KSC01pp0755

One of the STS-100 crew members looks at part of the Canadian robotic arm, SSRMS, which is on a workstand in the Space Station Processing Facility. The arm is 57.7 feet (17.6 meters) long when fully extended and has seven motorized joints. It is capable of handling large payloads and assisting with docking the Space Shuttle. The SSRMS is self-relocatable with a Latching End Effector, so it can be attached to complementary ports spread throughout the Station’s exterior surfaces. Mission STS-100 is scheduled to launch on Space Shuttle Endeavour April 19 at 2:41 p.m. EDT from Launch Pad 39A, KSC, with a crew of seven. The crew comprises Commander Kent V. Rominger, Pilot Jeffrey S. Ashby and Mission Specialists Chris A. Hadfield, Scott E. Parazynski, John L. Phillips, Umberto Guidoni and Yuri V. Lonchakov. Hadfield is with the Canadian Space Agency, Guidoni the European Space Agency and Lonchakov the Russian Space and Aviation Agency