May 18, 2020 - Sprucing up the Station

Sprucing up the Station  Twenty years ago this week, the space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a ten-day mission to resupply the International Space Station and boost it into a higher orbit. Seen here, astronauts Jeffrey Williams (bottom) and James Voss work with the newly delivered main boom of the Russian Strela crane, which they later attached to its operator post. The pair also secured a U.S.-built crane that was installed on the station a year earlier, replaced a faulty antenna for one of the station’s communications systems, and installed several handrails on the station’s exterior. The STS-101 mission was also notable because it was the first shuttle mission with a glass cockpit, a new suite of 11 full-color flat-panel displays that replaced 32 outdated mechanical cockpit instruments and gauges. 

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

May 18 - 24, 2020

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Monday 18

Victoria Day (Canada)

Moon at apogee

1969: Apollo 10 launched
1984: Viking 1 lander given to National Air & Space Museum
1996: First test flight of DC-XA rocket
2009: 23rd and final spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope

Tuesday 19

1965: Apollo A-003 launched
1996: STS-77 Endeavour launched
2000: STS-101 Atlantis launched

Wednesday 20

Uranus 4° north of Moon

1978: Pioneer-Venus 1 launched
1995: Spektr module launched to Mir space station

Thursday 21

2010: IKAROS spacecraft launched; first successful solar-sail propulsion

Friday 22

Mercury 0.9° south of Venus
New Moon 1:39 PM ET

1969: Apollo 10 lunar module descends to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface
2012: Dragon C2+ spacecraft launched, first commercial mission to dock with ISS

Saturday 23

Venus 4° north of Moon

1984: NASA selects 10th astronaut group

Sunday 24

Mercury 3° north of Moon
Vesta 0.6° south of Moon

1962: Aurora 7 launched