First Photos: Space Station's Observation Deck Unveiled

Tranquility at the Space Station

Photograph courtesy NASA

The space station's new cupola is attached to a larger module called Tranquility, seen above being transferred out of the space shuttle Endeavour's storage bay on February 11. The 380-million-U.S.-dollar Tranquility node provides more room for the space station crew and will house many of the station's life-support and environmental controls.

Tranquility will also house COLBERT, or the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, named for comedian Stephen Colbert. Although the TV star won the popular vote in his campaign to name the space station's new node after himself, NASA ultimately gave it the name Tranquility to honor the Apollo 11 moon landing.

With Tranquility safely bolted to the space station, NASA reports that the orbiting observatory is now about 90 percent complete.

Published February 18, 2010

Opening Space Station's Shutters

Photograph courtesy NASA

NASA astronauts Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken (not pictured) worked to remove the "shutters" from the cupola's seven windows on February 17, 2010. During the nearly six-hour spacewalk, the two astronauts removed insulation blankets and restraint bolts, which protected the "largest window in space" during the space shuttle Endeavour's February 8 launch.

Shuttle-mission specialist Kathryn Hire later congratulated the spacewalkers for "raising the curtain on a bay window to the world," according to CNN.

Published February 18, 2010

Algeria Through the Cupola

Photograph courtesy NASA

One of the first images taken through the newly installed space station cupola captured the blue Mediterranean waters off the coast of Algeria on February 17, 2010.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama called the space station crew and visiting shuttle astronauts to let them know that his "commitment to NASA is unwavering" and to ask questions about space flight along with a group of schoolchildren.

"The amazing work that's being done on the International Space Station ... is just a testimony to human ingenuity, a testimony to the extraordinary skill and courage that you guys bring to bear," President Obama said during his phone call, according to the Associated Press.

In return, the astronauts confirmed for the President that they can in fact see the Great Wall of China from space, as well as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and the Grand Canyon.

Published February 18, 2010