STS-95

Curtis Brown

• Birthday: 03/11/1956
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 09/12/1992
• Last Flight: 12/20/1999

Curtis Lee “Curt” Brown Jr. is a former NASA astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel.

Steven Lindsey

• Birthday: 08/24/1960
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• 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 Office from September 2006 until October 2009.

Chiaki Mukai

• Birthday: 05/06/1952
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: Japanese
• First Flight: 07/08/1994
• Last Flight: 10/29/1998

Chiaki Mukai (向井 千秋 Mukai Chiaki, born May 6, 1952, Tatebayashi, Gunma, Japan) is a Japanese doctor and JAXA astronaut. She was the first Japanese woman in space, and was the first Japanese citizen to have two spaceflights. Both were Space Shuttle missions; her first was STS-65 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in July 1994, which was a Spacelab mission. Her second spaceflight was STS-95 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998. In total she has spent 23 days in space.

John Glenn

• Birthday: 07/18/1921
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 02/20/1962
• Last Flight: 10/29/1998

Colonel John Herschel Glenn Jr. was a United States Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio.

Pedro Duque

• Birthday: 03/14/1963
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Spanish
• First Flight: 10/29/1998
• Last Flight: 10/18/2003

Pedro Francisco Duque Duque, OF, OMSE (Madrid, 14 March 1963) is a Spanish astronaut and aeronautics engineer, currently serving as Spain’s Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities. He was the first Spanish astronaut.

Duque underwent training in both Russia and the United States. His first spaceflight was as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle mission STS-95, during which Duque supervised ESA experimental modules. In October 2003, Duque visited the International Space Station on board of a Soyuz TMA Ship for several days during a crew changeover. The scientific program of this visit was called by ESA/Spain Misión Cervantes.

Stephen Robinson

• Birthday: 10/26/1955
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 08/07/1997
• Last Flight: 02/08/2010

Stephen Kern Robinson is a former NASA astronaut.

Scott E. Parazynski

• Birthday: 07/28/1961
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/03/1994
• Last Flight: 10/23/2007

Scott Edward Parazynski is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. A veteran of five Space Shuttle flights and seven spacewalks, Parazynski’s latest mission was STS-120 in October, 2007 – highlighted by a dramatic, unplanned EVA to repair a live solar array. In May 2016 he was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame. He retired from NASA in March 2009 to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in the private sector, and he is currently the CEO of a technology start-up. He is the first person to have both flown in space and summited Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth.

STS-95

• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-95 was a Space Shuttle mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 29 October 1998, using the orbiter Discovery. It was the 25th flight of Discovery and the 92nd mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program in April 1981. It was a highly publicized mission due to former Project Mercury astronaut and United States Senator John H. Glenn, Jr.’s return to space for his second space flight. At age 77, Glenn became the oldest person, to date, to go into space. This mission is also noted for inaugurating ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the U.S., with live coast-to-coast coverage of the launch. In another first, Pedro Duque became the first Spaniard in space.

Launch Complex 39B

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

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 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.