Imagery

Susan Helms works at a computer workstation attached to the Human Research Facility, which was delivered to the International Space Station during STS-102.

STS-102 Swaps International Space Station Crews
Space Shuttle Discovery spent almost 13 days in orbit, with nearly nine of those days docked to the International Space Station. While at the orbital outpost, the STS-102 crew attached the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, transferred supplies and equipment to the station, and completed two space walks.

Discovery delivered the Expedition Two crew -- Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms -- for its extended stay aboard the space station. It returned to Earth with Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd, Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev and Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, who had spent 4.5 months living on the station.

Mission Specialist Paul Richards spent six and a half hours outside during the first space walk of his career, March 12-13, 2001.

A New Space Walking Record
Space walkers spent a total of 15 hours and 26 minutes during two STS-102 excursions outside the docked complex. The first space walk was the longest in space shuttle history.

Mission Specialists Susan Helms and James Voss -- who would later become Expedition Two crewmembers -- prepared Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 for repositioning from the Unity Module’s Earth-facing berth to its port-side berth to make room for the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module supplied by the Italian Space Agency.

Two days later, Mission Specialists Paul Richards and Andy Thomas spent 6.5 hours outside the International Space Station, continuing work to outfit the station and prepare for delivery of its robotic arm.

Transferring Expedition Crews
The Expedition Two/Three crew transfer was a carefully choreographed process carried out one replacement at a time. As a member of the Expedition Two crew formally transferred from the space shuttle to the station, that crewmember's custom-designed seat liner, called an Individual Equipment Liner Kit, was installed in the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station. The seat liner of the replaced crewmember was removed from the Soyuz, and he then became a member of the shuttle crew.