Kibo Kibo

The crew of STS-127 has been busily installing Kibo, the Japanese module of the ISS, as seen above and below:

This image shows the Japanese Experiment Module – Exposed Facility as it looks from inside Kibo. The Japanese Experiment Module, or JEM, called Kibo — which means “hope” in Japanese — is Japan’s first human space facility and enhances the unique research capabilities of the International Space Station. Experiments in Kibo focus on space medicine, biology, Earth observations, material production, biotechnology and communications research. Kibo experiments and systems are operated from the Mission Control Room at the Space Station Operations Facility, or SSOF, at Tsukuba Space Center in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, just north of Tokyo.