STS- 91 Official NASA Crew Portrait

Official NASA Crew Portrait - STS-91 Crew

Full Colour 8 x 10 Photo

STS-91 Crew Portrait (January 1998) --- The final crew members scheduled to visit Russia's Mir Space Station pose for a crew portrait during training at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Pictured with their helmets in front are astronauts Dominic C. Gorie (left) and Charles J. Precourt. Others, from the left, are Wendy B. Lawrence, Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Janet L. Kavandi, Valeriy V. Ryumin and Andrew S. W. Thomas. Precourt is mission commander, and Gorie, pilot, for Discovery's summer 1998 mission to Mir. Thomas, who will have been serving as a guest researcher on Mir since late January, will return to Earth with the crew members. Lawrence, Chang-Diaz, Kavandi and Ryumin are all mission specialists. Ryumin represents the Russian Space Agency (RSA). Discovery will carry the single module version of Spacehab for the scheduled nine-day mission.

STS-91 was the final Space Shuttle mission to the Mir space station. It was flown by Space Shuttle Discovery, and launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 2, 1998.

STS-91 marked the final Shuttle/Mir Docking Mission. This Phase 1 Program was a precursor to the International Space Station maintaining a continuous American presence in space and developing the procedures and hardware required for an international partnership in space.

The mission was the first to use the super lightweight external tank (SLWT) which was the same size, at 154 feet (47 m) long and 27 feet (8.2 m) in diameter, as the external tank used on previous launches, but 7,500 pounds (3,400 kg) lighter. The tank was made of an aluminum lithium alloy and the tank's structural design had also been improved making it 30 percent stronger and 5 percent less dense. The walls of the redesigned hydrogen tank were machined in an orthogonal waffle-like pattern, providing more strength and stability than the previous design. These improvements would later provide additional payload capacity to the International Space Station.

PHOTO CREDIT : NASA

This is a borderless 8 x 10 Photograph on Fuji/Kodak Paper

The actual print is sharper and more detailed than on the online image.

This is a superior quality photograph, suitable for autographing, matting or framing. Great for collecting the autographs of the astronauts.