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Astronauts Open ISS Station Room

Posted by kdawson on from the now-to-hang-curtains dept.

mikesd81 notes an ABC News report that astronauts aboard the ISS have opened the new station room. Commander Peggy Whitson and astronaut Paolo Nespoli delayed their lunch so the event could happen before the station's orbit temporarily blocked the ability to send a video downlink to Mission Control. From the article: "Nespoli... joined Discovery's crew to personally deliver the Italian-made pressurized chamber... Astronauts added the school bus-sized room called Harmony during a 6.5-hour spacewalk Friday, using a robotic arm to lift it from the shuttle's cargo bay and install it on the station. The compartment will serve as the docking port and nerve center for European and Japanese laboratories that will be delivered on the next three shuttle flights. It also will be a power and thermal distribution center, providing air, electricity, water and other systems for the space station. Racks of computer and electronic equipment are already inside the cylinder, which will double as a living space for the crew... The astronauts will have to undo more than 700 bolts [which held down the equipment during flight] to free up the equipment."

7 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. A whole lot of bolts... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    With 700 extra bolts, I'm sure someone will find them useful in space.

    1. Re:A whole lot of bolts... by Reaperducer · · Score: 1, Funny

      Nespoli... joined Discovery's crew to personally deliver the Italian-made pressurized chamber.
      Italian-made technology? Better hope it doesn't have internet access.
      --
      -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  2. Re:700 bolts! by AuMatar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, because its a great idea to use explosives in a pressurized environment in the middle or space. And they can just plug electromagnets into the giant extension cord to Cape Canaveral. Idiot.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  3. Mama Mia! by dangitman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nespoli... joined Discovery's crew to personally deliver the Italian-made pressurized chamber... Astronauts added the school bus-sized room

    That's a big pressure cooker! Now they just have to find enough ravioli to fill it.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  4. Re:Lift? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Was than an obscure Ender's Game reference?

    No, it is perhaps the most well known of all Ender's Game references.

  5. Queer eye for the space guy by RealGrouchy · · Score: 1, Funny

    But... but... there aren't any gay astronauts!

    How will they decorate this new room?

    - RG>

    --
    Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
  6. Who gets to be first by SnarfQuest · · Score: 2, Funny

    Astronauts added the school bus-sized room

    Who gets to be the first to moon the Earth?

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.