The International Space Station is making plenty of headlines these days — not only as a great international enterprise, but also as a destination.

Currently, the space shuttle orbiter Endeavour is parked at the ISS, bringing crew and supplies, a robot and more construction materials.

Endeavor left the planet in a spectacular and rare night launch last week. Night launches used to be quite commonplace, but since the potential problems with foam debris falling off the external tank continue, night launches were abandoned. At this point, mission managers and engineers feel they have enough safeguards in place to be able to monitor the tank insulation well, so a night launch was approved for the current mission, STS-123.

In a routine maneuver the orbiter will do a back flip prior to arrival at the ISS to give the crew a chance to inspect the heat tiles for damage.

Endeavour is bringing a Japanese logistics module to the station, as well as a robot attachment to the Canadian-built remote manipulator arm, which will in effect give it two hands for moving items outside the station.

And just a few hundred miles away the European supply craft Jules Verne is flying in formation with the ISS, waiting for Endeavor to leave, so it can dock with the station and deliver a huge amount of supplies.

It is Jules Verne’s maiden voyage, and despite a computer glitch early in the mission, the fully automated supply ship is performing well.

Named after the French author who pioneered the science fiction genre a little more than 100 years ago, the robotic cargo ship is a source of great pride for the European Space Agency, and an invaluable contributor for the continued operations and success of the ISS.

So these are busy days for the space station — just the way it was always envisioned by its creators: ships docking, unloading cargo, bringing new components and crew members and then undocking to make room for the next visitor.

Keep up with the ISS at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html