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STILWELL, OK - When the space shuttle Discovery launches at approximately 9:30 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday, it’s primary payload is a product built by Cherokee Nation Industries in Stilwell. CNI’s Zenith-1 Truss Structure is a key component of the International Space Station and will be delivered to the ISS on the shuttle’s historic 100th flight.

The Z-1 Truss is a multi-purpose unit and structural attachment to the ISS.

"The part is really the centerpiece of the station," said Karen Martinez, a CNI employee who has worked extensively with the project. "It contains gyroscopes that will maintain the steadiness of the space station, the heating and cooling systems and the electrical power and telecommunication lines using a KU band antenna that will be deployed after docking with the ISS."

CNI has manufactured each of the nearly 100 cables that are installed onto the structure and employees were excited when NASA began preparing the unit for loading into the payload compartment of the Discovery. The shuttle’s mission duration is 11 days and will consist of the crew connecting electrical connections from the Z-1 to the existing ISS. It is estimated that it will take 45 missions over the next few years for the completion of the space station, which consists of two Russian elements and one United States module.

The launch continues CNI’s involvement in the aerospace industry. In May of 1999, the space shuttle Discovery carried two other cables to the ISS. Those two cables were a special order from Rocketdyne to facilitate an additional requirement to the original design of cables.