The crews of the ISS and space shuttle Atlantis assemble for a group photo in the Destiny laboratory on the ISS. From the left, front row, are Peggy A. Whitson, Valery G. Korzun and Sergei Y. Treschev of the ISS. From the left, back row, are David A. Wolf, Sandra H. Magnus, Pamela A. Melroy, Jeffrey S. Ashby, Piers J. Sellers and Fyodor N. Yurchikhin who travelled to the ISS on the space shuttle Atlantis last week.
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Courtesy of NASA

Visitors Bring a New Piece to the ISS!
News story originally written on October 23, 2002

After living in space since June, the three people aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were excited to have visitors last week! They welcomed the six-person crew of the space shuttle Atlantis who started a big construction project that will eventually expand the space station’s laboratories.

During the Atlantis crew’s 11-day mission they added a giant new piece onto the space station. The Atlantis crew worked with the crew of the ISS to put the girder, worth $390 million, into place during three space walks. The girder, made of aluminum, is 45 feet long and 15 feet wide. It includes a sophisticated cooling system whose giant radiator extends to be 75-feet long. After future construction projects like this one, the new structure will eventually be 356 feet long and hold the radiators and solar wings that are needed for new laboratories. The next piece will be added when the space shuttle Endeavour visits in November bringing with it both the new piece and a new crew for the ISS.

The space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of six returned to Earth on Friday October 18, 2002 after their 4.5 million-mile visit to the International Space Station.


Last modified October 23, 2002 by Lisa Gardiner.

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