Accommodations for earth-viewing payloads on the international space station Original Research Article

The design of the International Space Station (ISS) includes payload locations that are external to the pressurized environment. These external or attached payload accommodation locations will allow direct access to the space environment at the ISS orbit and direct viewing of the earth and space. NASA sponsored payloads will have access to several different types of standard external locations; the S3 Truss Sites, the Columbus External Payload Facility (EPF), and the Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM-EF). As the ISS Program develops, it may also be possible to locate external payloads at the P3 Truss Sites or at non-standard locations similar to the handrail-attached payloads that were flown during the MIR Program. Earth-viewing payloads may also be located within the pressurized volume of the US Lab in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF). Payload accommodations at each of the locations will be described, as well as transport to and retrieval from the site.