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Special activities at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA to include shuttle crew.

Member of upcoming shuttle mission STS-116 will be part of one of many Space Day celebrations taking place around the country on Thursday, May 5th.

Mission Commander Mark Polansky and his crew will help build the International Space Station (ISS), a starting poing for future space-based missions to our moon and to Mars. They will be in Virginia's Udvar-Hazy Center to meet with young scientists.

The STS-116 launch should take place in 2006, and would be the second ISS construction mission after the space shuttle's return to flight.

ISS figures prominently in NASA's vision of future space exploration. NASA sees the station as a necessary testing point for astronauts' endurance and trying out the technology needed to venture deeper into space.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.