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Space Station 20th: Two Months to Go to Expedition 1

NASA accepts US Lab Destiny from Boeing, prepares shuttles for ISS resupply and assembly

With the launch of the Expedition 1 crew to the International Space Station (ISS) only two months away, teams at Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) made progress preparing future elements for launch. After an acceptance review, Boeing handed over to NASA the US Laboratory module Destiny, the primary US research element. Workers prepared other elements for future launches. Elsewhere at KSC, workers readied Space Shuttles Atlantis and Discovery for the next two missions to outfit ISS for the first crew’s arrival in early November 2000. The Expedition 1 crew of Commander William M. Shepherd, Flight Engineer Sergei K. Krikalev, and Soyuz Commander Yuri P. Gidzenko and their backups Kenneth D. Bowersox, Mikhail V. Tyurin and Vladimir N. Dezhurov continued their training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City outside of Moscow.

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Left: View of the SSPF with multiple ISS elements being readied for launch.
Right: Greene, left and Mills signing formal documents turning
Destiny over
from Boeing to NASA. 

By August 2000, nearly 90 percent of the station’s hardware had been manufactured, and elements amounting to more than 280,000 pounds were in the SSPF undergoing final assembly and pre-flight testing. NASA formally accepted the US Laboratory research module Destiny from the Boeing Co. on Aug. 31, 2000.  Jay H. Greene, deputy manager of the ISS Program Office, formally accepted the element at KSC from Joseph C. “Joe” Mills, deputy ISS program manager at Boeing. The handover followed an extensive two-day review by an Acceptance Review Board that assessed all the engineering and testing results documents to ensure the module’s readiness for the next phase of prelaunch preparations. Greene said, “It has been a pleasure to watch the NASA/Boeing team come together to accomplish this major milestone in the ISS program.”

destiny_at_marshall_space_flight_center_dec_10_1997 destiny_first_standoff_installation destiny_utility_standoffs_during_construction_date_unknown
Left: US Lab in the Element Rotation Stand at Boeing’s facility in Huntsville, Alabama.
Middle: Installation of the first rack standoff.
Right: Interior of US Lab showing all four rack standoffs installed.

Although the US Lab module’s initial design and requirements date back to the 1980s as part of Space Station Freedom, Boeing began construction of the 28-foot long module in 1995 at its facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The interior design of the module included 24 racks in a quad arrangement, with 8 racks each along the two side walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Four standoffs installed longitudinally in the module at 90 degree intervals provided support for the utilities to the racks. Eleven of the racks provided systems functions such as electrical power, communications, computers to control the station, and life support.  The module launched partially outfitted with five racks installed with the remaining six brought up on the following shuttle mission. The 13 racks dedicated to research arrived over multiple shuttle outfitting and resupply missions.

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Left: Bridges, left, Brinkley, and Cockrell at Destiny naming ceremony.
Right: Workers install the first systems rack into
Destiny.

The US Lab module arrived at KSC’s SSPF on Nov. 16, 1998, to begin prelaunch integration. On Nov. 30 of that year, in a ceremony headlined by KSC Director Roy D. Bridges, ISS Program Manager Randy H. Brinkley, and Kenneth D. Cockrell, Commander of STS-98 the mission that delivered the module to ISS, the US Lab was officially named Destiny. Workers in the SSPF began the installation of the systems racks into the module and in early 2000 conducted a Multi-Element Integrated Test (MEIT) with several ISS elements, including Destiny, to ensure they communicated with each other on the ground before they were launched into orbit.

sts_106_atlantis_rollout_to_39_b_aug_13_2000 sts_106_spacehab_module_in_payload_changeout_room_at_39b_aug_10_2000 sts_106_tcdt_aug_17_2000
Left: Space Shuttle Atlantis rolls out to Launch Pad 39B for STS-106.
Middle: The STS-106 payload including the double Spacehab module in the Payload
Changeout Room at Pad 39B. Right: The STS-106 crew participate in the TCDT.

Preparations at KSC were underway for STS-106 and STS-92, the last two shuttle missions before the Expedition 1 crew took up residence aboard ISS to begin permanent human occupancy in space. Workers rolled Space Shuttle Atlantis out to Launch Pad 39B on Aug. 13, 2000, ahead of its early September launch on the STS-106 mission. The payload for the flight including a double Spacehab module with supplies to outfit the Zvezda Service Module arrived at the pad’s Payload Changeout Room on Aug. 15. The seven-member STS-106 crew, comprising five Americans and two Russians, completed the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) on Aug. 17.

sts_92_z1_truss_turned_over_from_boeing_to_nasa_sspf_jul_30_2000 sts_92_crew_examines_z1_truss_in_sspf_jul_30_2000 sts_92_discovery_mating_w_et_srbs_aug_23_2000
Left: STS-92 Commander Duffy accepts the key to the Z1 Truss from Boeing’s
Elbon in the SSPF. Middle: STS-92 crewmembers examine the Z1 Truss in the SSPF.
Right: Space Shuttle
Discovery being lifted to be mated to its ET and SRBs in the VAB.

Brian Duffy, Commander of STS-92, accepted the ceremonial key to the Z1 Truss from Boeing’s director of ISS ground operations John Elbon in the SSPF on July 30, 2000. Duffy and the rest of his crew who installed the first truss segment onto ISS during the October 2000 STS-92 mission then inspected the element. In KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), workers mated Space Shuttle Discovery with its External Tank (ET) and Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) on Aug. 23 in preparation for its September rollout to Launch Pad 39A.

To be continued…