The Cupola is an ESA-built observatory module of the International Space Station (ISS). Its name derives from the Italian word , which means "dome". Its seven windows are used to conduct experiments, dockings and observations of Earth. It was launched aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour's mission STS-130 on 8 February 2010, and attached to the Tranquility (Node 3) module. With the Cupola attached, ISS assembly reached 85 percent completion. The Cupola central window has a diameter of . Overview The Cupola provides an observation and work area for the ISS crew giving visibility to support the control of the space station remote manipulator system and general external viewing of Earth, celestial objects and visiting vehicles. The Cupola project was started by NASA and Boeing, but canceled due to budget cuts. A barter agreement between NASA and the ESA resulted in the Cupolas development being resumed in 1998 by ESA. The Cupola is important to astronauts aboard the ISS, who enjoy using the module to view and photograph the Earth. Cupola replaced the Russian Zvezda for such photographs. Previously they looked out of small portholes, or at best the window in the US Destiny laboratory. The Cupola is berthed onto the Earth-facing port of the Tranquility module. Because of its shape and multi window configuration the Cupola has been compared to the cockpit window of the Millennium Falcon. Design and construction The International Space Station Cupola was first conceived in 1987 by Space Station Man-Systems Architectural Control Manager Gary Kitmacher as a workstation for operating the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, maneuvering vehicles outside the station, and observing and supporting spacewalks. He likened the use as similar to that of the Shuttle Orbiter Aft Flight Deck. There were to have been two Cupolas, one on either end of the racetrack shape formed by the station modules and nodes. It was initially named the "windowed workstation", to distinguish it from other computer-based workstations inside of the station and from which the crew could operate the station's systems. Once the idea was initially accepted, a number of people went to work. Human factors specialist Frances Mount began to develop the rationale and operational scenarios for the Cupola, and got considerable support from Chief Astronaut John Young and Shuttle Commander Gordon Fullerton. Charles Wheelwright, who had defined the specifications for every window on every prior United States crewed spacecraft, began to define the design specifications of