BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: The first resident crew of two Russians and one American is set to begin its journey to the International Space Station a few hours from now. Liftoff will be from the Baikonur launch complex in Kazakhstan. CNN's Miles O'Brien filed our report by video phone.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: The first live-aboard crew of the International Space Station is spending their last night on Earth, they hope, for the next four months at least. The crew is headed by NASA astronaut and Navy SEAL Bill Shepherd, along with two Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalyov and Yuri Gidzenko, both of them veteran spacefarers who have spent significant periods of time onboard the Russian space station Mir. But it is not that space station to which they are headed. They are headed to the budding International Space Station, a joint project of the United States, Russia and 14 other nations. It will take five to six years to build, cost $100 billion and ultimately will have the volume of a 747 jet and span the length of a football field. This crew will spend four months onboard the budding station on what amounts to shakedown crew. They will activate life support systems, fix some perpetually difficult batteries on the Russian side of things and boot up the computer system, which will monitor all the support systems and monitoring systems onboard the space station. This endeavor is just the beginning what hope NASA and the Russians hope will be a 15-year continuous presence onboard that International Space Station. The idea is to conduct science in space and also possibly lay the groundwork for long-duration space missions, perhaps one day to Mars. Miles O'Brien, CNN, Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Expedition Crew Spends Last Night on Earth