George David "Zambo" Zamka is an American NASA astronaut and United States Marine Corps pilot with over 3500 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. Zamka piloted the Space Shuttle Discovery in its October 2007 mission to the International Space Station and served as the commander of mission STS-130 in February 2010.
STS-120 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that launched on 23 October 2007 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission is also referred to as ISS-10A by the ISS program. STS-120 delivered the Harmony module and reconfigured a portion of the station in preparation for future assembly missions. STS-120 was flown by Space Shuttle Discovery, and was the twenty-third space shuttle mission to the ISS.
Low Earth OrbitSTS-130 was an ISS assembly flight with the primary payloads being the Tranquility module and the Cupola observatory. The mission began on February 8th 2010 at 09:14 UTC launching Commander George D. Zamka, Pilot Terry Virts, Mission Specialist 1 Kathryn P. Hire, Mission Specialist 2 Stephen K. Robinson, Mission Specialist 3 Nicholas Patrick & Mission Specialist 4 Robert L. Behnken to orbit. They docked with the ISS 2 days after launch. During the mission 3 spacewalks were conducted to install the Tranquility module. On day 6, the wake-up song played to the ISS crew was "The Ballad of Serenity" by Sonny Rhodes, the theme for science fiction show Firefly, and was played for Robert Behnken. The mission concluded after 13 days & 18 hours on February 22nd 2010 at 03:22:10 UTC.
Low Earth OrbitThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.