STS-91

Charles J. Precourt

• Birthday: 06/29/1955
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/26/1993
• Last Flight: 06/02/1998

Charles Joseph Precourt is a retired NASA astronaut. His career in flight began at an early age, and spans his entire lifetime. He served in the US Air Force, piloted numerous jet aircraft, and piloted and commanded the Space Shuttle. Notably, he piloted or commanded several missions which involved docking with the Russian Mir space station and was heavily involved in Russian/US Space relations as well as the International Space Station collaboration. He retired from the USAF with the rank of Colonel.

Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie

• Birthday: 05/02/1957
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/02/1998
• Last Flight: 03/11/2008

Dominic Lee Pudwill Gorie is a retired United States Navy officer and NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of four space shuttle missions.

Janet L. Kavandi

• Birthday: 07/17/1959
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/02/1998
• Last Flight: 07/12/2001

Janet Lynn Kavandi, a native of Carthage, Missouri is an American scientist and a NASA astronaut. She is a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and has served as NASA’s Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office.

Valery Ryumin

• Birthday: 08/16/1939
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Russian
• First Flight: 10/09/1977
• Last Flight: 06/02/1998

Valery Victorovich Ryumin (born August 16, 1939 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur) is a former Soviet cosmonaut.
In 1973, he joined the RSC Energia cosmonaut corps. A veteran of three space flights, Ryumin has logged a total of 362 days in space. In 1977, he spent 2 days aboard Soyuz-25, in 1979, he spent 175 days aboard Soyuz vehicles and the Salyut-6 space station, and in 1980, he spent 185 days aboard Soyuz vehicles and the Salyut-6 space station.
In January 1998, NASA announced Ryumin’s selection to the crew of STS-91. Ryumin served aboard STS-91 Discovery (June 2–12, 1998) the 9th and final Shuttle-Mir docking mission, concluding the joint U.S./Russian Phase I Program. The STS-91 mission was accomplished in 154 Earth orbits, traveling 3.8 million miles in 235 hours and 54 seconds.

Wendy B. Lawrence

• Birthday: 07/02/1959
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 03/02/1995
• Last Flight: 07/26/2005

Wendy Barrien Lawrence is a retired United States Navy Captain, former helicopter pilot, an engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. She was the first female graduate of the United States Naval Academy to fly into space and she has also visited the Russian Space Station Mir. She was a mission specialist on STS-114, the first Space Shuttle flight after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Franklin Chang Díaz

• Birthday: 04/05/1950
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/12/1986
• Last Flight: 06/05/2002

Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz is a Costa Rican Chinese American mechanical engineer, physicist, former NASA astronaut. He is the founder and current CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company as well as a member of Cummins’ board of directors. He became an American citizen in 1977. He is of Chinese (paternal side) and Costa Rican Spanish (maternal side) descent. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, tieing the record, as of 2018 for the most spaceflights (a record set by Jerry L. Ross). He was the third Latin American, but the first Latin American immigrant NASA Astronaut selected to go into space. Chang Díaz is a member of the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.

STS-91

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

STS-91 was the final Space Shuttle mission to the Mir space station. It was flown by Space Shuttle Discovery, and launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 2 June 1998.

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 174 rockets, including 173 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 232 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.