CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Shuttle Atlantis and five astronauts will blast off for the International Space Station (ISS) this week, hauling up a $1.38 billion laboratory that will serve as both the nerve center and the scientific heart of the outpost.
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And while the facility won't be fully outfitted for research until late 2005, NASA officials say the U.S. Destiny lab promises to gradually open up new frontiers in science and technology, perhaps paving the way to human expeditions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
"It certainly represents a quantum leap in our ability to conduct research aboard the International Space Station in low Earth orbit," said senior NASA project scientist John Uri.
"It fulfills the destiny of the station - to do science on orbit," added Robert Cabana, NASA's manager for international station operations. "It's a real place to do science in a world-class microgravity lab. It's going to be a fantastic facility up there."Now nestled in the shuttle's cargo bay, the lab is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center at 6:11 p.m. EST (23:11 GMT) Wednesday as Atlantis and its astronauts head off on a two-day trip to the station.
With an assist from spacewalkers Tom Jones and Robert Curbeam, mission specialist Marsha Ivins will attach the 16-ton lab to the 97-ton complex, which now is occupied by U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts - Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev.
And when the shuttle and station crews float into the lab for the first time, they'll find the shell of what eventually will be the most advanced laboratory facility ever launched into space.
Weighing in at 32,000 pounds (14,400 kilograms), the Destiny lab is a can-shaped aluminum module that stretches 28 feet (8.5 meters) from end to end, providing about the same amount of room as a large business jet.
With three other pressurized wings already in place, the lab will make the international station larger in terms of habitable space than NASA's 1970s Skylab complex or the Russian Mir outpost, which will be sent on a destructive dive into the Pacific Ocean in early March.
"It will give us more space, more living room and capability, and will further entrench us in this big building job that we have," said NASA station project manager Tommy Holloway. "The lab is going to put us in business on the International Space Station."
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