Crew & Mission

(STS091-S-002 -January 1998) --- The final crew members scheduled to visit Russia's Mir Space Station pose for a crew portrait during training at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Pictured with their helmets in front are astronauts Dominic C. Gorie (left) and Charles J. Precourt. Others, from the left, are Wendy B. Lawrence, Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Janet L. Kavandi, Valeriy V. Ryumin and Andrew S. W. Thomas. Precourt is mission commander, and Gorie, pilot, for Discovery's summer 1998 mission to Mir. Thomas, who will have been serving as a guest researcher on Mir since late January, will return to Earth with the crew members. Lawrence, Chang-Diaz, Kavandi and Ryumin are all mission specialists. Ryumin represents the Russian Space Agency (RSA). Discovery will carry the single module version of Spacehab for the scheduled nine-day mission.

The Artwork

(STS091-S-001 - March 1998) --- This is the crew patch for the STS-91 mission -- the ninth flight of the Shuttle-Mir Phase One docking missions. The crew will bring back Andrew S. W. Thomas, the last long-duration American crew member flown on the Russian Space Station Mir. This mission marks the end of the Shuttle-Mir Phase One Program and will open the way for Phase Two: construction of the International Space Station (ISS). The crew patch depicts the rendezvous of the Space Shuttle Discovery with the Space Station Mir. The flags of the United States and Russia are displayed at the top of the patch and both countries are visible on the Earth behind the two spacecraft. The names of the American crew members surround the insignia on the outer areas, with the name of cosmonaut Valeriy Ryumin in Cyrillic at the lower right. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is an international payload planned to fly in the payload bay of Discovery. Two thin golden streams flowing into the AMS represent charged elementary particles. The detection of antimatter in space will help scientists better understand the physics and origins of the universe.