December 11, 2000 - Endeavour's astronauts were awakened this morning to Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas," beginning what was their final day in orbit.

Aboard the International Space Station Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev are taking advantage of the additional space offered by the Unity module.

With additional power provided by the station's new solar arrays -- delivered and installed by Endeavour's crew - the station crew now has continuous access to that module. Early this morning, Shepherd provided flight controllers with views of a cluttered module, and asked for the crew to have time for some housekeeping on Tuesday. Shepherd indicated he had elected to spend much of Monday setting up a new resistance exercise device in Unity, and looked forward to opening the hatch in the docking port vacated by Endeavour so that it can be used as closet space.

Endeavour and its five astronauts returned home to the Kennedy Space Center Monday evening, wrapping up a mission that delivered the first set of U.S. provided solar arrays to the Expedition One crew aboard the International Space Station, increasing power to the complex five fold in setting the stage for future station assembly.

Commander Brent Jett guided Endeavour to a landing at 6:03 p.m. EST, 36 minutes after sunset. The mission saw three space walks conducted to install, checkout and activate the first of four planned sets of solar arrays increasing power to the complex five fold in setting the stage for future station assembly. Jett and his crewmates, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega touched down on Runway 15 at the Florida spaceport to wrap up the fifth and final shuttle flight of the year. Heralding their early evening arrival were twin sonic booms as the shuttle went subsonic just minutes before reaching its landing strip. Four minutes before Endeavour's landing, the International Space station flew almost directly over Kennedy Space Center.

December 10, 2000 - Endeavour's morning wake-up music was "Beyond the Sea," sung by Bobby Darin -- a reference to the traditions observed on the station by Navy Commander Jett and Navy Captain Shepherd, including the ringing of the station's ship's bell when the shuttle crew departed Saturday.

Endeavour astronauts spent much of the day getting ready to land at Kennedy Space Center Monday evening after successfully completing all the objectives of the STS-97 mission to help the International Space Station spread its wings.. They tested Endeavour's controls and stowed equipment in preparation for their 6:04 p.m. EST.

They checked out the flight control surfaces - the rudder and flaps that will control Endeavour after it enters the atmosphere. They also checked out the reaction control system thrusters that will keep the orbiter in the proper attitude as it begins its fiery re-entry.

December 9, 2000 - The crew's wake-up call today was "Back in the Saddle Again," by Gene Autry in honor of Bloomfield, who is making his second space flight and his second fly-around of a space station. The first was STS-86, on which he steered Atlantis around the Russian Space Station Mir.

Endeavour's astronauts said good-bye to the crew aboard the International Space Station at 10:51 a.m. EST, closing the hatches between the two vehicles. Undocking took place at 2:13 p.m. The shuttle and space station had been docked to one another for 6 days, 23 hours and 13 minutes. Endeavour moved downward from the space station, then began a tail-first circle at a distance of about 500 feet. The maneuver, with pilot Mike Bloomfield at the controls, took about an hour.

While Endeavour flew that circle, the two spacecraft, moving at five miles a second, flew about two-thirds of the way around the Earth. Undocking took place 235 statute miles above the border of Kazakhstan and China. When Endeavour made its final separation burn, the orbiter and the space station were near the northeastern coast of South America.

Before going to bed at 11:06 p.m. the STS-97 crew got some off-duty time and adjusted the shuttle's orbit to give it an additional landing opportunity in Florida. Endeavour is to touch down at 6:04 p.m. EST Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

December 8, 2000 - The International Space Station recorded another milestone today - the arrival of its first houseguests. The crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the station's Expedition 1 crew opened the hatches of their respective spacecraft at 9:36 a.m. EST. Station Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev shook hands with their first station guests in 38 days -- STS-97 Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner.

The meeting was the first face-to-face contact between the crews, even though their spacecraft have been docked together since last Saturday, orbiting the planet at an altitude of 230 statute miles.

The eight crew members worked together to transfer equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft, and take refuse from the station aboard Endeavour for return to Earth. They did structural tests of the station and its solar arrays. They also finished setting up and checking out a TV system. Tanner and Noriega installed a cable for that system Thursday during their third space walk. The system will help a shuttle crew attach the U.S. laboratory Destiny to the station during a January mission.

December 7, 2000 - Endeavour's crew was awakened at 7:06 a.m. EST to the sounds of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," sent up for Mission Specialists Joe Tanner.

Space walking Endeavour astronauts sailed through an add-on job to tension a solar blanket, then completed their other tasks in textbook fashion. They topped off their scheduled activities with an image of an evergreen tree placed atop the P6 solar array structure, the highest point in their construction project.

