This week in 2007, space shuttle Endeavour, mission STS-118, landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center following a successful 12-day mission to the International Space Station. It continued space station construction by delivering the third starboard truss segment to the orbiting lab. Here, astronaut Rick Mastracchio participates in the first spacewalk of the mission. During the 6-hour, 17-minute spacewalk, he and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dave Williams attached the Starboard 5 segment of truss, retracted the heat rejecting radiator from the Port 6 truss, and performed several get-ahead tasks. Today, the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center serves as “science central” for the space station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of the orbiting laboratory’s science experiments. After 20 years of continuous human presence, the space station remains the sole space-based proving ground and stepping stone toward achieving the goals of the Artemis program. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)
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