And before Labor Day 2001, a sophisticated Canadian construction crane, a trio of Italian moving vans, a spare parts warehouse and an airlock for spacewalking day laborers will be added on to the growing complex.

Simply stated, the July arrival of the stations Russian-made living quarters put an end to a two-year lull in station construction. And by the end of next year, the fledgling outpost is expected to be the size of a three-bedroom ranch house.

"The pace is definitely going to pick up now," said Roselle Hanson, a NASA project manager at Kennedy Space Center.

Take a look at whats in store:

• October 5: NASAs so-called Z-1 truss -- the first piece of the stations 356-foot (108-meter) metallic backbone -- will be carried into orbit aboard Discovery. A conical docking port that will serve as a shuttle parking place also will be ferried up to the station on the flight along with an outpost communications and television antenna.
• November 30: Wing-like solar arrays will be trucked up to the station aboard Endeavour. Eventually, eight of the American-made arrays each of which will unfold like an accordion and measure 112 feet (34 meters) in length will generate enough electricity to power 55 houses on Earth.
• January 18, 2001: A can-shaped U.S. laboratory dubbed "Destiny" will be launched aboard Atlantis. The 28-foot (8.5-meter) aluminum module will house floor-to-ceiling experiment racks for research in biotechnology, fluid physics, combustion and life sciences.

Three Italian-made moving vans dubbed Leonardo, Rafaello and Donatello will follow on shuttle missions now scheduled for launches in February, April and June.

Also arriving on the April mission: One of the most sophisticated construction crews ever built -- a 57-foot robot arm built by the Canadian Space Agency.

An airlock for staging spacewalks will be launched in May and a pallet that will serve as a spare-parts warehouse outside the station will be lofted in August.

The hectic construction schedule calls for as many as nine shuttle flights to be launched in the next 12 months or double the number of missions NASA has averaged over the past two years.

A half-dozen Russian launches also are scheduled to ferry the stations first resident crew, a docking compartment and supplies up to the growing complex.

NASA shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said the next year will bring challenges as significant as those faced during the Apollo moon landing project.

But, he added: "Theres an excitement in the air, and theres a confidence that we can do it."

Dont be surprised, though, if NASA and its global partners encounter some problems and construction delays along the way.

"I think it would probably be naïve for everybody to think that we could get through 15 (U.S. shuttle and Russian rocket) flights in a row without some unforeseen problem cropping up. It would be miraculous," said NASA shuttle flight director Phil Engelauf.

"But well be doing everything we can to make it happen that way."