KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A worker in the Orbiter Processing Facility checks the open hatch of the airlock in Discovery’s payload bay. The airlock is normally located inside the middeck of the spacecraft’s pressurized crew cabin. The airlock is sized to accommodate two fully suited flight crew members simultaneously. Support functions include airlock depressurization and repressurization, extravehicular activity equipment recharge, liquid-cooled garment water cooling, EVA equipment checkout, donning and communications. The outer hatch isolates the airlock from the unpressurized payload bay when closed and permits the EVA crew members to exit from the airlock to the payload bay when open.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A worker in the Orbiter Processing Facility checks the open hatch of the airlock in Discovery’s payload bay. The airlock is normally located inside the middeck of the spacecraft’s pressurized crew cabin. The airlock is sized to accommodate two fully suited flight crew members simultaneously. Support functions include airlock depressurization and repressurization, extravehicular activity equipment recharge, liquid-cooled garment water cooling, EVA equipment checkout, donning and communications. The outer hatch isolates the airlock from the unpressurized payload bay when closed and permits the EVA crew members to exit from the airlock to the payload bay when open.