STS-116

Mark L. Polansky

• Birthday: 06/02/1956
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 02/07/2001
• Last Flight: 07/15/2009

Mark Lewis "Roman" Polansky is an American aerospace engineer and research pilot and a former NASA astronaut. Polan...

William Oefelein

• Birthday: 03/29/1965
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 12/10/2006
• Last Flight: 12/10/2006

William Anthony "Bill" Oefelein is an American test pilot instructor and former NASA astronaut who, on his only spa...

Joan Higginbotham

• Birthday: 08/03/1964
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 12/10/2006
• Last Flight: 12/10/2006

Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery miss...

Christer Fuglesang

• Birthday: 03/18/1957
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Sweden
• First Flight: 12/10/2006
• Last Flight: 08/29/2009

Arne Christer Fuglesang (born March 18, 1957 in Stockholm) is a Swedish physicist and an ESA astronaut. He was first launched...

Nicholas Patrick

• Birthday: 11/19/1964
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 12/10/2006
• Last Flight: 02/08/2010

Nicholas James MacDonald Patrick, Ph.D. is a British-American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. His flight on the 2006 Di...

Robert Curbeam

• Birthday: 03/05/1962
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 08/07/1997
• Last Flight: 12/10/2006

Robert Lee Curbeam, Jr. is a former NASA astronaut and captain in the United States Navy.

Curbeam graduated ...

Sunita Williams

• Birthday: 09/19/1965
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 12/10/2006
• Last Flight: 06/05/2024

Sunita Pandya Lyn Williams is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer of Indo-Slovenian descent. She formerly he...

Mission

STS-116

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

STS-116 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. Discovery lifted off on 9 December 2006 at 20:47:35 EST. A previous launch attempt on 7 December had been canceled due to cloud cover. It was the first night launch of a space shuttle since STS-113 in 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.

Location

Launch Complex 39B

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Find the best place to watch the launch from Florida

Launch Complex 39B has witnessed the launch of 58 rockets, including 57 orbital launch attempts. While Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 257 rocket launches.

The John F. Kennedy Space Center, located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of NASA's ten field centers. Since 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

Rocket

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.

Learn more about the Space Shuttle

Agency

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.