On this day: 4 December 1998, the 13th flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched. The STS-88 mission began the largest international cooperative space venture in history as it attached together in orbit the first two modules of the International Space Station. The primary mission objective was to rendezvous with the orbiting ‘Zarya’ Control Module and successfully attach the ‘Unity Node’, providing the foundation for future station components. ‘Zarya’ had been launched by a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
See http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2003/11/Zarya_and_Unity_are_released_by_Space_Shuttle_Endeavour_after_docking