Space walkers Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega also installed a centerline camera cable outside the Unity module. It will transmit television images to help a shuttle crew attach the U.S. laboratory Destiny next month. The last of their scheduled tasks was installation of the Floating Potential Probe. The FPP, atop the P6, measures the electrical potential of plasma around the station. The evergreen tree image was on a transfer bag they attached to the FPP symbolizing "topping out" of the space station - a tradition followed by Earth-based construction workers when a building reaches its final height.

The scheduled activities for the space walk, which began at 11:13 a.m. EST, went so smoothly that Tanner and Noriega were able to complete some "get-ahead" tasks for the next scheduled space walks outside the space station in January. These included installing a sensor on a radiator, installing small antennas and doing a photo survey. Even so, they were able to conclude their space walk at 4:23 p.m., after 5 hours and 10 minutes outside. This brings total space walk time during STS-97 to 19 hours and 20 minutes, and total space walk time outside the station to 88 hours and 54 minutes.

Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko awoke just after 1:00 a.m. EST and continued packing up items that will be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour. They also set up, but did not activate, a wireless instrumentation system that will attempt to measure and further model the structural integrity of the station as shuttle steering jets fire.

Humidity levels are coming down in the station after Wednesday's successful installation by the crew of a new air conditioning unit. The crew also replaced a malfunctioning fan in the Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal unit, bringing that life-support unit back on line. The hatch between the Zarya and Unity modules remains open indefinitely. The two crews are scheduled to meet inside Unity about 9:30 a.m. Friday. The station crew is scheduled to go to bed at 4:36 p.m. EST, and the shuttle crew will begin its sleep shift at 11:06 p.m.

December 6, 2000 - Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega were roused at 7:36 a.m. EST by a Puccini opera aria, " O Mio Babbino Caro," intended especially for Garneau.

Soon after this morning's wake-up call, Noriega and Tanner received word they will have an additional task on their Thursday space walk. Station and shuttle engineers and managers sent up plans for adjusting the tension levels of the solar blankets on the starboard solar array. The plan calls for the shuttle crew to retract the array's mast two to three feet to generate some slack in the tension cables. Noriega will pull the slack through each spring-loaded take-up reel, then Tanner will manually "wind" the tension reels. When each has reached its limit, Tanner will let it unwind by spring force while Noriega guides the cable on to the reel grooves. The outboard reel will be first, followed by the inboard reel. Besides preparing for tomorrow's space walk, they also took a few hours off to rest and enjoy the view from their spacecraft, moving at five miles a second about 235 miles above the Earth.

Expedition One Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko had a busy day aboard the space station. They installed a new air conditioning unit brought up by the Progress supply vessel, which docked with the station Nov. 17 to replace one that had failed earlier in the week. The new unit is functioning well. The crew also replaced a malfunctioning fan in the Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal unit, bringing that life-support unit back on line.

Shepherd went back inside the Unity module about 5:30 a.m. EST to install electrical outlets and air ducts and separate the power feeds going to the early communication and S-band communication systems, providing additional redundancy.

December 5, 2000 - Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Carlos Noriega, Joe Tanner and Mark Garneau were awakened at 8:06 a.m. EST. The crew started its day with the University of Southern California's fight song, "Fight On," played for graduate Noriega.

They completed the second of the STS-97 mission's three space walks today, hooking up power and data cables and connecting ammonia coolant lines between the International Space Station's new solar array truss and the rest of the ISS. They also prepared a docking port for a January move to another area on the space station to get ready for arrival of the U.S. laboratory Destiny.

During their 6 hour, 37 minute space walk that began at 12:21 p.m. EST, Noriega and Tanner moved the S-band antenna assembly to the top of the solar array tower. They also released restraints holding a radiator to the tower's side. It is designed to help cool Destiny. That radiator was deployed after the space walk. The second space walk brings this crew's total to 14 hours and 10 minutes outside the space station, and total space walk time outside the station for all flights to 83 hours and 44 minutes.

Inside the space station, the Expedition One crew, Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, went into Unity for the second time in their 35 days aboard the station. There they reconfigured cables to route electricity from the new solar arrays to the rest of the space station.

December 4, 2000 - Following a busy weekend that saw the crew of Endeavour dock with the International Space Station and install the new U.S. solar array structure during a 7 ½ hour space walk, the STS-97 astronauts had light duty on their schedule today before continuing activation of the new station power generation system. Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Carlos Noriega and Marc Garneau of the Canadian Space Agency, were awakened just after 9:30 a.m. EST today. This morning's wake up song was "Lovin' You Lots & Lots" from the movie "That Thing You Do" and was sent up to Bloomfield from his wife.

Endeavour astronauts deployed the second of two huge solar wings on the International Space Station Monday in a slow and deliberate, almost two-hour-plus process that began at 7:52 p.m. The other solar wing, the starboard wing, was deployed nonstop Sunday in about 13 minutes. Deployment of the second solar wing brings to 240 feet the span of the station's solar arrays. This array is 38 feet across and can produce as much as 60 kilowatts. It has a 15-year designed lifetime. It is the first of four such arrays that eventually will supply power to the station, enabling it to conduct basic and applied research in its microgravity environment.

