STS-97 (101)

Endeavour (15)

Pad 39-B (46)

101st Shuttle Mission

15th Flight OV-105

Night Launch (24)

Night Landing (16)

KSC Landing (53)

Crew:

Brent W. Jett (3), Commander

Michael J. Bloomfield (2), Pilot

Joseph R. Tanner (3), Mission Specialist

Carlos I. Noriega (2), Mission Specialist

Marc Garneau (3), (CSA) Mission Specialist

Milestones:

OPF -- 02/24/00 (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 2/28/2000)

VAB --

PAD -- 10/31/00 (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 10/31/2000)

Payload:

Space Station Flight ISS-04-4A (PV Module P6)

Mission Objectives:

STS-97 will build and enhance the capabilities of the International Space Station.It will deliver the first set of U.S.-provided solar arrays and batteries as well as radiators to provide cooling. The Shuttle will spend 5-days docked to the station, which at that time will be staffed by the first station crew. Two spacewalks will be conducted to complete assembly operations while the arrays are attached and unfurled. A communications system for voice and telemetry also will be installed.

During 10 days punctuated by space flight firsts, the Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-97 will see the International Space Station spread its wings -- giant solar arrays that will quintuple the station's electrical power, enabling future unparalleled research.

The 240-foot solar arrays to be attached and unfolded by Endeavour’s international crew of five – Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Carlos Noriega and Canadian Space AgencyastronautMarc Garneau – will be the longest structure to ever fly in space. Endeavour will carry aloft the United States-developed solar arrays, associated electronics, batteries, cooling radiator, and support structure. The entire 17-ton package is called the P6 Integrated Truss Segment, and it will be the heaviest and largest element yet delivered to the station aboard a Shuttle.

The addition of the huge solar arrays – only the first of three identical such sets that will be attached to the station in coming years -- will clearly distinguish the International Space Station from any predecessor spacecraft. They will provide the station with more electrical power, a key to successful modern research, than anything that has flown before. Endeavour also will be the first Space Shuttle to visit an inhabited International Space Station, although the Shuttle crew and station crew of Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev will not greet one another until the hatches are fully opened between the spacecraft on the seventh day of the mission.

Endeavour is targeted for launch on STS-97 at 10:05 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center. Florida, at the opening of a launch window that extends for between two to five minutes. After two days spent slowly closing in on the complex and checking out equipment, Jett will maneuver Endeavour to dock with the International Space Station just before 2 p.m. on Dec. 2, given an on-time launch.

Immediately after docking, Garneau will use the shuttle's 50-foot, Canadian-built robotic arm to initially lift the truss segment a few feet out of the shuttle cargo bay, holding it in position there overnight to control its temperature. Also, the Shuttle crew will open the station's outermost hatch and stow some early supplies in an outer compartment of the station to await retrieval later in the mission by the Expedition One crew.

On the following day, the crew will begin installing the solar arrays on the station, with Tanner and Noriega conducting the first of two planned six and a half hour space walks. With Tanner and Noriega assisting from outside, Garneau will use the robotic arm to attach the truss segment package, including the folded arrays and electronics, atop a smaller exterior framework already on the station. Tanner and Noriega will visually assist Garneau to properly align the new segment. The two space walkers will tighten attachment bolts to ensure the P6 truss is mechanically secure. Next, they will connect umbilicals for power and data between the new equipment and the rest of the station, as well as release various restraints that were in place to protect equipment during the Shuttle’s launch. Near the end of the first space walk, the crew will send commands to begin deploying the solar arrays, folded for launch into a box only 20 inches thick, to their full outstretched length.

A second space walk by Tanner and Noriega on the sixth day of the mission will move a communications antenna to a location high on the new truss segment. During the last half of the space walk, they will prepare the station for the next shuttle visit that will deliver the first laboratory, the United States' Destiny lab, in January 2001. The capability exists to add a third space walk by Tanner and Noriega to the mission if needed.

The Shuttle and station crews will greet one another for the first time on the seventh day of the mission as they fully open the hatches between the two spacecraft. The crews will spend two days working together, transferring supplies and equipment back and forth. Endeavour's visit and the power from the new solar arrays will allow the station crew to begin conducting some of the first experiments aboard the station after Endeavour departs. Those experiments will include: student experiments conducted in conjunction with the national JASON education project that will study the effects of space on soybean and corn seeds; an experiment developed by the Air Force and the Massachusetts Institute of Science and Technology that will study new control mechanisms for satellites; and several medical evaluations that will study the effectiveness of exercise on the station's treadmill and other exercise equipment.

Based an on-time launch on Nov. 30, Bloomfield is scheduled to undock Endeavour from the station just after noon CST on Dec. 8, performing a full-circle flyaround of the complex before departing the vicinity. The day after the undocking will be spent preparing Endeavour for landing, and the Shuttle's touchdown would occur at the Kennedy Space Center about 5:46 p.m. CST on Dec. 10, nine days, 20 hours and 41 minutes after launch.

STS-97 will be the 15th flight of Endeavour and the 101st Space Shuttle mission.

Launch:

November 30, 2000 10:06 p.m. EST Launch Window was less than 5 min.

External tank loading was orignally scheduled for 12:30 p.m. EST but was delayed until 2:51 p.m while the Mission Management Team discussed a loose bracket hanging down from the side of the white room. The White Room access arm was retracted and the bracket was removed at 2:35 p.m. At 5:35 p.m. EST, external tank loading was complete. At 6:16pm the flight crew left the O&C building and departed for launch Pad 39-B. They entered the orbiter and

hatch was closed and locked for flight. With about 9 minutes remaining in the planned 45 minute hold (9:46 p.m. EST) the range identified they were a no-go for launch while they investigated a problem with a momentary signal dropout. The problem was quickly resolved and the countdown picked up on schedule at the T-minus 9 minute mark at 9:57 p.m EST. Launch occured at the opening of the window.

Orbit:

Altitude: 173nm

Inclination: 51.6

Orbits: 170

Duration: 10 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes, 20 seconds.

Distance: miles

Hardware:

SRB:

SRM:

ET : SN-105

MLP : 1

SSME-1: SN-

SSME-2: SN-

SSME-3: SN-

Landing:

KSC December 11, 6:04 p.m. EST KSC Runway 15

A go for the deorbit burn was given at 4:37 p.m. EST . The burn took place at 4:57 EST. Landing Times:

Main Gear Down MET 10 days 19 hours 57 min 25 sec (6:03:25 EST)

Nose Gear Down MET 10 days 19 hours 57 min 34 sec (6:03:34 EST)

Wheel Stop MET 10 days 19 hours 58 min 20 sec (6:04:20 EST)