STS-112
 

Let's begin with a short video featuring our Center Director that will set the stage for this portion of the briefing.
 

Video 1: Center Director's Message/Animation/real-time of launch payloads, simulation of work to be done on Station
 
"Hello. I'm Roy Bridges, Kennedy Space Center Director. Welcome to KSC's Web coverage of STS-112!
 
On this mission, Orbiter Atlantis and her crew of six will carry the S-One Integrated Truss Segment to the International Space Station. This second truss will add 45 feet to the Station's growing backbone, which will eventually stretch more than 300 feet in length! The S1 truss will be attached to the S-Zero truss already in place on the U.S. Laboratory Destiny.
 
The new truss will provide structural support for the Active Thermal Control System, an S-band system, and mounts for lights and cameras. The S1 truss also includes a Crew and Equipment Translation Aid, or CETA. CETA is a cart that will move along the Mobile Transporter's rail system and function as a mobile work platform enabling spacewalkers to transport themselves and any necessary equipment along the length of the truss. Installation of the S1 truss and CETA cart will require three spacewalks.
 
If Atlantis launches as planned on October 2, the Expedition Five crew will have been on board the ISS for 109 days. The STS-112 crew will be their first visitors since June 15, when Orbiter Endeavour and the crew members of Expedition Four and STS-111 undocked from the Station. I'm sure they look forward to the extra company!
 
This mission will be the 15th Shuttle flight in support of Station assembly and is an important step toward its completion. Thank you for joining us, and remember, you can count on the KSC Web for the very latest."
   

Slide 2: Atlantis in VAB for mating to External Tank & SRBs

Orbiter Atlantis is lifted to the vertical position inside the Vehicle Assembly Building on September 5th for mating to its External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Mission STS-112 is the 15th Space Shuttle flight to the International Space Station and the 111th flight of the Space Shuttle era. It is the 26th flight of Atlantis.
   

Slide 9: Mission STS-112 Official Crew Portrait
 
The crew members of Mission STS-112 are, from left, Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and David Wolf, Pilot Pamela Melroy, Commander Jeffrey Ashby, and Mission Specialists Piers Sellers, and Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Space Agency.
 
    

Video 2: Jeffrey Ashby Interview
 
"Well, I think it means several things. First of all, it means, future advances in medicine and material science, combustion, fluids, the sciences certainly, things that will enrich the quality of our lives here on Earth. Secondly it means that we can learn to travel out to other planets and moons eventually and expand our own horizons and give our population a place to grow to. And lastly, it means really a sense of international cooperation on the Earth. And, it's given us a reason to come together and to meld our cultures and understand each other better."
 

Video 3: Melroy Interview
   
"We are the fifteenth flight to the Station, which sounds like a lot but obviously it's going to take a long time to build this giant laboratory in space. So, we have these different phases where certain capabilities are reached. Right now what we're pushing for, the next phase, will allow us to have sufficient power to power up many kinds of science experiments, which after all is the real reason that we're building the space station. So, we're expanding from just one laboratory, hopefully, to many from all the different countries around the world. Well, in order to have enough power to run a laboratory of that size, you have to have giant solar arrays. If you're creating electricity, you're also creating heat. So, whenever you add a solar array, you need to add a radiator as well so that it can radiate that excess heat to space. So, we're in the phase now where we're building an enormous truss in order to try to hold these solar arrays steady, and it will also have the radiators on it. We're starting to expand outwards on the station. It's kind of exciting, rather than making it longer, we're actually making it wider! So, that's kind of neat. So, we'll be adding a truss that has the radiators. That part will be added first on the starboard side of the Station; on the right side. Then there will be another truss added on the left side that will also have a set of radiators after us. And then, finally, the other truss segments that will have the solar arrays resting on them. We want to get the radiator part up first, and then the solar arrays so that we can activate them. So, we're part of basically a tied series of five flights: the central truss segment, starboard 1, port 1, starboard 3, port 3. All these segments tied together so that we can provide this power for the Station."
    

Video 4: Wolf Interview
 
"Preparation for spacewalks involves many different components. One of those is prior experience. In my case, it was in the Orlan Russian space suit on Space Station Mir. It involves underwater Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory training, where we have large components of the space station and we work through and choreograph our spacewalks. And, it involves bookwork and desk training, such as we did earlier today, running through exactly how we will conduct the two or three spacewalks that have changed recently. Adaptability is important. The requirements change over the months or year preparing for a mission. And we learned in space station, in the joint Shuttle-Mir Program, that we needed to be adaptable and learn to make late changes to spacewalks or other procedures, and go out and get the job done in any case. Our training is now geared a little more towards skills, basic skills, as opposed to the exact choreography one might conduct. This lets the operators become more flexible, adapt to new situations as they arise. So, we're well prepared. And I think they'll go very well."
    

Video 5: Magnus Interview
   
The most important thing that the EVA crew are doing is the first day after we install the truss, they have to hook up the fluid lines and the power lines and the data lines to the S1 truss. And, the first position we go to actually after the install, once we un-grapple, is we go all the way down to the intersection of the S0 and the S1 truss and support Dave as he does the zenith connections there. Piers is on the arm at the same location but nadir, and he's doing the nadir connections. So that's probably the single-most important thing that they're doing. The rest of the time what they're doing is getting the truss ready for ops. And so, the arm support that we're doing for them helps them get to some of their work sites a lot easier and gives them a stabilizing factor, a place to work off of. So, most of their work sites that we're using for the arm is, number one, they're carrying something rather large like the SAS antenna or they relocate it from face one, which is where the CETA cart is, up to the operational face. Because we can do that on the arm, it helps them keep that antenna safe while we're translating. And there's a couple of other cleanup steps that make the, with the arm that make them work more efficiently. But a lot of the support that we give them with the arm is mainly along face one, where the CETA cart is, and some of the faces adjacent to that. So, the arm helps them work a lot more efficiently.
   

Slide 19: Piers Sellers Pre-flight Training Photo
   
Sellers, shown here during preflight training at Kennedy Space Center, joined NASA in 1996 and most recently served in the Astronaut Office Space Station Branch prior to his selection for Mission STS-112.
Sellers recently shared his thoughts about making his first space walk during the mission.
 
 

Video 6: Sellers Interview
   
"It's, you know, obviously what I've always wanted to do. When you think of a, a kid thinks of an astronaut, you know, and they draw a picture, it's of a little guy outside doing this with a piece of wire, hopefully, holding him onto something, you know. Yea! So, that's the dream part. So, that's really good. And then, you start thinking to yourself: "Wait a minute. Hang on. This'll be my fourth day in space, and I've got to go outside and work for nine hours and not make a mistake." So, that's a little daunting. But luckily, there's a whole crowd of excellent people who guide you through the process, you know, train you up, prepare you as best they can for this. So, the level of knowing what to do and when I should do it, you know, I could not have been bettered trained than I have. David and I have a fantastic training team pretty well together. The only question mark now is, "Well, how will it feel?" 
 

Video 7: Yurchikhin Interview
   
"I am IV-2. In the main goal, role in our flight, is install S1. This is a second segment, future our truss, yes? And this is very, very difficult work. And we should have three EVAs work. And I am IV crewmember. IV-1 is Pam Melroy. I am the second IV crewmember. We will have, EV crewmembers, Piers and Dave, with also very difficult work in space, yes, but I don't know why the American people talk of spacewalk. It's space work, I think, yes. And this is my primary role in this flight, yes. And will work with the CWC systems. I will work with TV four times, PGFC, this is, too. But my primary role is my role with IV."