Motherboard

Meet the crew in a behind the scenes of the STS-130 mission above, and check out an overview of the mission, from NASA TV

Motherboard’s mission this weekend is simple: head down to and ogle the fifth-to-last shuttle launch, STS-130 Endeavor, spend time with the NASA fans, and get a read on the mood on Cape Canaveral, now that manned spaceflight has been cut out of NASA’s budget, to be handed over to private companies.

The shuttle has an indubitably more complex task: ferry up and install the last two major segments of the International Space Station. First is Node 3 “Tranquility,” a component about the shape and size of an RV that will contain the station’s life support systems, which is another way of saying “all the stuff that the astronauts need to live long and prosper in the space station.” That includes air and water recycling, Tweeting computers, a place to make space burritos, and a newly repaired recycling toilet. Some duct tape may be required.

Also to be installed on day 6 of the 13 day mission, when the astronauts do their Bob Villa thing: an exercise machine that won’t shake the station, known as the "Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or — I’ll be darned — COLBERT. Yup, that one. The king of comedic conservative news anchors won the popular vote in a public naming contest for the Node 3 last year. But he ended up losing to his opponent, the slightly more glorious and sci-fi sounding “Tranquility.” A treadmill ain’t a bad consolation prize.

The other big module to be added during the space station redecoration is the Cupola. Built, like Tranquility, by Italian engineers, it’s basically a 7-pane bay window that NASA says is “the size of a home entertainment center.” And though it won’t be playing the Super Bowl, it’s kind of the best entertainment center ever. The module — which wouldn’t be out of place on the front of an Imperial TIE-fighter — should provide the most amazing panoramas of earth and even more (much-deserved) Kodak moments for the astronauts. The circular module will also offer better views of incoming spacecraft (just in case), and will contain the station’s robotic work station, giving astronauts better views of the station’s robot arm.

There was one problem though, Houston. The hoses meant to supply cooling capacity to the Tranquility module (by circulating ammonia and transporting the heat generated by the on board systems), didn’t work right in testing. The clever engineers at NASA scrambled to come up with a fix, which involves welding on a new set of hoses, and now all systems seem ready to go.

The mission’s named STS-130, but I think we can just call it “This Old Space Station.”