Destiny (ISS module)

Destiny
The Destiny Laboratory Module (NASA) being installed on the International Space Station.
Module statistics
Launch date7 February 2001
Launch vehicleSpace Shuttle Atlantis
Berthed10 February 2001
Mass14,515 kg (32,000 lb)
Length8.4 m (28 ft)
Diameter4.2 m (14 ft)
Pressurised volume104.77 m3 (3,700 cu ft)
References: [1]

The Destiny module, also known as the U.S. Lab, is the primary operating facility for U.S. research payloads aboard the International Space Station (ISS).[2][3] It was berthed to the Unity module and activated over a period of five days in February, 2001.[4] Destiny is NASA's first permanent operating orbital research station since Skylab was vacated in February 1974.

The Boeing Company began construction of the 14,515-kilogram (32,000 lb) research laboratory in 1995 at the Michoud Assembly Facility and then the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.[2] Destiny was shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 1998, and was turned over to NASA for pre-launch preparations in August 2000. It launched on February 7, 2001 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-98.[4]

Astronauts work inside the pressurized facility to conduct research in numerous scientific fields. Scientists throughout the world would use the results to enhance their studies in medicine, engineering, biotechnology, physics, materials science, and Earth science.[3]

  1. ^ "Destiny Laboratory | NASA". 20 September 2018. Archived from the original on 9 July 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  2. ^ a b Boeing (2008). "Destiny Laboratory Module". Boeing. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  3. ^ a b NASA (2003). "U.S. Destiny Laboratory". NASA. Archived from the original on July 9, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  4. ^ a b NASA (2001). "STS-98". NASA. Archived from the original on August 30, 2013. Retrieved October 7, 2008.