KSC00pp1346

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Viewed from underneath the wing of NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft, the Joint Airlock Module, the gateway from which crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will enter and exit the 470-ton orbiting research facility, rolls out of the aircraft. It will be transferred to the Operations and Checkout Building in the KSC industrial area where it will undergo vacuum chamber testing. Then it will be moved to the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) for further pre-launch preparation and checkout. The massive, spindle-shaped airlock is 20 feet long, has a diameter of 13 feet at its widest point, and weighs six and a half tons. It was manufactured at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center by the Huntsville division of The Boeing Company. The Space Shuttle Atlantis will carry the airlock to orbit on mission STS-104, the tenth International Space Station flight, currently targeted for liftoff in May 2001