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STS-116
STS-116 (also known as ISS-12A) was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. Discovery lifted off on December 9, 2006 for her 33rd flight at 20:47:35 EST. A previous launch attempt on December 7 had been canceled due to cloud cover. It was the first night launch of a Space Shuttle since STS-113 in November 2002.
The mission is also referred to as ISS-12A.1 by the ISS program. The main goals of the mission were delivery and attachment of the International Space Station's P5 truss segment, a major rewiring of the station's power system, and exchange of ISS Expedition 14 personnel. The shuttle landed at 17:32 EST on December 22, 2006, at Kennedy Space Center 98 minutes off schedule due to unfavorable weather conditions. This mission was particularly notable to Sweden, being the first spaceflight of a Scandinavian astronaut (Christer Fuglesang).
STS-116 was the final scheduled Space Shuttle launch from Pad 39B as NASA reconfigured it for Ares I launches. The only remaining use of Pad 39B by the shuttle was as a reserve for the STS-400 Launch on Need mission to rescue the crew of STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, if their shuttle became damaged.
After STS-116, Discovery entered a period of maintenance. Its next mission would be STS-120 starting on October 23, 2007.
Originally this mission was to carry the Expedition 8 crew to the ISS. The original crew was to be:
As one of the main goals of STS-116 was to exchange ISS Expedition 14 crew members, the crew of STS-116 changed mid-flight. ISS Flight Engineer Sunita "Suni" Williams was part of the STS-116 crew for the first portion of the mission. She then replaced ISS Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter on the Expedition 14 crew and Reiter joined the STS-116 crew for the return to Earth.
During planned orbiter upgrades that took place subsequent to this mission, Discovery's Assembly Power Converter Units (APCUs) were removed and replaced with the shuttle-side components of the Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS). The APCUs converted 28VDC orbiter main bus power to 124VDC, compatible with the ISS's 120VDC main bus power. During initial station assembly missions, orbiter APCU power was used to augment the power available from the Russian service segment. With the operation of permanent main electrical systems (e.g. P4 array and SARJ, MBSUs, DDCUs, Ammonia cooling systems), orbiter power was no longer needed by the ISS.
After STS-118, Discovery and Endeavour drew power from the ISS, although Atlantis was never upgraded with the SSPTS. This system slowed the orbiters' consumption of hydrogen and oxygen used by their onboard electricity-generating fuel cells. The hydrogen and oxygen supplies, stored cryogenically in tanks aboard the orbiter, limited the duration of Space Shuttle missions. As a result of the changeover to SSPTS, Discovery and Endeavour gained approximately 50% of the time that would have been spent docked otherwise. This resulted in 2–4 extra days for each ISS-docked mission.
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STS-116
STS-116 (also known as ISS-12A) was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. Discovery lifted off on December 9, 2006 for her 33rd flight at 20:47:35 EST. A previous launch attempt on December 7 had been canceled due to cloud cover. It was the first night launch of a Space Shuttle since STS-113 in November 2002.
The mission is also referred to as ISS-12A.1 by the ISS program. The main goals of the mission were delivery and attachment of the International Space Station's P5 truss segment, a major rewiring of the station's power system, and exchange of ISS Expedition 14 personnel. The shuttle landed at 17:32 EST on December 22, 2006, at Kennedy Space Center 98 minutes off schedule due to unfavorable weather conditions. This mission was particularly notable to Sweden, being the first spaceflight of a Scandinavian astronaut (Christer Fuglesang).
STS-116 was the final scheduled Space Shuttle launch from Pad 39B as NASA reconfigured it for Ares I launches. The only remaining use of Pad 39B by the shuttle was as a reserve for the STS-400 Launch on Need mission to rescue the crew of STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, if their shuttle became damaged.
After STS-116, Discovery entered a period of maintenance. Its next mission would be STS-120 starting on October 23, 2007.
Originally this mission was to carry the Expedition 8 crew to the ISS. The original crew was to be:
As one of the main goals of STS-116 was to exchange ISS Expedition 14 crew members, the crew of STS-116 changed mid-flight. ISS Flight Engineer Sunita "Suni" Williams was part of the STS-116 crew for the first portion of the mission. She then replaced ISS Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter on the Expedition 14 crew and Reiter joined the STS-116 crew for the return to Earth.
During planned orbiter upgrades that took place subsequent to this mission, Discovery's Assembly Power Converter Units (APCUs) were removed and replaced with the shuttle-side components of the Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS). The APCUs converted 28VDC orbiter main bus power to 124VDC, compatible with the ISS's 120VDC main bus power. During initial station assembly missions, orbiter APCU power was used to augment the power available from the Russian service segment. With the operation of permanent main electrical systems (e.g. P4 array and SARJ, MBSUs, DDCUs, Ammonia cooling systems), orbiter power was no longer needed by the ISS.
After STS-118, Discovery and Endeavour drew power from the ISS, although Atlantis was never upgraded with the SSPTS. This system slowed the orbiters' consumption of hydrogen and oxygen used by their onboard electricity-generating fuel cells. The hydrogen and oxygen supplies, stored cryogenically in tanks aboard the orbiter, limited the duration of Space Shuttle missions. As a result of the changeover to SSPTS, Discovery and Endeavour gained approximately 50% of the time that would have been spent docked otherwise. This resulted in 2–4 extra days for each ISS-docked mission.