The final pieces of what will become the longest
\nstructure in space, the International Space Station’s
\nfootball-field-long backbone, are being shipped to Florida
\nnext week.<\/p>\n
\nThe 11th and final piece of the Station’s Integrated Truss
\nStructure (designated Starboard 6 (S6) truss segment) leaves
\nHouston for the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), on Monday, Dec.
\n9, weather permitting. S6 will be shipped in two segments.
\nThe first shipment will be the Integrated Equipment Assembly
\n(IEA), and the second shipment the truss Long Spacer.<\/p>\n
\nThe two pieces are too large to be shipped together, but they
\nwill be joined together prior to launch. The S6 shipments
\nmean virtually all the U.S. core structure of the Station has
\nleft the factory and is either in orbit or being readied for
\nlaunch. Only one major Station core component awaits
\nshipment. The second connecting module, Node 2, is completing
\nconstruction in Italy.<\/p>\n
\nWhen launched in early 2004, the S6 truss will weigh 26,000
\npounds and measure 45 feet long. Its assembly in orbit will
\ncomplete a 356-foot-long span across the Space Station. The
\nspan will support a half-acre of solar arrays, massive
\nstation cooling systems and a railway to allow a robotic arm
\nto relocate for Station maintenance.<\/p>\n
\n“The shipment of this segment signals that the fabrication of
\nall U.S.-built International Space Station core components
\nhas been completed,” said ISS Program Manager Bill
\nGerstenmaier. “But the most complex and challenging work is
\nahead as we continue to assemble the truss segments in orbit,
\nmultiplying and expanding the Station’s power system. When
\nthis final truss segment is attached in 2004, we will be in
\nthe home stretch of Station assembly,” he said.<\/p>\n
\nThe S6 will include the fourth and final set of Station solar
\narrays, batteries and electronics. The truss IEA and Long
\nSpacer have been in Houston for about a year undergoing final
\nconstruction. The segment began as a qualification article
\nfor other truss segments before being renovated to flight
\nstatus. It will spend a little over a year in KSC’s Space
\nStation Processing Facility being readied for launch. <\/p>\n
\nWhile at KSC, the truss IEA and Long Spacer will be
\ninspected. Orbital Replacement Units will be installed to the
\nIEA and undergo verification tests in order to ready them for
\nflight. Kennedy will perform final integration of the Long
\nSpacer truss segment to the IEA and final verification and
\ntesting.<\/p>\n
More than 390,000 pounds of Station components are in orbit.
\nApproximately 110,000 additional pounds, including S6, are
\nbeing readied for launch aboard Space Shuttle flights during
\nthe next 14 months.<\/p>\n
The S6 will be flown from Houston’s Ellington Field to
\nKennedy aboard NASA’s Super Guppy cargo airplane. The
\ncustomized four-engine aircraft has a 25-foot-diameter
\nfuselage and a foldaway nose enabling it to load and
\ntransport oversize cargo. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The final pieces of what will become the longest structure in space, the International Space Station’s football-field-long backbone, are being shipped to Florida next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":612598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-NASA"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/612598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}