International Space Station (ISS)

Developed by Boeing, at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Space Station Manufacturing building, the Window Observational Rack Facility (WORF) will help Space Station crews take some of the best photographs ever snapped from an orbiting spacecraft by eliminating glare and allowing researchers to control their cameras and other equipment from the ground. The WORF is designed to make the best possible use of the high-quality research window in the Space Station's U.S. Destiny laboratory module. Engineers at the MSFC proposed a derivative of the EXPRESS (Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station) Rack already used on the Space Station and were given the go-ahead. The EXPRESS rack can hold a wide variety of experiments and provide them with power, communications, data, cooling, fluids, and other utilities - all the things that Earth-observing experiment instruments would need. WORF will supply payloads with power, data, cooling, video downlink, and stable, standardized interfaces for mounting imaging instruments. Similar to specialized orbital observatories, the interior of the rack is sealed against light and coated with a special low-reflectant black paint, so

Date: 2002-05-28
Collection: MSFC
Archive: NASA Image and Video Library
Type: photograph