The Destiny module, also known as the U.S. Lab, is the primary operating facility for U.S. research payloads aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It was berthed to the forward port of the Unity module and activated over a period of five days in February 2001. Destiny is NASA's first permanent operating orbital research station since Skylab was vacated in February 1974.

The Boeing Company began construction of the research laboratory in 1995 at the Michoud Assembly Facility and then the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. First, the Shuttle SRMSS (Canadarm) was used to remove Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA 2) from Unity node's forward port to make room for the new module. PMA-2 was temporarily stowed on the forward berthing ring of the Z1 truss. Destiny was "grabbed" by the robotic arm at 11:23, lifted out of Atlantis cargo bay, and berthed to the forward port of Unity. Two days later, PMA-2 was moved to its semi-permanent location on the forward port of Destiny. Several years later, on November 14, 2007, the Harmony module was attached to the forward port of the Destiny laboratory, and PMA 2 was again relocated to the forward port of Harmony.

The addition of Destiny increased the habitable volume by 3,800 cubic feet, an increase of 41 percent. A -diameter window is located on one side of the center module segment. Made out of a graphite composite shell, each rack weighs about , and is about high, and wide. The lab racks house the system hardware in removable modular units. The stand-offs provide space for electrical connections, data management systems cabling for computers, air conditioning ducts, thermal control tubes and more, all of which support the space station's equipment racks. The freezer is used both to store samples and reagents on the station, and to transport them to and from the space station in a temperature controlled environment.

Currently installed at the main observation window of Destiny is the Agricultural Camera (AgCam). It is a multi-spectral imaging system built and primarily operated by students and faculty at the University of North Dakota. Its purpose is to take frequent images, in visible and infrared light, of vegetated areas on the Earth and promises to deliver a greater effectiveness for in-season agriculture applications research and operational decision support than current satellite systems such as Landsat.

Veggie

In 2016 the ISS crew operated Veg-03 experiment. In November they harvested a crop of edible romaine lettuce which contributed to the crew's meal. Also samples of cabbage are returned to Earth for testing as part of the experiment. In 2010 a research facility was brought to the station, called WORF, and the first photo with it was taken in January 2011. WORF was delivered by ISS Flight 19A (which was STS-131) . Another cross-over of the Star Trek franchise and space exploration was the naming of Space Shuttle Enterprise.

A similar window is Nauka module's porthole window.

In media

  • The module Destiny is featured in the 2013 film Gravity.
  • The module, identified as "the 2001 module Destiny", was originally intended to be the small section of Alpha (the future name of the ISS) used as a throne at the end of the 2017 film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and covers this role in the novelization, but, in the final shooting of the film, it was replaced by the Apollo command and service module Destiny 2005, modified with artificial gravity and a speakerphone-like radio system.

See also

After its installation, habitation and use of Destiny is similar to ISS history as an integrated part of that Space station:

  • List of ISS Expeditions
  • List of International Space Station crew
  • List of International Space Station visitors
  • List of human spaceflights to the ISS

References

  • NASA - Destiny