NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

STS-116

Image above: The STS-116 crew members gather for a group portrait in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. From the left (front row) are astronauts Bill Oefelein, pilot; Joan Higginbotham, Nicholas Patrick and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter, mission specialists. From the left (back row) are astronauts Mark Polansky, commander; Sunita Williams, Expedition 14 flight engineer; ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang and Robert Curbeam, mission specialists. Photo credit: NASA

During Space Shuttle Discovery’s mission to the International Space Station, the STS-116 crew continued construction of the outpost adding the P5 spacer truss segment during the first of four spacewalks. The next two spacewalks rewired the station’s power system, preparing it to support the station’s final configuration and the arrival of additional science modules. A fourth spacewalk was added to allow the crew to retract solar arrays that had folded improperly.

Discovery also delivered a new crew member and more than two tons of equipment and supplies to the station, most of which were located in the SPACEHAB cargo module. Almost two tons of items no longer needed on the station returned to Earth with STS-116.