STS-121

Steven Lindsey

• Birthday: 08/24/1960
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 11/19/1997
• Last Flight: 02/24/2011

Steven Wayne Lindsey is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. Lindsey served as Chief of the NASA Astronaut Of...

Mark Kelly

• Birthday: 02/21/1964
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 12/05/2001
• Last Flight: 05/16/2011

Mark Edward Kelly is a retired American astronaut, engineer, and retired U.S. Navy Captain. He is the husband of former Congr...

Lisa Nowak

• Birthday: 05/10/1963
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 07/04/2006
• Last Flight: 07/04/2006

Lisa Marie Nowak is an American former naval flight officer and NASA astronaut. Born in Washington, D.C., she was selected by...

Thomas Reiter

• Birthday: 05/23/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Germany
• First Flight: 09/03/1995
• Last Flight: 07/04/2006

Thomas Arthur Reiter (born 23 May 1958 in Frankfurt, West Germany) is a retired European astronaut and is a Brigadier General...

Michael E. Fossum

• Birthday: 12/19/1957
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 07/04/2006
• Last Flight: 06/07/2011

Michael Edward Fossum is a former American astronaut and the Chief Operating Officer of Texas A&M University at Galveston. He...

Piers Sellers

• Birthday: 04/11/1955
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 10/07/2002
• Last Flight: 05/14/2010

Piers John Sellers OBE was a British-American meteorologist, NASA astronaut[1] and Director of the Earth Science Division at ...

Stephanie Wilson

• Birthday: 09/27/1966
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 07/04/2006
• Last Flight: 04/05/2010

Stephanie Diana Wilson is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She flew to space onboard three Space Shuttle missions, ...

Mission

STS-121

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

STS-121 was a 2006 NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. The main purposes of the mission were to test new safety and repair techniques introduced following the Columbia disaster of February 2003 as well as to deliver supplies, equipment and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter from Germany to the ISS.

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 266 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.