Atlantis returned to the International Space Station in September 2000, this time to outfit it after the long-awaited Russian service module had finally arrived and docked. The crew of seven spent the docked days transforming the newly expanded station from bare modules into a habitable home, readying it for the first resident crew due within weeks.
The astronauts hauled tons of supplies aboard, installed batteries, ran cables and set up life-support equipment, while a spacewalk connected power and data lines between the modules. By the time Atlantis departed, the station had working systems and stocked shelves. The mission was a crucial link in the chain of assembly and outfitting flights that turned the growing outpost into a place where people could live continuously.
Zvezda had finally arrived. The Russian service module — the station's early living quarters, life support and propulsion, delayed by years of funding crises — docked in July 2000, and Atlantis flew in September to turn it into somewhere people could actually live.
The crew spent a week outfitting it: installing the toilet, the treadmill, oxygen generators, batteries, fire suppression and communications gear, and transferring some three tonnes of supplies from a Russian cargo ship already docked at the other end. Edward Lu and Yuri Malenchenko spacewalked for over six hours to connect power and data cables between the Russian modules.
Everything about the flight was preparation for one date. Expedition 1 launched six weeks later, and the crew that moved in found a station that had been cleaned, stocked, wired and plumbed by people who had gone home. Human beings have lived there continuously ever since — the longest unbroken habitation off the Earth in history.
