STS-122

Stephen Frick

• Birthday: 09/30/1964
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/08/2002
• Last Flight: 02/07/2008

Stephen Nathaniel Frick is an American astronaut and a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Frick graduated from Pine-Richland High School in 1982, earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1986, was commissioned as a United States Navy officer, and trained as a F/A-18 fighter pilot. Stationed aboard the carrier USS Saratoga, he flew combat missions during the Gulf War and then earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994.

Frick was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in 1996 and was trained as a Space Shuttle pilot. He piloted mission STS-110, a docking mission with the International Space Station.

In July 2006, Frick was assigned to command the crew of STS-122. The 12-day mission delivered the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory and returned Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani to Earth. The mission launched February 7, 2008, and touched down February 20, 2008. NASA announced his retirement in July 2015.

Alan G. Poindexter

• Birthday: 11/05/1961
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 02/07/2008
• Last Flight: 04/05/2010

Alan Goodwin “Dex” Poindexter was an American naval officer and a NASA astronaut. Poindexter was selected in the 1998 NASA Group (G17) and went into orbit aboard Space Shuttle missions STS-122, and STS-131.

Stanley G. Love

• Birthday: 06/08/1965
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 02/07/2008
• Last Flight: 02/07/2008

Stanley Glen Love, Ph.D. is an American scientist and a NASA astronaut from Oregon.

Hans Schlegel

• Birthday: 08/03/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: German
• First Flight: 04/26/1993
• Last Flight: 02/07/2008

Hans Wilhelm Schlegel (Überlingen, 3 August 1951) is a German physicist, an ESA astronaut, and a veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions.
From 1995 to 1997, he trained as the backup crew member for the German-Russian Mir’97 mission, and afterwards received additional training in Russia to become qualified as a second board engineer for the Mir space station. In 1998, he became a member of the European Astronaut Corps.

Schlegel was a Mission Specialist on the STS-122 Space Shuttle mission. The mission was charged with the responsibility of putting the Columbus laboratory in orbit, in addition to its connection to the International Space Station.

Leland D. Melvin

• Birthday: 02/15/1964
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 02/07/2008
• Last Flight: 11/16/2009

Leland Devon Melvin is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. He served on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-122, and as mission specialist 1 on STS-129. Melvin was named the NASA Associate Administrator for Education in October 2010.

Léopold Eyharts

• Birthday: 04/28/1957
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: French
• First Flight: 01/29/1998
• Last Flight: 02/07/2008

Léopold Eyharts (born April 28, 1957) is a French Brigadier General in the French Air Force, an engineer and ESA astronaut.

Rex J. Walheim

• Birthday: 10/10/1962
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/08/2002
• Last Flight: 07/08/2011

Rex Joseph Walheim is a retired United States Air Force officer, engineer and NASA astronaut. He flew three space shuttle missions, STS-110, STS-122, and STS-135. Walheim logged over 566 hours in space, including 36 hours and 23 minutes of spacewalk (EVA) time. He was assigned as mission specialist and flight engineer on STS-135, the final space shuttle mission.

STS-122

• Type: Human Exploration
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-122 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS), flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. STS-122 marked the 24th shuttle mission to the ISS, and the 121st space shuttle flight overall. The mission was also referred to as ISS-1E by the ISS program. The primary objective of STS-122 was to deliver the European Columbus science laboratory, built by the European Space Agency (ESA), to the station. It also returned Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani to Earth. Tani was replaced on Expedition 16 by Léopold Eyharts, a French Flight Engineer representing ESA. After Atlantis’ landing, the orbiter was prepared for STS-125, the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 173 rockets, including 172 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 231 rocket launches.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.

United Space Alliance

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.