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A view inside the empty Airbus Beluga heavy-lift aircraft before the International Space Station Node 2 is placed inside for transportation to the United States. The aircraft left Turin, Italy where, under contract of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Alenia Spazio led a consortium of European sub-contractors to build Node 2. The Node 2 was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center June 1 and where it will be processed for launch to the space station. Node 2 will provide a passageway between four International Space Station science experiment modules: the U.S. Destiny Laboratory, the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module, the European Columbus Laboratory and the Centrifuge Accommodation Module. The addition of Node 2 to the station will signify the U.S. Core Complete stage of assembly, at which time the station can support the addition of international laboratories from Europe and Japan. The module was built for NASA under a barter agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) in exchange for the launch of the European Columbus Laboratory by the space shuttle to the International Space Station.