Richard Alan "Rick" Mastracchio is an American engineer and former NASA astronaut. He has flown on three NASA Space Shuttle missions as a mission specialist in addition to serving as a Flight Engineer on the Soyuz TMA-11M (Expedition 38/Expedition 39) long duration mission aboard the International Space Station. He is currently the Senior Director of Operations for Commercial Resupply Services at Orbital ATK.
STS-131 was an ISS assembly flight with the primary payload being a loaded Multi-Purpose Logistics Module - Leonardo. The mission began on April 5th 2010 at 1021:22 UTC launching Commander Alan Poindexter, Pilot James Dutton, Mission Specialist 1 Richard Mastracchio, Mission Specialist 2 Dorothy M. Metcalf-Lindenburger, Mission Specialist 3 Stephanie Wilson, Mission Specialist 4 Naoko Yamazaki & Mission Specialist 5 Clayton Anderson to orbit. They docked with the ISS 2 days after launch. The mission was the final Space Shuttle launch with a seven person crew and was the longest flight for Discovery. STS-131 also marked the first time 4 women have been in space at once. During the mission 3 spacewalks were conducted to replace an ammonia tank and to retrieve a seed experiment from outside the Japanese laboratory. The mission concluded after 15 days & 2 hours on April 20th 2010 at 1308:35 UTC after 2 waved off landing opportunities on the 19th at the Kennedy Space Center.
Low Earth OrbitSoyuz TMA-11M begins expedition 38 by carrying 3 astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station. Russian Commander, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin alongside Flight Engineers, Richard Mastracchio (NASA) & Koichi Wakata (JAXA) will launch aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and then rendezvous with the station. It landed on 14 May 2014 at 01:58 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.