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STS-96 & ISS News

STS-96, the ISS 2A.1 mission originally conceived as NASA's chance to launch the Interim Control Module (ICM) to the ISS as a temporary replacement to the Russian Service Module, transformed into a supply and construction mission to the ISS.

The change was made a year ago when a decision was made to modify the ICM to dock to the Service Module instead of the Zarya (FGB). At the time, the Service Module was hoped to launch in the summer of 1999, and the larger risk appeared to be Russia's inability to resupply the ISS with Progress spacecraft due to economic troubles and continuing support of Mir. Russia's capacity to build Progress and Soyuz transports is 12 per year combined, and it takes 1-2 years to finish one once a decision is made to build. As of STS-96 flight, RKK Energia was forced to take out loans to pay for long lead time items to construct Progress and Soyuz for use by the ISS. In one year the ISS will require 6 Progress and 2 Soyuz in the most demanding year planned so far according to Frank Culbertson, ISS program manager.

Given the time required to modify the ICM, the decision was made in 1998 to forgo the ability to dock it to Zarya's active Conus docking port and reconfigure it for docking to the Service Modules passive Conus port.

Thus, 2A.1 did not carry the ICM as originally envisioned, but only dry supplies for transfer into the ISS and some exterior equipment for installation during EVA's. Dubbed a resupply flight which was really a misnomer for the ISS had yet to consume any supplies, STS-96 delivered a first set of logistics for use by the first ISS crew, clothing replacement parts to repair the Unity early communications system which failed in during a test. Russian Altair relay links are also out of order limiting communications to the ISS to group passes over Asia. Among the extrenal supplies were peices of the Russian Strela crane and NASA crane and other tools. Total cargo carried up was 1961.6 kg.

The external cargos were carried on a new Spacehab external cargo carrier in the shuttle payload bay. They included the Strela and NASA cranes, and EVA tools.

The crew also installed equipment inside the station like replacement parts for the Early Communications System, noise mufflers and replacement ampmeters in Zarya, and supplies for the first crews. 98 bags of supplies were transfered in all.

Another task of the crew was to realign a Unity hatch.

The ISS prior to docking	EVA training with virtual reality aids before flight
	The Strela and NASA crane on the Spacehab cargo carrier
A tour of the ISS begins looking through Zarya toward its docking node	The Zarya docking node looking into PMA-1
Looking from Zarya through PMA-1 toward Unity	Entering Unityand looking toward PMA-2 and the Shuttle

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