Node 3, nicknamed Tranquility , and the Cupola module will be launched next Sunday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (Florida) bound for the International Space Station (ISS). They will go aboard Endeavor , which will carry six astronauts on board.
The Tranquility consists of a pressurized space that will house complementary systems necessary for life on the ISS, including a system for recycling water, generating oxygen and purifying the atmosphere that will remove toxic substances, and eight vital high-tech refrigerators to store food and keep scientific experiments for long periods of time.
As for the Cupola module, it is a robotic control station with seven windows that offer an "unprecedented" 360-degree panorama of the exterior of the ISS . Each window is made up of two 25-millimeter thick panels, a third panel to protect against space debris and a fourth to prevent damage from the inside. From there, ISS crews will be able to more easily monitor the Earth, as well as improve the remote control of the station's robotic arm. Once installed, it will be used as the "station's flight control center" to monitor the entry and exit of all vehicles.
When the Tranquility module and the "Dome" are placed, the ISS will be at 90% capacity .