December 3, 2000 - "It's kind of like Christmas up here going through these bags." With that comment, International Space Station Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd indicated his happiness about the equipment, supplies and care packages today that were dropped by Endeavour's astronauts following Saturday's shuttle docking with the station.

Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev entered the Unity module for the first time since their arrival aboard the station 33 days ago at 4:38 a.m. EST Sunday, and retrieved items that were left in the docking compartment by Endeavour's crew after their 3 p.m. Saturday docking. The items included a new laptop computer and headsets for the station's two-way videoteleconferencing system, a new hard drive for a Russian laptop, large bags full of water, packaged Russian and fresh American food items -- plus a special care package. Shepherd voiced special pleasure at receiving some fresh coffee and a large pair of vice grip pliers.

Although the Expedition 1 crew came within one hatch of its colleagues ­ Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Marc Garneau, Carlos Noriega and Joe Tanner -- the two crews will not greet each other face-to-face until Friday morning following completion of three planned space walks to install and activate the new 17-ton solar array tower. The International Space Station complex is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 235 statute miles in fine fashion.

December 2, 2000 - Docking day for the crew of Endeavour began at 8:06 a.m. EST with the Shuttle about 700 miles away from the first linkup of a Shuttle and an inhabited International Space Station. The crew was awakened to the song, "I Believe I Can Fly," by R. Kelly.

Endeavour's astronauts executed a flawless docking to the inhabited International Space Station at 3 p.m. Saturday and took the first step in providing additional power to the orbiting complex in preparation for the first of three planned space walks Sunday. With Expedition One crew members Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev looking on, Commander Brent Jett guided the shuttle to a smooth linkup with the ISS as the two craft sailed 230 statute miles above northeast Kazakhstan. Endeavour is attached to a new station docking port installed last month by the STS-92 astronauts.

A little over two hours after docking, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Marc Garneau maneuvered Endeavour's Canadian-built robot arm and grappled the 45-foot-long, 17 1Ž2 ton P6 solar array truss structure at 5:17 p.m., lifting it out of its berthing latches in the shuttle's cargo bay a few minutes later. Garneau tilted the truss structure 30-degrees to the cargo bay, where it will remain overnight attached to the arm to properly warm its components. The P6 will be mated to the Z1 external truss atop the Unity module Sunday by Garneau with the assistance of space walkers Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega during their 61Ž2-hour excursion outside Endeavour.

After leak checks were completed between the two vehicles, and with Pilot Mike Bloomfield looking on, Tanner and Noriega made their way through Endeavour's docking tunnel and opened the hatch to the ISS docking port to leave supplies and computer hardware on the doorstep of the station. The hatch refused to open at first because of a slight pressure differential between Endeavour and the ISS, but Tanner used a little muscle to finally push it free. The Endeavour-ISS complex is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 235 statute miles with all systems operating in excellent fashion.

December 1, 2000 -The crew's first full day in orbit began with a wake-up call from Mission Control at 11:06 a.m. to the sounds of "Stardust" by Willie Nelson, played for Canadian Space Agency astronaut Garneau. Endeavour's astronauts spent much of Friday checking out equipment to be used for Saturday's docking with the International Space Station, subsequent assembly operations and three space walks.

Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega checked out systems they will use to deliver the station's first set of U.S. solar arrays. They tested the power supply to the huge solar array structure. Jett and Bloomfield fired Endeavour's orbital maneuvering systems twice Friday, at about 1:41 p.m. and 10:24 p.m., to bring the orbiter into the proper alignment with the space station and close the gap between the two spacecraft. Endeavour is about 2,515 miles from the space station and now closing at a rate of almost 400 miles every orbit.

November 30, 2000 -Endeavour's five astronauts blasted off on time from the Kennedy Space Center on the 101st mission in space shuttle history to deliver the first set of U.S. solar arrays that will significantly increase the power generation capabilities of the International Space Station. Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Marc Garneau and Carlos Noriega rocketed away from Launch Pad 39-B at 10:06 p.m. EST, in a brilliant blaze of light that turned the central Florida skies from night into day for miles around as they began their pursuit of the international complex.

Overview - STS-97 will build and enhance the capabilities of the International Space Station. It will deliver the first set of U.S.-provided solar power with solar arrays and batteries, called the photovoltaic (PV) module. Two radiators, called photovoltaic (PV) Thermal Control System (TCS) radiators, will provide early cooling. The first PV module will be installed temporarily on Z1 truss until after Assembly flight 13A when they can be moved to the P5 truss. Two spacewalks will be conducted to complete assembly operations while the arrays are attached and unfurled. Also, an S-band communications system for voice and telemetry will be installed and activated.