery Ivanovich Tokarev (center) is checked out by white room closeout crew members Mechanical Technician Chris Meinert and Quality Assurance Specialist Jim Davis on the left, and Closeout Chief Travis Thompson and Suit Technician Jean Alexander on the right. The white room is an environmental chamber at the end of the orbiter access arm that provides entry to the orbiter crew compartment. STS-96 is a 10-day logistics and resupply mission for the International Space Station, carrying about 4,000 pounds of supplies, to be stored aboard the station for use by future crews, including laptop computers, cameras, tools, spare parts, and clothing. The mission also includes such payloads as a Russian crane, the Strela; a U.S.-built crane; the Spacehab Oceaneering Space System Box (SHOSS), a logistics items carrier; and STARSHINE, a student-involved experiment. It will include a space walk to attach the cranes to the outside of the ISS for use in future construction. Space Shuttle Discovery is due to launch today at 6:49 a.m. EDT. Landing is expected at the SLF on June 6 about 1:58 a.m. EDT KSC-99pp0601
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Before entering the orbiter Discovery, STS-96 Mission Specialist Valery Ivanovich Tokarev (center) is checked out by white room closeout crew members Mechanical Technician Chris Meinert and Quality Assurance Specialist Jim Davis on the left, and Closeout Chief Travis Thompson and Suit Technician Jean Alexander on the right. The white room is an environmental chamber at the end of the orbiter access arm that provides entry to the orbiter crew compartment. STS-96 is a 10-day logistics and resupply mission for the International Space Station, carrying about 4,000 pounds of supplies, to be stored aboard the station for use by future crews, including laptop computers, cameras, tools, spare parts, and clothing. The mission also includes such payloads as a Russian crane, the Strela; a U.S.-built crane; the Spacehab Oceaneering Space System Box (SHOSS), a logistics items carrier; and STARSHINE, a student-involved experiment. It will include a space walk to attach the cranes to the outside of the ISS for use in future construction. Space Shuttle Discovery is due to launch today at 6:49 a.m. EDT. Landing is expected at the SLF on June 6 about 1:58 a.m. EDT
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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