Ten years ago today — December 5, 2001 — the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center on a mission to the International Space Station.
(Shuttle Endeavour being readied for the STS-108 mission. NASA image.)
STS-108 delivered the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the ISS. Astronauts Dominic L. Gorie, Mark E. Kelly, Linda M. Godwin, and Daniel M. Tani attached the Italian cargo module to the ISS’s Unity module, and ferried the ISS Expedition 4 crew — cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko and astronauts Carl E. Walz and Daniel W. Bursch — to their new orbital home.
When Endeavour landed, it brought the ISS Expedition 3 crew — astronaut Frank Culbertson and cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir N. Dezhurov — back to Earth.
I’ve noted elsewhere on this blog that I met Captain (USN) Culbertson several years after his return from the ISS. I sat next to him during a day-long NASA Industry-Education Forum. Good guy.
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