STS-116

The shuttle landed at 17:32 EST on December 22, 2006, at Kennedy Space Center 98 minutes off schedule due to unfavorable weather conditions.

ISS Flight Engineer Sunita "Suni" Williams was part of the STS-116 crew for the first portion of the mission.

This system slowed the orbiters' consumption of hydrogen and oxygen used by their onboard electricity-generating fuel cells.

The hydrogen and oxygen supplies, stored cryogenically in tanks aboard the orbiter, limited the duration of Space Shuttle missions.

As a result of the changeover to SSPTS, Discovery and Endeavour gained approximately 50% of the time that would have been spent docked otherwise.

It was the first Shuttle mission to deploy satellites since STS-113 in 2002. with SPDU (Station Power Distribution Unit)[13][16][12]: 5–18 20 kilograms (44 lb) STS-116 was planned (post return-to-flight) to launch on December 14, 2006.

The seven-member flight crew arrived for launch at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility on December 3, 2006, in the afternoon.

Subsequent to the Columbia disaster, NASA had imposed rules requiring shuttle launches to be conducted during the day, when light would be sufficient for cameras to observe falling debris.

With the redesign of shuttle tank foam having minimized the amount of falling debris and the availability of in-orbit inspection procedures, the daylight-launch requirement was relaxed.

The crew for the mission arrived at Kennedy Space Center on November 13 to begin their final four-day prelaunch training for the mission, which included familiarization activities, rehearsal of emergency procedures and practice on NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft, along with a simulated countdown, which took place on the morning of November 16, 2006.

Following the completion of the pre-launch preparations, all eyes were on the Florida skies, due to a forecast low cloud ceiling for the night of the launch.

The process, which took five and a half hours, suffered a minor glitch that required Patrick to order the arm to manually grab the boom.

[24] Astronauts also completed a check of the spacesuits to be used during the mission, along with preparation for docking with the International Space Station.

[27] During the first EVA of the mission, the astronauts of STS-116 brought the ISS one step closer to completion with the addition of the P5 truss segment.

The spacewalkers then guided Higginbotham with visual cues as the precise operation to finalize the attachment of the truss was completed.

At the end of the spacewalk, Curbeam congratulated the Nobel Prize winners, including scientist Dr. John C. Mather at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Christer Fuglesang also held a short speech in Swedish, encouraging Swedes and others to aspire to become future astronauts.

[29] During the spacewalk, after taking a close look at imagery gathered on the first three days of the flight, mission managers determined that the shuttle's heat shield would support a safe return to Earth.

Three more spacewalks, one of which was unplanned, were required to reconfigure and redistribute power on the station, so that the solar arrays installed during STS-115 could be used.

The astronauts were required to spend the night sleeping in protected areas in order to avoid radiation from a solar flare eruption.

The EVA started at 19:41 UTC with Bob Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang exiting the Quest airlock, 30 minutes early.

About two hours into the spacewalk the first current was flowing through the reconfigured system, using the power from the P4 solar arrays for the first time.

Mission controllers continued to look at other solutions to the solar panel folding problem so as to enable complete retraction, including an extended or additional EVA.

Astronauts Bob Curbeam and 'Suni' Williams completed the rewiring work on the International Space Station.

[39] Bob Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang embarked on an added EVA at 17:12 UTC to try to fully close the last eleven bays of the balky P6-port Solar Array Wing.

Naval Academy which will test space radar systems and also act as data relays for mobile ground communications.

[35] Discovery's crew launched the ANDE (Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment) microsats for the Naval Research Laboratory, which were designed to measure the density and composition of the low Earth orbit atmosphere in order to help better predict the movements of objects in orbit, but one of the satellites failed to emerge from its launch canister.

[39] Had landing taken place at White Sands, it could have taken as long as 60 days to return the orbiter to Kennedy Space Center.

The first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center was abandoned due to unfavorable weather conditions.

[46] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

A photograph of the International Space Station after STS-116 with the new P5 truss segment
In the Space Station Processing Facility, an overhead crane moves the P5 truss for mission STS-116 to the payload transfer container.
ICC STS-116
Discovery's payload bay, containing the SPACEHAB module and ISS P5 Truss.
Discovery on its way to Launchpad 39B during rollout.
STS-116 crew about to board the astrovan for the trip to pad 39B .
Discovery at liftoff
The solid rocket boosters being retrieved from the Atlantic Ocean after the takeoff of STS-116.
As seen through windows on the aft flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery , the payload bay is featured in this image photographed by a STS-116 Crewmember.
Space Shuttle Discovery 's Canadarm-1 robotic arm hands off the P5 truss section to the International Space Station's Canadarm-2 during shuttle mission STS-116 in December 2006.
While flying east of New Zealand, Robert L. Curbeam Jr. and Christer Fuglesang participate in the mission's first spacewalk.
A kink that occurred in the port-side P6 solar array during the first attempt to retract that array on December 13.
Christer Fuglesang participates in the mission's second session of extravehicular activity.
Crew photo.
Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam Jr., STS-116 mission specialist, works with the port overhead solar array wing on the International Space Station's P6 truss during the mission's fourth session of extravehicular activity.
Flight deck of Discovery .
As seen through windows on the aft flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery , a Department of Defense picosatellite known as Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment (ANDE) is released from the shuttle's payload bay.
STS-116 landing at KSC.
Discovery following the landing chute deployment.
International Space Station Emblem
International Space Station Emblem