ISS Space Porch Open for Business | Science@NASA.com

By Dauna Coulter, Science@NASA, Posted 08/07/09

Link: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/07aug_spaceporch.htm?list161497

"The International Space Station has a new "engawa"—and it's open for business. Engawa is Japanese for "porch," and while that might seem like a strange thing for a space station to have, researchers have been looking forward to the addition for a long time. Space shuttle Endeavour delivered the Japanese-built platform to the ISS on July 22nd and astronauts attached it to Japan's Kibo1 science lab a day later. Now, when a science experiment requires a dose of hard vacuum or radiation, it can be set "out on the porch" for exposure. And that's just for starters."