Cupola (ISS module)

List of ISS modules

Cupola (Italian dome ) is a dome-shaped observation tower to the International Space Station. It is located on the near side of the module usually tranquility.

Construction

Cupola is 1.50 m high, has a maximum diameter of 2.95 m and had at the start of a mass of 1,805 kg. The maximum mass in orbit is 1880 kg. Cupola has six side-mounted windows and a larger 80 -inch window on the "roof " and offers a panoramic view in a direction of observation. The windows can be sealed off to protect against micrometeorites and space debris with special shutters.

Cupola is primarily used for observation purposes, and it can accommodate two crew members simultaneously. Among the most important tasks of the module includes the control of the robot arm of the station, communicating with astronauts during an exit as well as observation of the Earth and space. These various command and control workstations can be installed in Cupola. A no less important task of the Cupola should be their use as a place of relaxation for astronauts.

Cupola part of the U.S. portion of the station and should be built by Boeing at first. After cost overruns, the development of the first 1993 module has been discontinued and five years later to the European Space Agency ( ESA) passed. In return, the ESA received transportation on the space shuttle for European components, tests and extra experiments on Columbus.

Two months after the contract with NASA, ESA awarded on 8 February 1999 the 20 - million - euro contract to build the module at Alenia Spazio (Italy). A further six European companies working under the leadership of Alenia of components of Cupola: CASA ( Spain), APCO ( Switzerland ), SAAB Ericsson and Lindholmen Development (Sweden), EADS Space Transportation ( Germany ) and Verhaert (Belgium ). Cupola was officially opened on 7 July 2005 at the Kennedy Space Center to NASA and stored there.

Transport and assembly

On 31 August 2009 Cupola was prepared in the Space Station Processing Facility for transport with tranquility, the property was transferred to this module at a ceremony held by ESA to NASA on 20 November. It was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on February 8, 2010 during the STS- 130 to the ISS. The Tranquility module was mounted together with Cupola on the Unity module and Cupola then moved from the front docking port to the nadir docking port Tranquilitys. The older plans foresaw a direct attachment of Cupola on Unity.