32 Years Later: Day Two: Tuesday, August 8, 2001, Briefing

The following day, August 8th, at noon, we arrived at Kennedy's Space Center Complex and Spaceport USA, to collect our mission packets at the Protocol Office, and to attend a 1 p.m., 45-minute briefing at the Universe Theatre. The packet contained information about the crew, stickers, photos, and maps of Kennedy Space Center (KSC). KSC's Internet Director, Dennis Armstrong gives us the briefing about the mission, followed with John Coward, engineer and flight director of 4-shuttle missions. John talked in detail of the orbiter facilities and landing procedures along with a multimedia presentation.
Space Transportation System 105 or known simply STS-105 was the 11th Space Shuttle flight to the ISS. Astronaut Scott J. Horowitz (Ph.D), will serve as commander on his forth space flight. Astronauts Frederick W. "Rick" Sturckow will serve as pilot, and Mission Specialist Daniel T. Barry (M.D., Ph. D), will make his third flight into space. Astronaut Patrick G. Forrester will serve as a mission specialist on his first flight. Crew members of Expedition Three, astronaut Frank L. Culbertson Jr., cosmonauts Mikhail Turin and Vladimir Nikolaevich Dezhurov, and several payloads and scientific experiments, would make the journey up to the Station aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. The current Expedition Two crewmembers on the station, cosmonaut Yury Usachev and astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms will return to Earth.

Payloads aboard Discovery include the Multi-Purpose Logistic Module (MPLM) Leonardo, built by the Italian Space Agency on its second flight into space, and an Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS) tank. Several scientific experiments also will be carried aboard Discovery. Discovery's crew, using the Shuttle's robotic arm, will transfer the Leonardo module from the payload bay and attach it to the Station. During Mission STS-105, the crew of Discovery will remove EAS and attach it to the Station during two spacewalks. The EAS consists of two nitrogen tanks that provide compressed gaseous nitrogen to pressurize the ammonia tank and replenish it, as needed, in the thermal control subsystems of the ISS.

Space Shuttle Discovery will also carry experiments known as Hitchhiker Experiments Advancing Technology (HEAT). The HEAT payload complement consists of three experiment: Simplesat, AMTEC and SEM, which will fly in Discovery’s payload bay mounted on two adapter beams on the port and starboard sides of the Shuttle. Simplesat is an engineering test satellite designed to evaluate the use of inexpensive commercial hardware on spacecraft. Discovery will deploy the satellite after undocking from the Station. Simplesat’s purpose is to demonstrate Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) attitude control and fine pointing control while in low-Earth orbit.
The Alkali Metal Thermal-to-Electric Converter (AMTEC) flight experiment, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), will study the efficient conversion of heat into electrical energy. This experiment will be used on the Shuttle and is expected to demonstrate the usefulness of the AMTEC technology for military or commercial satellite power systems and for power systems on NASA outer planetary research missions.

Next page