Mission:STS-122 - 24th International Space Station Flight (1E)
Launch Date: February 7, 2008, 14:45 EST (21:45 UT)
Orbiter: Atlantis (OV-104)
Mission Number: Shuttle flight No. 121
Launch Pad: 39A map  weather
Mission Duration: 13 days
Time Docked to ISS: 8 days, 16 hrs, 7 min
Landing Site: KSC map  weather
Landing: 07:06 EST (12:06 UT), February 20
Main wheels touchdown: 09:07:10 EST; nose gear touchdown: 09:07:20; wheels stop: 09:08:08
Inclination/Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles
Distance Flown: ~5,296,842 miles
Primary Payload: ESA's Columbus science laboratory; ICC-Lite, Mullti-Purpose Experiment Support Structure
Crew: Mission Commander: Stephen Frick, Pilot: Alan Poindexter, Mission Specialists: Rex Walheim, Stanley Love, Leland Melvin, Hans Schlegel (ESA); launch: Leopold Eyharts (Expedition 16), landing: Daniel Tani (Expedition 16)
Contingency Shuttle Crew Support Mission: STS-323 (Rescue STS-122) - Endeavour (OV-105); launch: NET January 31, 2008.

NASA has assigned crew members to the space shuttle mission that will deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station.

A veteran space flier, Navy Cmdr. Stephen N. Frick, will command the STS-122 shuttle mission to deliver the lab to the station. Navy Cmdr. Alan G. Poindexter will serve as pilot. Mission specialists include Air Force Col. Rex J. Walheim, Stanley G. Love, Leland D. Melvin and European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel. Poindexter, Love and Melvin will be making their first spaceflight.

STS-122 will be Frick's second spaceflight. A native of Gibsonia, Pa., he served as pilot of shuttle mission STS-110, a flight to the station in 2002. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. Poindexter, a Pasadena, Calif., native, also has a master's from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor's from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

Walheim, who considers San Carlos, Calif., his hometown, also flew on shuttle mission STS-110 in 2002 and is a veteran of two spacewalks. He has a bachelor's from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's from the University of Houston. Melvin is a native of Lynchburg, Va., and has a bachelor's from the University of Richmond and a master's from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Love, a Eugene, Ore., native, has a bachelor's from Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, Calif., and a master's and doctorate from the University of Washington. Schlegel, a native of Aachen, Germany, has a master's degree from the University of Aachen. His first flight was on shuttle mission STS-55 in 1993.

- courtesy of: Allard Beutel, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC; Doug Peterson, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tx; image credits: NASA

Update, 02/13/07: ESA astronaut Leopold Eyharts of France has today been assigned to the Expedition 16 crew to the ISS. He is set to fly there on Space Shuttle (Discovery) mission STS-122 and will return home with the (Endeavour) STS-123 crew some two months later.