Flight 8 - 2R Launch Date: 2. Nov. 2000 Launch Vehicle: Russian Soyuz Rocket Elements: Soyuz
Establishes first station manning with three-person crew: Commander Bill Shepherd; Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko; Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev. Provides Russian ./img/assured crew return capability without the Space Shuttle present. Station begins permanent human presence.

The first crew will spend five months aboard the International Space Station. When they arrive, the station will consist of three modules: the Russian Service Module, which will serve as living quarters and onboard control center for the early station; the U.S.-funded and Russian-built Zarya, a module that provides supplementary power and propulsion functions; and the U.S.-built Node 1, a connecting module that provides the attachment points for future U.S. segments.

The crew's mission will be a flight test of the new station as they ./img/assist with critical assly activities from onboard. During their stay, three Space Shuttle assly missions will dock, expanding the station by delivering the first truss-based U.S. solar arrays, the U.S. Laboratory Module and the station's primary robotic arm, built by Canada.

The crew will be launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan. They will return at the end of their mission aboard the Space Shuttle on assembly flight 6A, the mission that delivers the robotic arm. They will be relieved by a new crew of three that will be launched on the shuttle on flight 6A. The Soyuz spacecraft the first crew rides to orbit will remain docked with the station, providing an emergency return to Earth for crew members if needed. The Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station will be changed out with a fresh spacecraft about each six months to maintain the emergency crew return capability.