America's NASA Astronauts Savor the Moment

America's NASA astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour awoke the earth orbiting below and docked to the large International Space Station shimmering against the star-studded black canvass of space. Abruptly, Texas mission controllers filled the air with the music of Richard Strauss and in realization that the day is being spent for the first of three spacewalks. The shuttle and space station expedition crew will work over the next week adding to the course of ISS construction completion.

Only four missions remain to the orbiting national laboratory by the soon-to-be retired United States space transportation system [STS]. These are precious fleeting human times as the nation marks significant change to a NewSpaceEra - initially relaint upon Russian Soyuz taxi-flights and, in the near-term, a number of commercial boosters with human transport payloads.