Crew
NASA announced the STS-335/135 crew on 14 September 2010. Only four astronauts were assigned to this mission, versus the normal six or seven, because there were no other shuttles available for a rescue following the retirement of Discovery and Endeavour. If the shuttle was seriously damaged in orbit, the crew would have moved into the International Space Station and returned in Russian Soyuz capsules, one at a time, over the course of a year. All STS-135 crew members were custom-fitted for a Russian Sokol space suit and molded Soyuz seat liner for this possibility. The reduced crew size also allowed the mission to maximize the payload carried to the ISS. It was the only time that a Shuttle crew of four flew to the ISS. The last shuttle mission to fly with just four crew members occurred 28 years earlier: STS-6 on 4 April 1983 aboard Space Shuttle Challenger.
| Position | Astronaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Christopher Ferguson Third spaceflight |
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| Pilot | Douglas Hurley Second spaceflight |
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| Mission Specialist 1 | Sandra Magnus Third spaceflight |
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| Mission Specialist 2 | Rex Walheim Third spaceflight Flight Engineer |
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Read more about this topic: STS-135
Famous quotes containing the word crew:
“The crew was complete: it included a Boots—
A maker of Bonnets and Hoods—
A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes—
And a Broker, to value their goods.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)