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Airlock loaded in Space Shuttle Atlantis. In preparation for the upcoming launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis set for July 12, the new International Space Station airlock and a gas supply tanks were loaded in the orbiter's payload bay at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The airlock and the gas tank system were built and tested at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. - one of NASA's primary Space Station construction sites.

PHOTO: NASA Marshall Center

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"Doorway to space" will make space walks easier. The Joint Airlock Module will allow space walks in U.S. spacesuits, even when the Space Shuttle is not docked with the International Space Station. The airlock was built by The Boeing Company at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The airlock underwent exhaustive structural and systems testing prior to being shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it was placed in the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The Shuttle crew will help install and activate the airlock during three space walks on the upcoming STS-104 mission set for launch in July.

Photo: Dennis Olive, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

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Space Station airlock construction at the Marshall Center. A crane lifts the airlock for the International Space Station during construction in the Space Station Manufacturing Building at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The airlock includes two sections: the larger "equipment lock" on the left that will store spacesuits and associated gear and the narrower "crewlock" on the right from which astronauts will exit into space.

PHOTO: NASA Marshall Center

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Airlock tested at Marshall. To ensure the airlock's safe performance in orbit, numerous tests were performed by a team of 12 contractors from three countries and three NASA field centers - the Johnson Space Center in Texas, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where the airlock was manufactured.

PHOTO: NASA Marshall Center

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High-pressure gas tanks are prepared for launch. Four high-pressure gas tanks - built and tested at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. - will be ferried to the International Space Station on Space Shuttle Atlantis. During a space walk, Shuttle astronauts will attach the two oxygen and two nitrogen tanks to the outside of the airlock. The gas system will help replenish the air supply of inside the Space Station when gas is lost during space walks hatch openings.

PHOTO: NASA Marshall Center

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Russian and U.S. spacesuits tested inside airlock. Numerous tests were conducted to ensure the Joint Airlock Module would work with both Russian and U.S. spacesuits. A U.S. suit, left, is lifted by a crane to the airlock hatch for a full-suit test at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where the airlock was built. The airlock will be delivered to the International Space Station by Space Shuttle Atlantis, set to lift off on July 12.

PHOTO: NASA Marshall Center

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Engineers from The Boeing Company conduct tests inside the International Space Station's Joint Airlock Module's multipurpose equipment lock, the large section of the airlock that serves not only as a dressing room for space walkers, but also as a depressurization and represussurization chamber to protect them from the effects of working in the vacuum of space.

PHOTO: NASA Marshall Center

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