"Tour the International Space Station"
 
The Space Vehicle Mockup Facility in Houston, Texas is the center
for manned spaceflight and headquarters for the International Space
Station Program. The audience will be given a LIVE tour of the International
Space Station trainers, Space Shuttle mockups, Underwater Neutral
Buoyancy Labs and Centrifuges. You will get inside the Living Quarters
where Astronauts will spend their work, play, rest and recreation
time aboard the ISS. Besides being the most advanced laboratory
for research and science, the International Space Station will be
a launching point to destinations across the solar system. For instance,
after sustaining autonomous space operations for 30 days explorers
will be able to leave the space station for a journey to the moon
and possibly set up a lunar outpost. After autonomous space station
operations for 3 years explorers will be able to journey to Mars.
 Habitable, pressurized volume on the International Space Station
will be 43,000 cubic feet. That is about the volume of three average
American houses, each one containing about 2,000 square feet with
a 7 foot ceiling for a total of around 14,000 cubic feet. The pressurized
volume will be roughly equivalent to the interior of a 747 jumbo
jet. Learn what it is like to eat, sleep and work in a Microgravity
environment for sustained periods of time.
STS088-719-059 (6 DECEMBER 1998) --- Backdropped against
the darkness of space, the Russian-built FGB, also called Zarya,
approaches the out-of-frame Space Shuttle Endeavour and the U.S.-built
Node 1, also called Unity. Inside Endeavour's cabin, the STS-88
crew readied the remote manipulator system (RMS) for Zarya capture
as they awaited the rendezvous.
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