The center's director Bob Cabana cuts a 15th anniversary cake during an employee celebration commemorating the start of assembly of the International Space Station.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the center's director, Bob Cabana, cuts a 15th anniversary cake during an employee celebration commemorating the start of assembly of the International Space Station. Cabana served as commander of STS-88, the space shuttle mission that launched the first American-built element of the space station, beginning the effort to construct the orbiting complex. Also participating in the ceremony were STS-88 mission specialists Nancy Currie and Jerry Ross.

The Russian Space Agency's Functional Cargo Block, named "Zarya," was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 20, 1998. Two weeks later, on Dec. 4, 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy on STS-88 with node 1, called "Unity." In addition to Cabana, Curie and Ross, the crew also included pilot Rick Sturckow, along with mission specialists Jim Newman and Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossman