Space Shuttle programme

May 19, 2000: Atlantis leapt into station work once again when it returned to flight on STS-101.

NASA was now in a new phase of building the International Space Station. The orbiter blasted off for the station on May 19, 2000, and became the third mission to do work there.

Astronauts transferred more than a ton of supplies and did spacewalks to work on two cranes outside of the station.