STS-97

Brent W. Jett Jr.

• Birthday: 10/05/1958
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/11/1996
• Last Flight: 09/09/2006

Brent Ward Jett Jr. is a retired American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aerospace and aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut.

Michael J. Bloomfield

• Birthday: 03/16/1959
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 09/26/1997
• Last Flight: 04/08/2002

Michael John “Bloomer” Bloomfield is an American former astronaut and a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions.

Carlos I. Noriega

• Birthday: 10/08/1959
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 05/15/1997
• Last Flight: 12/01/2000

Carlos Ismael Noriega is a Peruvian and U.S. citizen, NASA employee, a former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.

Marc Garneau

• Birthday: 02/23/1949
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Canadian
• First Flight: 10/05/1984
• Last Flight: 12/01/2000

Garneau was one of the first Canadian Astronauts and he became the first Canadian in outer space in October 1984. In 1984, he was seconded to the new Canadian Astronaut Program (CAP), one of six chosen from over 4,000 applicants. He flew on the shuttle Challenger, STS-41-G from October 5 to 13, 1984, as payload specialist. He was promoted to Captain in 1986, and left the Navy in 1989, to become deputy director of the CAP. In 1992–93, he underwent further training to become a mission specialist. He worked as CAPCOM for a number of shuttle flights and was on two further flights himself: STS-77 (May 19 to 29, 1996) and STS-97 (to the ISS, November 30 to December 11, 2000). He has logged over 677 hours in space.

In February 2001, he was appointed executive vice-president of the Canadian Space Agency, and became its president on November 22, 2001.

Joseph R. Tanner

• Birthday: 01/21/1950
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/03/1994
• Last Flight: 09/09/2006

Joseph Richard “Joe” Tanner is an American instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, mechanical engineer, a former naval officer and aviator, and a former NASA astronaut. He was born in Danville, Illinois. He is unusual among astronauts as he did not have a background in flight test nor did he earn any advanced academic degrees. Typically those who did not do military flight test have an M.D. or Ph.D., if not a master’s, whereas Tanner’s path to becoming an astronaut followed operational military flying and then into NASA for operational jet training before being selected into the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1992, following an unsuccessful application in 1987.

STS-97

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

STS-97 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. The crew installed the first set of solar arrays to the ISS, prepared a docking port for arrival of the Destiny Laboratory Module, and delivered supplies for the station’s crew.

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 231 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.