The space shuttle Atlantis and its STS-98 astronaut crew are set for liftoff this week carrying the 16-ton Destiny laboratory module for the International Space Station. The $1.38-bil-lion Boeing facility is one of the most complex and expensive payloads in the history of the shuttle program and a critical element that will mark a turning point in ISS flight operations. Development of the Destiny lab and its systems, which took about seven years, ranks as one of the most ambitious space projects ever undertaken by Boeing and the NASA Johnson and Marshall centers. Mission commander Ken Cockrell and copilot Mark Polansky are to fly Atlantis into an initial 177-naut.-mi. orbit following liftoff scheduled at 2:11 a.m. EST Jan. 19.
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