''Tranquility'', also known as Node 3, is a module of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). It contains environmental control systems,

life support system A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outside ...

s, a toilet, exercise equipment, and an observation

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

. The

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) and the

Italian Space Agency The Italian Space Agency (; ASI) is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospac ...

(ASI) had ''Tranquility'' manufactured by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

. A ceremony on 20 November 2009 transferred ownership of the module to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

. On 8 February 2010, NASA launched the module on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

's STS-130 mission.

Design and manufacturing

''Tranquility'' was built within the ESA-NASA ISS bartering system. ESA committed to build and fund both ''Harmony'' and ''Tranquility'' as well as the ATV in order to use NASA ISS facilities, fly astronauts on the Shuttle and for other ISS services. ESA teamed up with the

(ASI) to

manufacture Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

both ''Harmony'' and ''Tranquility'' at

's site in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The module pressure shell is constructed of 2219 aluminum and its

debris Debris (, ) is rubble, wreckage, ruins, litter and discarded waste, garbage/refuse/trash, scattered remains of something destroyed, or, as in geology, large rock fragments left by a melting glacier, etc. Depending on context, ''debris'' can ref ...

shield is made from hardened 6061 aluminum. The metal is heat-treated, enabling it to have similar ballistics resistance to stainless steel. ''Tranquility'' provides six berthing locations with power, data and commanding, thermal and environmental control, and crew access for more attached habitable volumes or for crew transportation vehicles or stowage, or an appropriate combination of all of these. One of the berthing locations is used by the ''

Cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

'', which houses a Robotic Work Station inside it to assist in the assembly/maintenance of the ISS, and offers a window for

Earth observation Earth observation (EO) is the gathering of information about the physical, chemical, and biosphere, biological systems of the planet Earth. It can be performed via remote sensing, remote-sensing technologies (Earth observation satellites) or throu ...

s. ''Tranquility'' was launched with the ''Cupola'' attached to its port-facing

Common Berthing Mechanism The Common Mechanism (CBM) connects habitable elements in the US Orbital Segment (USOS) of the International Space Station (ISS). The CBM has two distinct sides that, once mated, form a cylindrical wiktionary:vestibule, vestibule between modules ...

(CBM). After mating ''Tranquility'' with the port CBM of ''Unity'', the ''Cupola'' was transferred to the

nadir The nadir is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface. The direction opposite of the nadir is the zenith. Et ...

facing port of ''Tranquility'' where it will stay. The module has three redundant berthing ports that were not scheduled to be used prior to the end of the Space Shuttle program, although there is a

Power Data Grapple Fixture Grapple fixtures are used on spacecraft or other objects to provide a secure connection for a Articulated robot, robotic arm. North America The fixtures allowed the Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle's Canadarm (also known as the Shuttle Remote Manipul ...

reserved for the

Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), is a two-armed robot, or telemanipulator, which is part of the Mobile Servicing System on the International Space Station (ISS), and does repairs that would otherwise ...

( Dextre), which is located on the

zenith The zenith (, ) is the imaginary point on the celestial sphere directly "above" a particular location. "Above" means in the vertical direction (Vertical and horizontal, plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The z ...

berthing location. In the current ISS configuration ''Tranquility'' is docked to the port berthing location of ''Unity''. As such, the three unused berthing locations of ''Tranquility'' were disabled as the node's close proximity to other segments would prohibit the port's direct use for cargo spacecraft or using the docking module PMA-3, which was relocated from ''Harmony'' to the port berthing location of ''Tranquility'' for storage. At the time, the move of PMA-3 to the port location of ''Tranquility'' was required because NASA decided to leave the

Multi-Purpose Logistics Module A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) is a large pressurized container that was used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initi ...

