SPACEPHOTOS

(12/02/1999) --- STS-102 crew member Susan J. Helms looks over a Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA-3) in the Space Station Processing Facility. The PMA-3 is a component of the International Space Station (ISS). Helms is one of three who will be staying on the ISS as the Expedition II crew. The others are Yuriy Vladimirovich Usachev and James S. Voss. Along with the crew, Mission STS-102 also will be carrying the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to the ISS. The Leonardo will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. laboratory module, which will have been carried to the ISS on a preceding Shuttle flight. In order to function as an attached station module as well as a cargo transport, logistics modules (there are three) also include components that provide some life support, fire detection and suppression, electrical distribution and computer functions. Eventually, the modules also will carry refrigerator freezers for transporting experiment samples and food to and from the station. On the return of STS-102 to Earth, it will bring back the first crew on the station: Bill Shepherd, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko. STS-102 is scheduled to launch no earlier than Oct. 19, 2000, from Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center