Michael Braukus

Headquarters, Washington, DC July 25, 1997

(Phone: 202/358-1979)

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, FL
(Phone: 407/867-2468)

RELEASE: 97-160

SECOND U.S. SPACE STATION COMPONENT

BEGINS LAUNCH PREPARATIONS

The first of two pressurized mating adapters for the

International Space Station arrived today at the Kennedy Space
Center, FL, from manufacturer McDonnell Douglas in Huntington
Beach, CA.

A pressurized mating adapter is a cone-shaped connector that

will be attached to Node-1, the space station�s structural
building block, during ground processing in Kennedy�s Space
Station Processing Facility. Node-1 with the adapter attached
will be the first element of the Station to be launched aboard the
Space Shuttle in July 1998.

The mating adapter will be the connection point between Node-1

and the U.S. financed, Russian-built Functional Cargo Block, which
will be launched from Russia as the first Station element to be
placed into orbit. The adapter will house Space Station computers
and various electrical support equipment and eventually will serve
as the passageway for astronauts between the node and the cargo
block.

"PMA-1 brings with it the computers that are the intelligence

for the node," said Glenn Snyder, Space Shuttle mission STS-88
payload manager. "We�re looking forward to testing with those
computers."

For processing at Kennedy, the adapter will undergo initial

acceptance testing. Then, in early September, it will be mated to
Node-1 and a series of integrated tests will be conducted.

"We�re pleased that the first mating adapter is now at

Kennedy," added John Elbon, test integration leader for McDonnell
Douglas. "It is the next of the three elements of flight hardware
necessary for the STS-88 mission."

The second adapter, the final element of the STS-88 mission,

is expected to arrive at Kennedy this October. It also will be
attached to Node-1 in the processing facility. This second
adapter will serve as a Space Shuttle docking port during the
construction and resupply of the Space Station.

The asymmetrical open-ended cone-shaped pressurized mating

adapters are about seven feet long, five feet in diameter at one
end and nine feet in diameter at the other. Each adapter consists
of five individually machined and welded aluminum ring forgings,
thermal insulation blankets and 52 fittings for electrical
connections. The outer covering is a double-wall aluminum sheet
to protect the adapters from strikes by space particles.

Space Shuttle Endeavour, carrying Node-1 with the two attached

adapters, is targeted for launch in July 1998, approximately two
weeks after the Functional Cargo Block is launched from Russia.

-end-