Field Journal

Mission Complete!
By: Brandt Secosh

September 20, 2000

STS 106 departed Kennedy Space Center at 8:45 EDT, September  8, 2000. The crew of STS 106 was tasked to prepare the International Space Station for its' first Expeditionary occupants later this fall. This will mark the start of  a permanent human presence on the ISS! The weather looked very questionable that morning with lightning north of the pad 39B. The weather held off just long enough for Atlantis to treat the spectators to a picture perfect launch. As always, an International audience was present. Most of the people that I spoke with that morning were on vacation and took the opportunity to come over to Titusville to see the launch. The Champagne and Smith families of Titusville, FL have witnessed many launches and keep coming back for more. The Champagnes' had brought their daughter Brooke along with them to see her first launch. All of the people that I met were enthusiastic supporters of the space program and a delight to talk to. About an hour after Atlantis departed it began raining here at KSC. This didn't bother the crew of STS 106! They were well on their way to carry out their 12 day mission.

During that 12 day period of time Atlantis had traveled 4.9 million miles and had spent 7 days, 21 hours and 54 minutes docked to the International Space Station. The crew delivered over three tons of cargo to the station. A joint U.S. and Russian space walk was completed to join electrical and communications cables between Zvezda and the Zarya Control Module. The Canadian built robotic arm onboard Atlantis was used extensively for much of the assembly work. Docking took place on day three of the mission. On day five Atlantis's crew entered the ISS to begin unloading 1,300 pounds of goods from the Russian craft Progress. Progress is a resupply craft that docked to the Zvezda module on July 26, 2000. The supplies included items ranging from clothing to medical kits, personal hygiene kits, laptop computers, a color printer, vacuum cleaners, food warmers for Zvezda's galley, trash bags and critical life support hardware, including an Elektron oxygen generation unit and a Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal unit. Elektron and Vozdukh will be unstowed from the Progress and moved into Zvezda, but will not be installed and activated until the Expedition One crew arrives on board. Two tons of equipment from the SPACEHAB module, including medical equipment for the ISS' Crew Health Care System, or CheCS, which will serve as the heart of the station's clinic for orbiting crews, and a treadmill device and bicycle ergometer which will serve as the first exercise gear for crews on board the ISS.

In the time that the STS 106 crew left on it's mission hurricane Gordon passed through the state of Florida and has since degenerated to a tropical depression. The weather was much more inviting for the landing of  STS 106 than it was just a few days ago. As most of the residents in the state and around the nation were sleeping, STS 106 approached runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center in the pre-dawn hours and made a flawless landing at 3:56 am EST. As always, Atlantis announced its return with a crisp dual sonic boom. This was the 23rd consecutive landing of a shuttle at Kennedy Space Center. Congratulations to the crew of STS 106!

Just two weeks from now on Oct 5, Discovery will launch on the next assembly flight to the station. Seven astronauts will install a large truss structure to the Unity node of the Station, housing motion control gear and communications equipment. The Z1 truss will also serve as the mounting platform for the large U.S. solar arrays for the station which will be delivered late this year. Space Team Online is planning a webcast of the launch activities so plan on joining us!