Members from Johnson Space Center get a close look at the Pressurized Mating Adapter in the Space Station Processing Facility.

Members of the STS-102 crew, known as the Expedition II crew, and workers from Johnson Space Center get a close look at the Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA-3) in the Space Station Processing Facility. The PMA-3 is a component of the International Space Station (ISS). Making up the Expedition II crew are James S. Voss, Susan J. Helms and Yuriy Vladimirovich Usachev, of Russia. Along with the crew, Mission STS-102 also will be carrying the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to the ISS. The Leonardo will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. laboratory module, which will have been carried to the ISS on a preceding Shuttle flight. In order to function as an attached station module as well as a cargo transport, logistics modules (there are three) also include components that provide some life support, fire detection and suppression, electrical distribution and computer functions. Eventually, the modules also will carry refrigerator freezers for transporting experiment samples and food to and from the station. On the return of STS-102 to Earth, it will bring back the first crew on the station: Bill Shepherd, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko. STS-102 is scheduled to launch no earlier than Oct. 19, 2000, from Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center