NASA Receives Tranquility The last major component set to be
added to the International Space Station, the Node 3 module
known as Tranquility, was officially transferred from the
European Space Agency to NASA during a ceremony Nov. 20. Inside
the cavernous Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials from the two
cooperating space agencies took the opportunity to reflect on
the nearly completed station and its role in future space
exploration. "Station is truly a phenomenal engineering
accomplishment, but as important as all that hardware is on
orbit, what it really is, it’s the unity of all of us as
partners," said Bob Cabana, Kennedy's director and a former
astronaut who commanded the first space station construction
mission. "All those different cultures coming together and
working together as one for the betterment of not just our own
countries, but our world, and preparing us to go beyond low
Earth orbit to explore in space." The pressurized node will
provide add