(MPLM) ''Leonardo'' permanently attached to the ISS, which will be located at the nadir side of ''Unity''. In 2001, NASA considered changing the design of the module. This idea for an extended or "stretched" module, was a result of the deferral/deletion of the

Habitation Module The Habitation Module for the International Space Station was intended to be the Station's main living quarters designed with Galley (kitchen), galley, toilet, shower, sleep stations and medical facilities. About the size of a bus, the module wa ...

. The stretched module would have held 16 racks, compared with the baseline capacity of eight racks. This modification was not funded and the plans were abandoned.

Purpose

Waste and hygiene compartment in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station - 20090412

The module's

life-support system A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outside ...

( ECLSS) recycles waste water for crew use and generates

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

for the crew to breathe. In addition, ''Tranquility'' contains an atmosphere revitalization system to remove contaminants from the atmosphere and monitor/control the atmosphere constituents of the ISS. ''Tranquility'' also contains a Waste and Hygiene Compartment (toilet) for supporting the on-board crew. ''Tranquility'' is primarily used for exercise, storage, and robotics work in connection with ''Cupola''.

Launch, berthing, and connections to other station components

''Tranquility'' was located in the

clean room A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space that maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well-isolated, well-controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientifi ...

at the

, Turin site until 2009. It was shipped to

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

(KSC) on 17 May 2009 and arrived in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

on 20 May 2009. It was officially welcomed to KSC on 8 June 2009. ''Tranquility'' was launched on 8 February 2010 on board the STS-130 mission flown by '' Endeavour''. It was berthed to the port side of ''Unity'' on 12 February 2010. To accommodate the

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

Dragon V2 and

Boeing Starliner The Boeing Starliner (or CST-100) is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Developed by Boeing under NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), it consists o ...

Commercial Crew transports expected to be operational by 2017, ISS crews began work in March 2015 to configure the station. As part of this work,

Pressurized Mating Adapter A Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA) is a component used on the International Space Station (ISS) to convert the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) interface used to connect ISS modules to an APAS-95 spacecraft docking port. Three PMAs are attached ...

-3 on the port side of ''Tranquility'' will be moved to the zenith port of the ''Harmony'' module, above Pressurized Mating Adapter-2, to serve as a backup docking port for these vehicles. In addition, on 27 May 2015 the ''Leonardo'' Permanent Multipurpose Module was moved from the nadir of ''Unity'', to the forward port side of ''Tranquility'' to free up ''Unity'' as a backup port for

Commercial Resupply Services Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first phase of CRS contracts (CRS-1) were sign ...

cargo spacecraft from SpaceX and

Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

. In April 2016, as part of the cargo payload from

SpaceX CRS-8 Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an American space technology company headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous a ...

, the

Bigelow Expandable Activity Module The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is an experimental inflatable space habitat, expandable International Space Station#Pressurised modules, space station module developed by Bigelow Aerospace, under contract to NASA, for testing as a ...

(BEAM) was attached to ''Tranquility'' on its aft port for a two-year duration. ;Port * PMA-3, 2010–2017 * Nanoracks Bishop Airlock, 2020–present ;Starboard * ''Unity'', 2010–present ;Forward * ''Leonardo'', 2015–present ;Aft *

(BEAM), 2016–present ;Nadir * ''Cupola'', 2010–present

Naming contest

NASA held an online poll to name Node 3. Users were allowed to choose from among four provided names (Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture), or to suggest their own. In early voting, fans of the science fiction TV series ''

Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

'' boosted "Serenity", also the name of the show and film's eponymous

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

, to the top with 86%. On 3 March 2009, episode of ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...

'', host

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...

instructed his viewers to suggest "Colbert" as the name for Node 3 in the online poll. Following Colbert's call to have the node named after him, several other groups attempted to influence the vote. For example, a number of different environmental groups promoted the name "Amazonia", after the

Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

. They argued that the name was more appropriate given that Node 3 will include the station's environmental control systems. Humorist

Dave Barry David McAlister Barry (born July 3, 1947) is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally Print syndication, syndicated humor column for the ''Miami Herald'' from 1983 to 2005. He has written numerous books of humor and parody, as we ...

urged readers of his blog to name the node "Buddy", which finished as the sixth most popular user-suggested name.

