page_title: Unity (ISS module)
section_title: Details
hierarchical_section_title: Unity (ISS module) / Details
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the stowage bags packed into the Pressurized Mating Adapter 1 PMA1 and Food Canisters lined up against the wall in the Node 1/Unity module of the ISS. This photo was taken by the STS-114 crew. Image ID: s114e5940
context_page_description: The Unity connecting module, also known as Node 1, is the first U.S.-built component of the International Space Station. It connects the Russian and United States segments of the station, and is where crew eat meals together.
  The module is cylindrical in shape, with six berthing locations facilitating connections to other modules. Unity measures 4.57 metres in diameter, is 5.47 metres long, made of steel, and was built for NASA by Boeing in a manufacturing facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Unity is the first of the three connecting modules; the other two are Harmony and Tranquility.
context_section_description: Essential space station resources such as fluids, environmental control and life support systems, electrical and data systems are routed through Unity to supply work and living areas of the station. More than 50,000 mechanical items, 216 lines to carry fluids and gases, and 121 internal and external electrical cables using six miles of wire were installed in the Unity node. It is made of aluminium and stainless steel. During the space station construction, a crew member placed two speed limit signs on the hatch (leading into the FGB) in 2003, noting the orbital velocity in mph and km/h.
  Prior to its launch aboard Endeavour, conical Pressurized Mating Adapters (PMAs) were attached to the aft and forward berthing mechanisms of Unity. Unity and the two mating adapters together weighed about 25,600 pounds (11,600 kg). The adapters allow the docking systems used by the Space Shuttle and by Russian modules to attach to the node's hatches and berthing mechanisms. PMA-1 now permanently attaches Unity to Zarya, while PMA-2 provided a Shuttle docking port. Attached to the exterior of PMA-1 are computers, or multiplexer-demultiplexers (MDMs), which provided early command and control of Unity. Unity also is outfitted with an early communications system that allows data, voice and low data rate video with Mission Control Houston, to supplement Russian communications systems during the early station assembly activities. PMA-3 was attached to Unity's nadir berthing mechanism by the crew of STS-92.
caption: Interior of Node 1 (As of 2005[update])
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