Today in Space History - Lights That Stayed On 馃殌
Stardate 2080.7121 (NOVEMBER 2, 2000)
Soyuz TM-31 met the International Space Station on 2 November 2000, docking at the aft port of Zvezda at 09:21 UTC as the two craft passed over Kazakhstan. William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev had left Baikonur two days earlier. The station waiting for them was still small: Zarya, Unity and Zvezda, powered and pressurised, but not yet a home.
A little more than an hour after contact, the hatch into Zvezda opened and the first resident crew floated inside. They switched on lights, checked communications, and began the plain work of living there. From that morning, people have remained in orbit without a break. The station has been rebuilt around them many times since. The date itself is quieter than the years that followed, which is part of why it still holds.