Front row (L-R): Yury Lonchakov, Ken Rominger, Umberto Guidoni, Jeffrey Ashby, John Phillips
Back row (L-R): Scott Parazynski, Chris Hadfield
Mission patch
Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-100), launched April 19, 2001, installed the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station. Its crew consisted of Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeffrey Ashby, Chris Hadfield (CSA), John Phillips, Scott Parazynski, Umberto Guidoni (ESA), and Yury Lonchakov (Roscosmos).
Parazynski and Hadfield conducted two EVAs for almost 15 hours.
Seated (L-R): Scott Horowitz, Andrew Allen, Franklin Chang-Diaz
Standing (L-R): Maurizio Cheli, Umberto Guidoni, Jeffrey Hoffman, Claude Nicollier
STS-75 mission patch
Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-75), launched February 22, 1996, carried the Tethered Satellite System Reflight (TSS-1R) into orbit. Its crew consisted of Commander Andrew Allen, Pilot Scott Horowitz, Jeffrey Hoffman, Maurizio Cheli (ESA), Claude Nicollier (ESA), Franklin Chang-Diaz, and Umberto Guidoni (Italian Space Agency).
The crew planned to deploy the tether to 20.7 km, but the tether broke when over 19 km were deployed. The porous material, which made up the innermost core, contained trapped bubbles of air at atmospheric pressure. In space, the air bubbles began to escape and changed the electrical conductivity of the tether, which essentially melted.
Jeffrey Alan Hoffman, born November 2, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York, is a veteran of 5 space shuttle flights and is the first Jewish astronaut from the United States.
His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-51-D) in April 1985, as mission specialist. Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center but suffered major brake damage and blew out a tire so future shuttle flights had to land at Edwards Air Force Base until NASA could improve the brake assembly and make it safer.
His second mission was aboard Columbia (STS-35) in December 1990 also as mission specialist. He and fellow astronaut Sam Durrance conducted the first Space Classroom Program, designed to get children interested in math and science.
His third mission was on Atlantis (STS-46) in July-August 1992. He flew with the first Italian citizen in space, Franco Malerba.
His fourth flight was the first servicing mission to the Hubble Telescope, on Endeavour (STS-61) in December 1993. Launched 3 1/2 years previously, the Hubble Telescope had a "spherical abberation" that distorted images and rendered most of its data unuseable.
Hoffman's fifth and final flight was back on Columbia (STS-75) February-March 1996. He flew with two more Italian astronauts, Maurizio Cheli and Umberto Guidoni.
Umberto Guidoni, born August 18, 1954 in Rome, Italy, is the veteran of two space shuttle flights and has the distinction as being the first European aboard the International Space Station. Dr. Guidoni worked for the Italian Space Agency and the European Space Agency. His first mission into space was aboard Columbia (STS-75) in early 1996.
He flew on Endeavour in 2001 (STS-100) with a Canadian, a Russian and four Americans to the International Space Station. Its primary objective was the installation of the Canadarm2 robotic arm onto the ISS.
