STS-115

Crew

Joseph R. Tanner

Mission Specialist

Status: Retired
1/21/1950 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 11/3/1994
Last Flight: 9/9/2006

Joseph Richard "Joe" Tanner is an American instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, mechanical engineer, a former naval officer and aviator, and a former NASA astronaut. He was born in Danville, Illinois. He is unusual among astronauts as he did not have a background in flight test nor did he earn any advanced academic degrees. Typically those who did not do military flight test have an M.D. or Ph.D., if not a master's, whereas Tanner's path to becoming an astronaut followed operational military flying and then into NASA for operational jet training before being selected into the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1992, following an unsuccessful application in 1987.

Daniel C. Burbank

Mission Specialist

Status: Retired
7/27/1961 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 9/8/2000
Last Flight: 11/14/2011

Daniel Christopher Burbank is a retired American astronaut and a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Burbank, a Captain in the United States Coast Guard, is the second Coast Guard astronaut after Bruce Melnick.

Burbank was born in Manchester, Connecticut, and raised in Tolland, Connecticut, where he graduated from Tolland High School. He attended Fairfield University his freshman year before transferring to the United States Coast Guard Academy, where he earned his commission in 1985. In 1987, he went through flight training and became an instructor pilot, serving at various Coast Guard stations at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, and Coast Guard Air Station Sitka.

Brent W. Jett Jr.

Commander

Status: Retired
10/5/1958 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 1/11/1996
Last Flight: 9/9/2006

Brent Ward Jett Jr. is a retired American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aerospace and aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut.

Christopher Ferguson

Pilot

Status: Active
9/1/1961 -
Nationality: American
Type: Commercial
First Flight: 9/9/2006
Last Flight: 7/8/2011

Christopher J. Ferguson is a Boeing commercial astronaut and a retired United States Navy Captain and NASA astronaut. He was the pilot of Space Shuttle Atlantis on his first mission to space, STS-115, which launched on September 9, 2006 and returned to Earth on September 21, 2006. He then commanded STS-126 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. In 2011, he was assigned as commander of STS-135, which was the final mission of the space shuttle program.

On December 9, 2011, he retired from NASA and is now currently director of Crew and Mission Operations for Boeing's Commercial Crew Program. In August 2018, Ferguson was assigned to the first test flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner.

Steve MacLean

Mission Specialist

Status: Retired
12/14/1954 -
Nationality: Canadian
Type: Government
First Flight: 10/22/1992
Last Flight: 9/9/2006

Steven Glenwood MacLean FRCGS (born December 14, 1954) is a Canadian astronaut.
MacLean served as a Mission Specialist on STS-115, which launched on September 9, 2006, and returned on September 21, 2006. He became the first Canadian to operate the robotic arm Canadarm2. On September 13, he performed his first spacewalk, a 7-hour EVA to activate the solar panels on the P3/4 truss – the second Canadian to do so, after Chris Hadfield.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper

Mission Specialist

Status: Retired
2/7/1963 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 9/9/2006
Last Flight: 11/15/2008

Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper is an American Naval officer, engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. She has achieved the rank of Captain in the United States Navy. She is also a qualified and experienced salvage officer. Her major salvage projects include de-stranding the tanker Exxon Houston off the coast of Barbers Point, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and developing the plan for the Peruvian Navy salvage of the Peruvian submarine Pacocha.

Stefanyshyn-Piper has received numerous honors and awards, such as the Meritorious Service Medal, two Navy Commendation Medals, and two Navy Achievement Medals. She has flown on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-115 and STS-126, during which she completed five spacewalks totaling 33 hours and 42 minutes. As of 2018, she ranks 39th on the all-time list of space walkers by duration.

Mission

STS-115

Type: Human Exploration

STS-115 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was the first assembly mission to the ISS after the Columbia disaster, following the two successful Return to Flight missions, STS-114 and STS-121. STS-115 launched from Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center on 9 September 2006 at 11:14:55 EDT (15:14:55 UTC). The mission is also referred to as ISS-12A by the ISS program. The mission delivered the second port-side truss segment (ITS P3/P4), a pair of solar arrays (2A and 4A), and batteries. A total of three spacewalks were performed, during which the crew connected the systems on the installed trusses, prepared them for deployment, and did other maintenance work on the station.

Location

Launch Complex 39B

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

186 rockets have launched from Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA.

Rocket

Space Shuttle Atlantis OV-104

Length: 38.1 meters
Diameter: 8.4 meters
First Launch: October 3, 1985

Constructed in 1985, Atlantis was the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J in October of 1985. Atlantis embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on 8 July 2011.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis OV-104 rocket has been launched a total of 32 times with 32 successful and 0 failed launches.

Agency

United Space Alliance

Type: Commercial
Abbreviation: USA

Founded: 1995
Launchers: Space Shuttle

Country: USA

United Space Alliance (USA) is a spaceflight operations company. USA is a joint venture which was established in August 1995 as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), equally owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.