STS-88

Robert D. Cabana

• Birthday: 01/23/1949
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/06/1990
• Last Flight: 12/04/1998

Robert Donald Cabana is the director of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center, a former NASA astronaut, and a veteran of four Space Shuttle flights. He is also a former naval flight officer and naval aviator in the United States Marine Corps.

Frederick W. Sturckow

• Birthday: 08/11/1961
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 12/04/1998
• Last Flight: 01/26/2024

Frederick Wilford “Rick” Sturckow is an Engineer, retired United States Marine Corps officer, former NASA astronaut, and commercial spacecraft pilot. Sturckow is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions. He flew on STS-88 and STS-105 as a pilot and STS-117 and STS-128 as a commander. All four missions docked with the International Space Station, making Sturckow one of two people to visit the station four times. Sturckow later was assigned to the Johnson Space Center as a CAPCOM. He left NASA in 2013 to become a pilot for Virgin Galactic.

James H. Newman

• Birthday: 10/16/1956
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 09/12/1993
• Last Flight: 03/01/2002

James Hansen Newman, Ph.D. is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions.

Nancy J. Currie-Gregg

• Birthday: 12/29/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/21/1993
• Last Flight: 03/01/2002

Nancy Jane Currie-Gregg is an engineer, United States Army officer and a NASA astronaut. Currie-Gregg has served in the United States Army for over 22 years and holds the rank of colonel. With NASA, she has participated in four space shuttle missions: STS-57, STS-70, STS-88, and STS109, accruing 1,000 hours in space. She currently holds an appointment as an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Sergei Krikalev

• Birthday: 08/27/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Russian
• First Flight: 11/26/1988
• Last Flight: 04/15/2005

Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (Russian: Серге́й Константинович Крикалёв, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born August 27, 1958) is a Russian cosmonaut and mechanical engineer. As a prominent rocket scientist, he is a veteran of six space flights and ranks third to Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko for the amount of time in space: a total of 803 days, 9 hours, and 38 minutes.

Jerry L. Ross

• Birthday: 01/20/1948
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/27/1985
• Last Flight: 04/08/2002

Jerry Lynn Ross is a retired United States Air Force officer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the joint record holder for most spaceflights (a record he shares with Franklin Chang-Diaz). His papers, photographs and many personal items are in the Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives at Purdue University. He was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame during ceremonies in May 2014.

Ross is the author of Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer (Purdue University Press, 2013) with John Norberg. In March 2014 it was announced “Spacewalker” will be available in a French translation through the specialist aerospace publisher Altipresse.

Fellow astronaut Chris Hadfield describes Ross in his autobiography, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, as “the embodiment of the trustworthy, loyal, courteous and brave astronaut archetype.”

STS-88

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

STS-88 was the first Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour, and took the first American module, the Unity node, to the station.

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.

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.