10 December 2006, 01:47:35 UTC, T minus Zero December 10, 2023Space FlightArne Christer Fuglesang, Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham, Launch Complex 39B, Manned Space Flight, Mark Lewis Polansky, Nicholas James McDonald Patrick Ph.D., Robert Lee Curbeam Jr., Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103), Space Shuttle Program, STS-116, Sunita Lyn Williams, William Anthony OefeleinBryan Swopes Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-116) lifts off from Launch Complex 39B, 8:47 p.m., 9 December 2006, Eastern Standard Time. (NASA) Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103) STS-116 flight crew: Front row, left to right: William Anthony Oefelein, pilot; Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham, mission specialist; and Mark Lewis Polansky, commander. On the back row (from the left) are astronauts Robert Lee Curbeam, Jr.; Nicholas J.M. Patrick, Ph.D.; Sunita Lyn Williams and the European Space Agency’s Arne Christer Fuglesang; all mission specialists. (NASA) Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr., (left) and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang, both STS-116 mission specialists, participate in the mission’s first of three planned sessions of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction resumes on the International Space Station. The landmasses depicted are the South Island (left) and North Island (right) of New Zealand. (NASA) The International Space Station after the installation of a P5 spacer truss segment and fully retracted P6 solar array wing. (NASA) Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103) STS-116 landing at the Space Shuttle Landing Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 22:32:00 UTC, 22 December 2006. Mission Elapsed Time: 12 days, 20 hours, 44 minutes, 16 seconds. (NASA)