The Destiny module is the primary operating facility for U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 research payloads aboard the International Space Station

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 (ISS). It was berthed to the Unity module and activated over a period of five days in February, 2001. Destiny is NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's first permanent operating orbital research station since Skylab

Skylab

Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...

 was vacated in February 1974.

The Boeing Company began construction of the 16 ton (14.5 tonne), state-of-the art research laboratory in 1995 at the Marshall Space Flight Center

Marshall Space Flight Center

The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. The largest center of NASA, MSFC's first mission was developing the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo moon program...

 in Huntsville

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....

, Alabama. Destiny was shipped to the Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...

 in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 in 1998, and was turned over to NASA for pre-launch preparations in August 2000. It launched on February 7, 2001 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States...

 on STS-98

STS-98

STS-98 was a 2001 Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis. STS-98 delivered to the station the Destiny Laboratory Module...

.

Astronauts work inside the pressurized facility to conduct research in numerous scientific fields. Scientists throughout the world will use the results to enhance their studies in medicine, engineering, biotechnology, physics, materials science, and Earth science.

Laboratory structure

The aluminum U.S. laboratory module is 28 feet (8.5 m) long and 14 feet (4.3 m) wide. It comprises three cylindrical sections and two endcones that contain the hatch openings through which astronauts enter and exit the module. The aft port of Destiny is connected to the forward port of the Unity node, and the forward port of Destiny is connected to the aft port of the Harmony module. A 20 inches (508 mm)-diameter window is located on one side of the center module segment.

Each of the two berthing ports on Destiny contains a hatch. Both hatches are normally open, and remain open unless a situation arises requiring a module to be isolated. Each hatch has a window. The hatches can be opened or closed from either side. The hatches have a pressure interlock feature, which prevents the hatch from being opened if there is a negative pressure across the hatch (higher pressure on the outside of the hatch).

Destiny has a 20 inches (508 mm) optically pure, telescope-quality glass window located in an open rack bay used primarily for Earth science observations. Station crewmembers use very high quality video and still cameras at the window to record Earth's changing landscapes. A window shutter protects the window from potential micrometeoroid and orbital debris strikes during the life of the ISS. The crew manually opens the shutter to use the window.

Imagery captured from Destiny's window has given geologists and meteorologists the chance to study floods, avalanches, fires and ocean events such as plankton blooms in a way never seen before, as well as given international scientists the opportunity to study features such as glaciers, coral reefs, urban growth and wild fires.

Specifications

• Length: 8.53 metres (28 ft)
• Diameter: 4.27 metres (14 ft)
• Mass: 14520 kilograms (32,011.1 lb)
• Pressurized Volume: 106 cubic metres (3,743.4 cu ft)

Equipment

Destiny arrived at the station pre-configured with five racks housing electrical and life support system

Life support system

In human spaceflight, a life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in space.US government space agency NASA,and private spaceflight companies...

s that provide electrical power, cooling water, air revitalization, and temperature and humidity control. Seven additional racks were flown to Destiny in the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module by STS-102

STS-102

STS-102 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Discovery and launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida...

, and ten more were delivered on subsequent missions. Destiny can hold up to 13 payload racks with experiments in human life science, materials research, Earth observations and commercial applications. The laboratory has a total of 24 racks inside the laboratory, six on each side.

As with the European and Japanese laboratories of the station, payloads inside Destiny are configured around International Standard Payload Racks (ISPRs), that can be removed or reconfigured for various experiments and equipment. Made out of a graphite composite shell, each rack weighs about 1200 pounds (544.3 kg), and is about 73 inches (185.4 cm) high, and 42 inches (1,066.8 mm) wide. The eight rack bays are equipped with curtains that provide around 290 cubic feet (8.2 m³) of temporary stowage space when not occupied by experiments.

Internal to the laboratory are racks, rack stand-offs, and vestibule jumpers. 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 racks interface to the piping and wiring in the standoff via outlets and ports located in the standoffs at the base end of each rack location.

Jumpers in the vestibule, the area between Unity and Destiny, connect the piping and wiring between the two. Grounding straps between Unity and Destiny will be installed. One side of the grounding strap will be connected to the Active Common Berthing Mechanism

Common Berthing Mechanism

The common berthing mechanism is a berthing mechanism used to connect all non-Russian pressurized modules of the International Space Station....

 (ACBM) on Unity, while the other end will be connected to the Passive Common Berthing Mechanism

Common Berthing Mechanism

The common berthing mechanism is a berthing mechanism used to connect all non-Russian pressurized modules of the International Space Station....

 (PCBM) on Destiny.

Some of the mechanisms on Destiny are the CBMs (passive and active), hatches, and the laboratory window shutter. The ACBM is in the forward port of the laboratory. It is attached to the Harmony node. The PCBM on Destiny is located in the laboratory’s aft port. The ACBM in Unity’s forward port is latched to the laboratory’s PCBM to berth Destiny to Unity.

Science equipment

Destiny also contains the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS

Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS

The Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS is a European-built experiment storage freezer for the International Space Station. It comprises four independent dewars which can be set to operate at different temperatures. Currently temperatures of −80°C, −26°C, and +4°C are used during...

 (MELFI), transported to the Space Station on STS-121

STS-121

STS-121 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. The main purposes of the mission were to test new safety and repair techniques introduced following the Columbia disaster of February 2003 as well as to deliver supplies, equipment and...

. 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

University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...

. 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.