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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."

3 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Lift? by MOBE2001 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

    Uh... I don't think anything was "lifted". In zero G, there is no up and down, AFAIK.

    1. Re:Lift? by Original+Replica · · Score: 2, Interesting

      While the fact that they still in Earth's gravity well is pertinent to the "up and down in space" discussion, is it correct to say that they are in almost 1G? This is an honest question as my understanding of Physics is all self taught. As I understand things, there is no observable difference between being in Zero G and perpetually falling, at least from the perspective of the astronauts.

      --
      We are all just people.
  2. Thrice-damned multi-billion dollar rathole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I eagerly look forward to the new scientific results we'll get, now that the ISS has a new module. ...
    Fucking low-earth orbit rathole. We could have another hubble or the Next Linear Collider, but instead we get a damn hamster habitat in space.