KSC-01pp1571

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- At SPACEHAB, Cape Canaveral, members of the STS-107 crew look over elements in the SPACEHAB Double Module as part of equipment familiarization for their mission. The crew comprises Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Payload Commander Michael Anderson, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon. STS-107 has two payload elements, the Double Module in its first flight into space and a Hitchhiker payload. The double module provides greater experiment capability than on previous flights, resulting for this mission in a very broad collection of experiments for NASA and commercial and European customers. The experiments range from material sciences to life sciences (many rats). The Hitchhiker carrier system is modular and expandable in accordance with payload requirements, which allows maximum efficiency in utilizing orbiter resources and increases the potential for early manifesting on the Shuttle. Hitchhiker experiments are housed in canisters or attached to mounting plates. The Hitchhiker canister comes in two varieties--the Hitchhiker Motorized Door Canister and the Sealed Canisters. STS-107 is scheduled to launch in May 2002