Latest Cupola Stories

NASA There is a reason the phrase "shooting in the dark" refers to things that are difficult to do -- and night photography is no exception. To account for low-light image scenarios, a photographer needs a steady tripod, but aboard the International Space Station, a traditional tripod isn't going to cut it. Thankfully, the European Space Agency, or ESA, developed NightPod for the crew's cameras. This astronaut photograph of Liège, Belgium, at night was taken using the NightPod camera...

Are you following @Astro_Andre’s Twitter updates and images from space? If you could speak to him live on the International Space Station, what would you most like to ask? Now’s your chance! ESA is inviting 80 followers of @Astro_Andre to join us for a SpaceTweetup, with André participating live from the Space Station. The Tweetup will take place in English on 29 May at ESA’s ESTEC research and technology center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang...

Now that Paolo Nespoli has returned from the International Space Station, we are looking forward to Europe's next mission. André Kuipers will be launched to the orbital outpost in November "“ but his mission still has no name. Help us to find a good one!This will be André's second mission to the Space Station: he made an 11-day visit in 2004 as part of a crew rotation flight. But this time he will be staying for about six months, as a flight engineer on Expeditions 30 and 31. He will...

Endeavour Pilot Terry Virts opened the windows one at a time early Wednesday, giving spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick an early look into the International Space Station's room with a view that they had helped install.Behnken and Patrick wrapped up their third and final planned spacewalk, a 5-hour, 48-minute excursion, at 2:03 a.m. CST. They completed all of their planned tasks, removing insulation blankets and removing launch restraint bolts from each of the cupola's seven...

The International Space Station's new viewport is facing the Earth now, ready to provide a panoramic view of the planet below and approaching cargo ships. Relocation of the cupola from Tranquility's forward port to its new location was completed at 12:31 a.m. CST.Endeavour Mission Specialist Kathryn Hire and Pilot Terry Virts moved the cupola, operating the station's Canadarm2 from controls in the U.S. laboratory, Destiny. Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams operated the latches and bolts...

Astronauts of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and ISS opened the hatches between Node-1 and Node-3 at 03:17 CET (02:17 GMT) this morning and entered their new module. For the moment, the module remains passive, with temporary lighting and ventilation, while it is prepared for the relocation of the Cupola window module.With Node-3 now a part of the International Space Station (ISS), the first racks are being installed. This includes the advanced Resistive Exercise Device and the Air Revitalization...

Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched at 4:14 a.m. EST today and is heading for the International Space Station carrying two sophisticated European modules: Node-3 (Tranquility) and Cupola. Their installation will mark the completion of the non-Russian part of the ISS, with more than a third of the pressurized Station elements designed and built in Europe.Node-3 is part of the Columbus laboratory launch barter agreement with NASA, whereby ESA supplies two of the connecting nodes (Nodes-2...

Yesterday at the Paris headquarters of the French space agency (CNES), Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, and Thierry Duquesne, CNES Director for Strategy, Programs and International Relations, signed an agreement that paves the way for the launch of a high-accuracy atomic clock to be attached to the outside of the European Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The PHARAO (Projet d'Horloge Atomique par Refroidissement d'Atomes en Orbite)...

Today at the Paris headquarters of the French space agency (CNES), Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, and Thierry Duquesne, CNES Director for Strategy, Programs and International Relations, signed an agreement that paves the way for the launch of a high-accuracy atomic clock to be attached to the outside of the European Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The PHARAO (Projet d'Horloge Atomique par Refroidissement d'Atomes en Orbite) atomic...

Twelve years of design, development and hard work have come to fruition with the formal handover of Node 3 from ESA to NASA on November 20, 2009. The ceremony took place in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.The ceremony was attended by Bernardo Patti International Space Station Program Manager in ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, NASA's International Space Station Program Manager Michael Suffredini, Robert Cabana, NASA's Director of the...