(First Space Flight) ISS Flight Engineer - Exp. 14 Mission Specialist 5:
Thomas Reiter, ESA
(Second Space Flight) ISS Flight Engineer - Ex. 14 Mission Specialist 5:
STS-116 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station(ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery Liftoff was originally scheduled for 7 December 2006, but that attempt was canceled due to a low cloud ceiling. Discovery successfully lifted off during the second launch attempt on 9 December 2006 at 20:47:35 EST. It was the first night launch of a Space Shuttle orbiter since STS-113, which launched on 23 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 22 December 2006 at Kennedy Space Centre, a delay of 98 minutes from schedule due to unfavorable weather conditions. This mission was particularly notable to Sweden since it was the first time a Scandinavian astronaut (Christer Fuglesang has visited space.
STS-116 was the final scheduled Space Shuttle flight planned for launch from Pad 39-B as NASA reconfigures the pad for Ares I launches. The only remaining use of Pad 39B by Shuttles was as a reserve for a potential STS-400rescue mission in May 2009 for STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
STS-116 was the last flight of Discovery before maintenance; the next Discovery mission was STS-120, which launched on 23 October 2007
Position Launching astronaut Landing astronaut Commander Terry Wilcutt Pilot William Oefelein Mission Specialist 1 Sweden Christer Fuglesang, ESA Mission Specialist 2 Robert Curbeam Mission Specialist 3 Michael Foale Expedition 8 ISS Commander Yuri I. Malenchenko, RKA Expedition 7 ISS Commander Mission Specialist 4 Bill McArthur Expedition 8 ISS Flight Engineer Ed Lu Expedition 7 ISS Flight Engineer Mission Specialist 5 Valery Tokarev, RKA Expedition 8 ISS Flight Engineer Aleksandr Y. Kaleri, RKA Expedition 7 ISS Flight Engineer
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The STS-116 mission delivered and attached the International Space Station's third port steel truss segment, the P5 truss. The STS-116 mission brought to the Station Expedition 14 crew member Sunita Williams (who subsequently established a record for most time in space for a female astronaut) and brought home Expedition 14 crew member Thomas Reiter from European Space Agency (launched by STS-121). Christer Fuglesang became Sweden's first astronaut. His flight was a rare occurrence of two ESA astronauts flying in space together. The third of three SPHERES testbeds launched to the ISS. Astronauts completed major rewiring of the electrical system of the International Space Station in order to bring online the P3/P4 solar array installed by STS-115 in September 2006. Additional rewiring was done to ISS Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA2) to enable Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) commencing with STS-118. One half of the original P6 solar array installed by STS-97 was folded to make room for the new P4 array deployed by STS-115 to rotate and track the sun. STS-116 was the last STS mission scheduled for launch from pad 39B. The pad will be refitted for upcoming Ares I launches. The crew of STS-116 consisted of five rookie astronauts. Only Mission Commander Mark Polansky (2) and Mission specialist Robert Curbeam (3) had previously flown in space. Robert Curbeam became the first astronaut to make four EVAs during the same mission. This was the first mission with two African-American crewmembers.
In the Space Station Processing Facility, an overhead crane moves the P5 truss for mission STS-116 to the payload transfer container.
