STS-104 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

STS-104 was a Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

mission to the International Space Station

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

(ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States...

. Its primary objectives were to install the Quest Joint Airlock and help perform maintenance on the International Space Station

International Space Station

. It was successful and returned to Earth without incident, after a successful docking, equipment installation and three spacewalks.

Crew

Mission parameters

Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

:
- Orbiter Liftoff: 117129 kilograms (258,225.2 lb)
- Orbiter Landing: 94009 kilograms (207,254.4 lb)
- Payload: 8241 kilograms (18,168.3 lb)
Perigee
Perigee
Perigee is the point at which an object makes its closest approach to the Earth.. Often the term is used in a broader sense to define the point in an orbit where the orbiting body is closest to the body it orbits. The opposite is the apogee, the farthest or highest point.The Greek prefix "peri"...

: 372 kilometres (231.2 mi)
Apogee: 390 kilometres (242.3 mi)
Inclination
Inclination
Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.-Orbits:The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit...

: 51.6°
Period
Orbital period
The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars.There are several kinds of...

: 92.2 min

Mission highlights

The primary purpose of the flight was to deliver and install the Quest airlock. The Joint Airlock is a pressurized flight element consisting of two cylindrical chambers attached end-to-end by a connecting bulkhead and hatch. Once installed and activated, the ISS airlock became the primary path for International Space Station space walk entry and departure for U.S. spacesuits, which are known as Extravehicular Mobility Units, or EMUs. In addition, the Joint Airlock is designed to support the Russian Orlan spacesuit for EVA activity.

The Joint Airlock is 20 ft (6.1 m) long, 13 ft (4.0 m) in diameter and weighs 6.5 short ton

Short ton

The short ton is a unit of mass equal to . In the United States it is often called simply ton without distinguishing it from the metric ton or the long ton ; rather, the other two are specifically noted. There are, however, some U.S...

s (5.9 metric tons

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

). It was built at the Marshall Space Flight Center

Marshall Space Flight Center

The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. The largest center of NASA, MSFC's first mission was developing the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo moon program...

(MSFC) by the Space Station Prime Contractor Boeing. The ISS-airlock has two main components: a crew airlock and an equipment airlock for storing EVA gear and EVA preflight preps. STS-104 also carries a spacelab pallet with four High Pressure Gas Assembly containers that were attached to the exterior of the airlock.

Mission Specialists Michael Gernhardt and James Reilly conducted three space walks while Space Shuttle Atlantis was docked to the International Space Station. They spent a total of 16 hours and 30 minutes outside. During the first space walk, Gernhardt and Reilly assisted in the installation of the airlock. During the second and third excursions, they focused on the external outfitting of the Quest airlock with four High Pressure Gas Tanks, handrails and other vital equipment. The third spacewalk was conducted from Quest itself.

First flight of Block II SSME

STS-104 was the first shuttle mission to fly with a "Block II" SSME

Space Shuttle main engine

The RS-25, otherwise known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine , is a reusable liquid-fuel rocket engine built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for the Space Shuttle, running on liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Each Space Shuttle was propelled by three SSMEs mated to one powerhead...

. Post-launch analysis indicated an anomaly occurred when the engine was shut down. The cause was determined and the mitigation approach was demonstrated on the STS-108

STS-108

STS-108 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. Its primary objective was to deliver supplies to and help maintain the ISS....

flight in November 2001.

Space walks

Gernhardt and Reilly – EVA 1
EVA 1 Start: 15 July 2001 – 03:10 UTC
EVA 1 End: 15 July 2001 – 09:09 UTC
Duration: 5 hours, 59 minutes
Gernhardt and Reilly – EVA 2
EVA 2 Start: 18 July 2001 – 03:04 UTC
EVA 2 End: 18 July 2001 – 09:33 UTC
Duration: 6 hours, 29 minutes
Gernhardt and Reilly – EVA 3
EVA 3 Start: 21 July 2001 – 04:35 UTC
EVA 3 End: 21 July 2001 – 08:37 UTC
Duration: 4 hours, 02 minutes

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, which was first used to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15

Apollo 15

Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the American Apollo space program, the fourth to land on the Moon and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed "J missions", long duration stays on the Moon with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous...

.
Each track is specially chosen, often by their families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.

Flight Day	Song	Artist/Composer	Links
Day 2	"Wallace Courts Murron"	Braveheart Braveheart Braveheart is a 1995 epic historical drama war film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. The film was written for the screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace... Soundtrack	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 3	"God of Wonders"	Caedmons Call	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 4	"Space Cowboy"	'N Sync 'N Sync N Sync was an American boy band formed in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich, *NSYNC consisted of JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick...	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 5	"No Woman, No Cry No Woman, No Cry "No Woman, No Cry" is a reggae song by Bob Marley & The Wailers. The song first became known in 1974 through the studio album Natty Dread. The live version from the 1975 album Live! is perhaps best known — it was this version which was released on the greatest hits compilation Legend. The original... "	Bob Marley Bob Marley Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 6	"Nobody Does it Better Nobody Does It Better "Nobody Does It Better" is a power ballad composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager. It was recorded by Carly Simon as the theme song for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. It was the first Bond theme song to be titled differently from the name of the film, although... "	Carly Simon Carly Simon Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work... , from the The Spy Who Loved Me The Spy Who Loved Me (soundtrack) The Spy Who Loved Me is the soundtrack for the 10th James Bond film of the same name.The theme song "Nobody Does It Better" was composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager and was performed by Carly Simon... soundtrack	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 7	"Happy Birthday, Darling"	Conway Twitty Conway Twitty Conway Twitty , born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B, and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 55 No. 1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006...	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 8	"All I Wanna Do All I Wanna Do (Sheryl Crow song) English singer/songwriter Amy Studt released a cover version of the song as her fourth single. Amy was asked personally by Sheryl Crow to record a cover of the song.... "	Sheryl Crow Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 9	"A Time to Dance"	Space Center Intermediate School Symphonic Band	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 10	"I Could Write a Book I Could Write a Book "I Could Write a Book" is a show tune from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey , where it was introduced by Gene Kelly and Leila Ernst.-Notable recordings:Betty Carter - The Audience with Betty Carter Harry Connick, Jr... "	Harry Connick Jr., from the soundtrack to When Harry Met Sally	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 11	"Who Let the Dogs Out? Who Let the Dogs Out? "Who Let the Dogs Out?" is a song written and originally recorded by Anslem Douglas for Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival season of 1998. It was heard and taped on a float by hairdresser Keith from the London salon Smile, who played it to Jonathan King, who recorded it and released it under the name... "	The Baha Boys	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 12	"Orinoco Flow Orinoco Flow "Orinoco Flow " is a 1988 single written and recorded by Enya. It also featured on her second studio album, Watermark.-Background:... "	Enya Enya Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 13	"Honey, I'm Home Honey, I'm Home "Honey, I'm Home" is a song by Shania Twain, from her album Come On Over, released as the sixth overall single, being the fifth to country radio. The song was written by Mutt Lange and Shania Twain. The song was originally released in the summer of 1998 following the mass success of "You're Still... "	Shania Twain Shania Twain Shania Twain, OC is a Canadian country pop singer-songwriter. Her album The Woman in Me , brought her fame and her 1997 album Come On Over, became the best-selling album of all time by a female musician in any genre, and the best-selling country album of all time. It has sold over 40 million...	wav mp3 Transcript
Day 14	"Hold Back the Rain"	Duran Duran Duran Duran Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...	wav mp3 Transcript

External links

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