Everybody celebrates the New Year in their own way. The ancient masters of fireworks deserve a brief salute for launching another of their bigger ones, Shenzhou IV; despite earlier success however once again they chose to keep all their people safe on the ground. Perhaps the next twelve months will see them "join the club" such prudence postponed from the previous dozen.

A similar year of promise awaits the International Space Station. Last year it grew impressively with the addition of the important "backbone" truss. With its "space railroad" and special handcars operational, essential tools for the station's robotic arm and her astronaut attendants are ready for the expansion planned this year. Though the Old Year was great at ISS, bring in the New! (The holiday actually started several days early as NASA chief O'Keefe, countering FUD over partner participation, committed a crew permanently to his descriptive "pyramid in space.")

Quite literally "new" as far as the crew goes. Arriving on Atlantis in March, Expedition 7 replaces the resolute if unvisited Expedition 6 as well as deliver new research racks for the Destiny lab (did Peggy leave the ears?). At the end of May Endeavour expects to install port truss segments P3 and P4. Atlantis returns late July to deliver the final port-side truss section, P5, and also host the exchange of Expeditions 7 and 8.

Coming again October is Endeavour, restoring starboard symmetry with segments S3 and S4. Then in November Columbia is scheduled to deliver the final truss segment, S5. All in all plans call for 24 spacewalks, two more than last year and at that another world record, yet one I hope keeps renewing annually!

These flights should add almost 40 tons of material to the structure, almost tripling its length (from 134 to 310 feet), and attaching giant solar arrays (containing tens of thousands of cells) mounted on giant rotary joints to allow continuous tracking of the sun. Associated batteries and control electronics should supply the station with unprecedented power. Installation of these segments and array deployment will require extensive and precise use of station and shuttle robotics.

Along the way two Soyuz craft are also scheduled for visits - another chance for Lance, true, but it does get better. Among the thirty or so visitors booked at the "pyramid" this year, finally after almost two decades (since Challenger) Columbia hopes to introduce a teacher (educator astronaut Barbara Morgan) to space. My personal New Year's resolutions often do not manifest - God willing this one does.