WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The airlock for the International Space Station is lifted by crane in the fall of 1997 during manufacturing in the Space Station Manufacturing Building at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Al. The airlock includes two sections: the larger "equipment lock" on the left that will store spacesuits and associated gear and the narrower "crewlock" on the right from which astronauts will exit into space. The airlock is 18 feet long and has a mass of about 13,500 pounds. It will be launched to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-100 in August 1999. The addition of the airlock will enable U.S. astronauts on the station to perform spacewalks without a shuttle present. Orbital assembly of the International Space Station is scheduled to begin in the summer of 1998