ESA: Node-3 and Cupola: European tech to complete ISS

[bystander]

Node-3 and Cupola: European technology to complete the ISS
ESA PR 02-2010 - 2010 Feb 08

Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched at 10:14:08 CET today and is heading for the International Space Station carrying two sophisticated European modules: Node-3 (Tranquility) and Cupola. Their installation will mark the completion of the non-Russian part of the ISS, with more than a third of the pressurised Station elements designed and built in Europe.
...
Node-3 will provide more space for equipment and the astronauts. The Cupola observation module, the largest and most complex window assembly ever launched into space, will find its home on the Earth-facing port of Node-3. It will provide a unique vantage point for observing Earth and for instruments devoted to studying atmospheric phenomena affecting climate change.

[bystander]

World's Largest Space Window Headed to Orbit
Space.com - 2010 Feb 06

Talk about a room with a view. The largest space window ever built will launch aboard NASA's shuttle Endeavour on Sunday, part of a new seven-portal observation deck for the International Space Station.

The new addition, called the Cupola, will offer astronauts a panoramic view of space and Earth below them.

"Cupola is going to be probably the best set of windows that's ever flown in space on any program in the history of spaceflight,"

[bystander]

Astronauts Get a View
Discovery Space News: 2010 Feb 17

In a highly anticipated grand finale to their mission, astronauts opened the shutters on the International Space Station's new observation deck Wednesday and were humbled by "absolutely spectacular" views of Earth from inside the elaborate atrium of windows.

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the International Space Station posted this image via Twitter showing the Sahara Desert,
the first view out of the station's new windows early Wednesday morning Feb. 17, 2010. (AP Photo/NASA via Twitter)

[bystander]

ESA: The Cupola opens its seven eyelids
ESA: Space Station’s big bay window installed
ESA: Space Station gains a new room: Node-3 installed

[RJN]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=42770

Astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have a new view of Earth after the space shuttle Endeavour delivered the Tranquility module to the station... Tranquility also comes with a cupola, a dome-shaped viewing port made up of seven windows.

[geckzilla]

This is an amusing pic.

[neufer]

This is an amusing pic.

[bystander]

This Is What It's All About
Discovery News - 2010 Feb 20

And here, just before he departed from the station on Endeavour, STS-130 mission specialist Stephen Robinson played a tune in the new bay window of the space station. I'm sure this particular explorer took a moment to soak in the atmosphere of that moment.

Image credit: NASA/Soichi Noguchi