Fifth anniversary of the first element of the International Spac

In the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF), Richard Kuhns, NASA Node 2/10A Mission Integration Engineer, International Space Station and Payload Processing, discusses the Node 2 with members of the media. From left are Stefano Masiello, Alenia Spazio; Steve Shannon, Node 2 Mission Manager, The Boeing Co.; and Kuhns. The installation of NASA's Node 2 denotes the U.S. Core Complete stage of International Space Station assembly and, among other functions, will provide a passageway between four Station science experiment facilities: the U.S. Destiny Laboratory, the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module, the European Columbus Laboratory and the Centrifuge Accommodation Module. Reporters were invited to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the launch of the first element of the Station with a tour of the SSPF and had the opportunity to see Space Station hardware that is being processed for deployment once the Space Shuttles return to flight. NASA and Boeing mission managers were on hand to talk about the various hardware elements currently being processed for flight.