Five years ago today — July 4, 2006 — the Space Shuttle Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Center on a mission to the International Space Station.
(STS-121 launch. NASA image.)
Mission STS-121 was the first ever to launch on Independence Day, though it did so after launch attempts on the 1st and 2nd were scrubbed.
U.S. astronauts Steven W. Lindsey, Mark E. Kelly, Stephanie D. Wilson, Michael E. Fossum, Piers J. Sellers, and Lisa M. Nowak brought German astronaut Thomas Reiter to the space station, where he joined ISS Expedition 13, and delivered 7400 pounds of supplies to the station. They also accomplished three spacewalks to work on the ISS structure and systems.
STS-121 was also the second shuttle return-to-flight mission after the loss of the Shuttle Columbia in February 2003. The mission flew an improved external tank and “the crew used the orbiter boom sensor system with a laser dynamic range imager, laser camera system and intensified television camera on the end, to examine the shuttle’s nose cap, port wing, leading edge of the starboard wing, and outside of the crew cabin.”
Of course, provided all systems remain “go,” the Shuttle era will come to a close at the end of this week. That will be a sad day.
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