Five Americans and one Russian set off to begin building the International Space Station at 3:35:34am EST (8:34am GMT) Thrusday morning from the Kennedy Space Center with the first American-built component of the station — a connecting module named Unity — in the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s cargo bay. The shuttle’s climb to orbit was flawless.

The STS-88 launch begins the largest cooperative space construction
project in history. Endeavour is scheduled to rendezvous with the
U.S.-funded and Russian-built Zarya control module on Dec. 6. Zarya,
which in Russian means sunrise, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakstan, on Nov. 20.

After reaching orbit, Commander Bob Cabana, Pilot Rick Sturckow and
Mission Specialists Nancy Currie, Jerry Ross, Jim Newman and Sergei
Krikalev began preparing for the first of several engine firings that
will bring Endeavour within robot arm’s reach of Zarya. Along the way,
the crew will use the same 50-foot-long arm Dec. 5 to remove the Unity
module from the payload bay and connect it to the shuttle’s docking
hatch. Crew members will use the robot arm to grapple Zarya about 5:48
p.m. CST Dec. 6 and dock it to one of Unity’s two Pressurized Mating
Adapters.

Newman and Ross are scheduled to conduct the first of the mission’s
three space walks Dec. 7. The space walks will connect electrical and
communications lines between Unity and Zarya, and prepare Unity’s
systems for activation.

At launch, Zarya was making its 222nd orbit of the Earth about 240
statute miles above the Kennedy Space Center. Russian flight controllers
in Mission Control Korolev reported that all systems aboard Zarya, which
will provide the initial control and command capabilities for the space
station, were functioning well with the minor exception of one of six
battery charging systems. Endeavour is carrying replacement parts for
the system in the event they are needed.

After Endeavour undocks from the International Space Station on Dec. 13,
the crew will deploy two small technology demonstration satellites
called MightySat and the Argentine Satelite de Aplicaciones/Scientifico-A.

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