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NASA HISTORY: Franklin Chang-Diaz Performed Spacewalk on STS-111 Mission 18 Years Ago

By  //  September 19, 2020

launched June 5, 2002 from Kennedy Space Center

In this image from June 2002, astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Diaz works with a grapple fixture during a spacewalk on the STS-111 mission to perform work on the International Space Station. The first spacewalk of the mission began with the installation of a power and data grapple fixture (PDGF) for the station’s robotic arm on the complex’s P6 truss. The fixture will allow the robotic arm to grip the P6 truss for future station assembly operations. Astronauts Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin (with French space agency, CNES) went on to install the new fixture about halfway up the P6 truss, the vertical structure that currently supports the station’s set of large U.S. solar arrays. Chang-Diaz is Hispanic of Costa Rican descent. He is also a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, tying the record, as of 2018 for the most spaceflights (a record set by Jerry L. Ross).

(NASA.gov) – STS-111 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. STS-111 resupplied the station and replaced the Expedition 4 crew with the Expedition 5 crew.

It was launched on June 5, 2002, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

STS-111, in addition to providing supplies, rotated the crews aboard the International Space Station, exchanging the three Expedition 4 members (1 Russian, 2 American) for the three Expedition 5 members (2 Russian, 1 American).

The Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) carried experiment racks and three stowage and resupply racks to the station. The mission also installed a component of the Canadarm2 called the Mobile Base System (MBS) to the Mobile Transporter (MT) (which was installed during STS-110).

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This was the second component of the Canadian Mobile Servicing System, or MSS.

This gave the mechanical arm the capability to “inchworm” from the U.S. Lab fixture to the MBS and travel along the Truss to work sites.

STS-111 was the last flight of a CNES astronaut, the French agency having disbanded its astronaut group and transferred them to the ESA.

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