MSNBC (JimO) on value of 'big door' on ISS

Space station benefits from a wide opening

As Discovery's crew delivers cargo, big doorways make the job easier

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13755857/

By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC

July 7, 2006

HOUSTON - Anybody on Earth who's ever moved into a new apartment and
jammed a sofa into a too-narrow doorway appreciates the value of having a
passageway that's big enough for your stuff. And that goes double in space,
where the option of going outside and looking for another entrance isn't
practical.

Aboard the international space station, astronauts are now unloading
several tons of supplies and equipment from the Leonardo cargo module, which
was brought up on the space shuttle Discovery. They're also transferring a
year's worth of trash and recyclable equipment into the module's vacated
slots.

In the process, they're using a particular element of the space station
that usually gets overlooked amid all the attention to more sexy features
such as solar panels, air locks and oxygen generators. It's called the
"hatch," and it just doesn't get any respect - despite the fact that its
4-foot-plus width gives the international space station capabilities that
are unprecedented in 30 years of orbital operations, going back to NASA's
Skylab and Russia's earliest outposts.