Picture of the day - December 28, 2006

Astronauts Upgrading The International Space Station

Photo courtesy of NASA.   The International Space Station (ISS) is already the largest man-made object in space, and it isn't even finished yet. In fact, it is already large enough to easily be seen with the naked eye from the planet below! As part of the ongoing 240 mile high construction project, during this month's visit of the space shuttle Discovery astronauts Robert L. Curbeam of the USA and Christer Fuglesang of Sweden spent several hours working outside the orbiting laboratory to install a new truss segment and perform a wiring upgrade. Mission STS-116 began with a spectacular night-time launch on December 9 and ended with a picture-perfect landing some 13 days later at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Space flight is by its very nature a very dangerous business, but for the brave men and women who strap themselves to a rocket and blast off into space, it is the ultimate adventure. And in the grand scheme of things, they realize that the dangerous and exciting work they do now will greatly benefit all of us in the future.   Submit a photo of your own! Picture of the day archives