sts-95

The Hubble Space Telescope Orbiting Systems Test (HOST) platform is carrying experiments to validate components planned for installation during the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and to evaluate new technologies in an earth orbiting environment. There are four experiments on the HOST platform. The NICMOS Cooling System will allow zero-g verification of a Reverse Turbo Brayton Cycle Cooler which should allow longer life operation than the current dewar system. (2) The HST 486 Computer will allow the identification of any radiation susceptible parts in the DF-224 replacement and demonstrate hardware and software responses to Single Event Upsets (SEU's). (3) Solid State Recorder will compare on-orbit operation of the flight spare solid state recorder with the current HST unit. (4) Fiber Optic Line Test will use the same 4 kbps data stream that is sent to the orbiter's Payload Data Interrogator (PDI) and will be routed to a laptop computer for post-flight comparison.

The Unity connecting module was the first U.S.-built component of the International Space Station. It is cylindrical in shape, with six berthing locations (forward, aft, port, starboard, zenith, and nadir) facilitating connections to other modules. Unity measures 4.57 metres (15.0 ft) in diameter, is 5.47 metres (17.9 ft) long, and was built for NASA by The Boeing Company in a manufacturing facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Sometimes referred to as Node 1, Unity was the first of the three connecting modules; the other two are Harmony and Tranquility.

Unity was carried into orbit as the primary cargo of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-88, the first Space Shuttle mission dedicated to assembly of the station. On December 6, 1998, the STS-88 crew mated the aft berthing port of Unity with the forward hatch of the already orbiting Zarya module. (Zarya was a mixed Russian-US funded and Russian-built component launched earlier aboard a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.) This was the first connection made between two station modules.

This version has "2a" added to it, compared to an almost identical patch.

The Unity connecting module was the first U.S.-built component of the International Space Station. It is cylindrical in shape, with six berthing locations (forward, aft, port, starboard, zenith, and nadir) facilitating connections to other modules. Unity measures 4.57 metres (15.0 ft) in diameter, is 5.47 metres (17.9 ft) long, and was built for NASA by The Boeing Company in a manufacturing facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Sometimes referred to as Node 1, Unity was the first of the three connecting modules; the other two are Harmony and Tranquility.

Unity was carried into orbit as the primary cargo of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-88, the first Space Shuttle mission dedicated to assembly of the station. On December 6, 1998, the STS-88 crew mated the aft berthing port of Unity with the forward hatch of the already orbiting Zarya module. (Zarya was a mixed Russian-US funded and Russian-built component launched earlier aboard a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.) This was the first connection made between two station modules.

STS-95 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 29 October 1998. 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, Spain's Pedro Duque became the first Spaniard in space.

The STS-95 patch, designed by the crew, is intended to reflect the scientific, engineering, and historic elements of the mission. The Space Shuttle Discovery is shown rising over the sunlit Earth limb, representing the global benefits of the mission science and the solar science objectives of the Spartan Satellite. The bold number '7' signifies the seven members of Discovery's crew and also represents a historical link to the original seven Mercury astronauts. The STS-95 crew member John Glenn's first orbital flight is represnted by the Friendship 7 capsule. The rocket plumes symbolize the three major fields of science represented by the mission payloads: microgravity material science, medical research for humans on Earth and in space, and astronomy.

The EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack is a Space Station International Standard Payload Rack (ISPR) being flown on MSL-1 as a precursor payload. The Spacelab program provides the structure and subsystem hardware to accommodate the EXPRESS Rack with interfaces like those on Space Station. Flown on STS-95 aboard the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL-1)

To determine the structure, researchers must grow near-perfect crystals of the protein being studied. On Earth, convection currents, sedimentation, and other gravity-induced phenomena hamper crytal growth efforts. In microgravity, researchers can grow near-perfect crystals in an environment free of these effects. Because of the enormous potential for new pharmaceutical products, the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography -- the NASA Commercial Space Center responsible for commercial protein crystal growth efforts -- has more than 50 major industry and academic partners. Experiment on STS-95

The SSCS allows for direct communications between orbiting spacecraft in close proximity. This enables the Orbiter, the ISS and EVA astronauts to use the same system for communicating voice and data independent of ground support. Flown aboard STS-95

The Colloidal Disorder-Order Transition (CDOT) experiment will test fundamental theories that model atomic interactions. CDOT is part of the Second United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) that will fly aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. STS-95

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA 's) Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) program has been developed to learn how protein crystals grow in space and how to optimize the growth process, while producing large, high-quality crystals of selected proteins. Flown onboard MSL-1 on STS-94, STS-57, STS-60, STS-62, STS-95

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.
Mukai was selected to be an astronaut by Japanese national space agency NASDA (now called JAXA) in 1985. Prior to this, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery in Keio University, the oldest university in Japan.

The Advanced Organic Materials Separation Process experiment enhances separation technologies for medical products. Separation, purification and classification of cells are limiting factors in biomedical research and pharmaceutical drug development. Advanced separation technology is designed to foster separation capabilities for terrestrial commercial application and microgravity research. Experiment on Spacehab on both STS-77 and STS-95 built by Space Hardware Optimization Technology (SHOT)