Gaia Online Gaia Online is an English-language anime-themed social networking and forums-based website with Chibi-style animations. It was founded as go-gaia on February 18, 2003, by Derek Liu, Long Vo, Josh Gainsbrugh, and the name was changed to GaiaO ...

asked its users to "Send Gaia to Space" by naming the node "

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; , a poetic form of ('), meaning 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea (), is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (S ...

", referring to the Greek goddess of the planet

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, and "Gaia" finished third among the user-suggested names. Other popular user suggestions included " myYearbook", " SocialVibe", "

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

", and the name of

Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a scam, a Scientology as a business, business, a cult, or a religion. Hubbard initially develo ...

's galactic overlord: "

Xenu Xenu ( ), also called Xemu, is a figure in the Church of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology", a sacred and esoteric teaching. According to the "Technology", Xenu was the extraterrestrial ruler of a "Galactic Confederacy" who brough ...

". "Serenity" was the top choice among the NASA-provided names, with 70% of the vote, but finished second overall, losing to "Colbert" by more than 40,000 votes. The naming contest rules, however, state that although the poll results will be taken into account, NASA has ultimate discretion in choosing an appropriate name for the node. On 6 April 2009, Stephen Colbert, in jest, threatened a lawsuit if the node was not named after him. In addition,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Congressman

Chaka Fattah Chaka Fattah (born Arthur Wesley Davenport; November 21, 1956) is an American politician who served as a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House for from 1995 to 2016. The d ...

stated that he believes that paying attention to democracy and voting results should not be limited to earthbound organizations so he planned to use congressional power to force NASA to honor the winning Colbert write-in votes. On 14 April 2009, astronaut Sunita Williams appeared on ''The Colbert Report'', and announced the name of the node would be ''Tranquility''. The name was chosen in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the first lunar landing of

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

on the

Sea of Tranquility Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for Sea of Tranquillity or Sea of Tranquility) is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. It contains Tranquility Base, the first location on another celestial body to be visited by hu ...

. However, the

treadmill A treadmill is a device generally used for walking, running, or climbing while staying in the same place. Treadmills were introduced before the development of powered machines to harness the power of animals or humans to do work, often a type of ...

the astronauts use for exercise has been named "C.O.L.B.E.R.T." for "Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill" and is located in ''Tranquility''. Colbert was thrilled and happily accepted this offer. The treadmill traveled to space aboard

mission

STS-128 STS-128 ( ISS assembly flight 17A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that launched on August 28, 2009. carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module ''Leonardo'' as its primary payload. It was Discovery's 37t ...

on 28 August 2009, for eventual installation in the ''Tranquility'' node during STS-130.

Image gallery

Image:Tranquility-node3-move.JPG, ''Tranquility'' during its move from ''Endeavour'' to the install position on the ''Unity'' node. Image:STS-130 relocation of Cupola 2.jpg, ''Cupola'' just after installation at Earth-facing port on ''Tranquility''. Image:Tranquility-node3.JPG, ''Tranquility'' with ''Cupola'' attached. File:STS-130 PMA-3 relocation 3.jpg, PMA-3 is moved to the end of ''Tranquility''. ''Cupola'' is seen on top with its protective launch cover still attached. File:STS-130 EVA3 Nicholas Patrick iss022e066872 full view crop.jpg, Astronaut Nicholas Patrick hanging on to ''Cupola'' after insulation has been removed. File:Tranquility from departing STS-130.jpg, ''Tranquility'' seen top left corner with ''Cupola'' and PMA-3.

References

Note list

External links

Node 3 specifications from the ESA

Thales Alenia Space page for Node 3
{{The Colbert Report Spacecraft launched in 2010 Components of the International Space Station