Timelapse shows a robotic arm attaching new doorway on the International Space Station

Timelapse shows a robotic arm attaching new doorway on the International Space Station

Ground controllers at Mission Control, Houston detached the new Nanoracks Bishop Airlock from the trunk of the SpaceX CRS-21 Cargo Dragon vehicle Dec.

19 and attached it to the port Common Berthing Mechanism on the Tranquility module, ushering in a new platform for use by commercial customers for payload deployments and moving equipment from one location to another outside the complex.

The bell-jar shaped airlock, which is 8 feet in diameter and 7 feet high, weighs more than a ton and will be robotically detached from Tranquility and reattached each time it is used.