The International Space Station just got a new addition, the Russian-made Nauka laboratory, which docked Thursday morning . But first, it had to get rid …
The International Space Station just got a new addition, the Russian-made Nauka laboratory, which docked Thursday morning. But first, it had to get rid of a 20-year-old module that will no longer be needed. That old module got a spectacular send-off as it burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. European Space Agency astronaut and ISS crew member Thomas Pesquet captured views of the Pirs module farewell process from undocking to when it turned into a streaking fireball. Pirs was one of Russian space agency Roscosmos’s contributions to the ISS. « After almost 20 years of service, instead of getting a medal, one of the space station’s oldest Roscosmos modules got a little trip through the atmosphere, » Pesquet tweeted on Tuesday. The Pirs Docking Compartment (known as DC-1) acted as an airlock for spacewalking cosmonauts and a docking port for spacecraft.
