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Two astronauts have successfully installed a new “parking spot” on the International Space Station (ISS) for use by private spaceships and other craft.
Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins completed a six-hour spacewalk to attach the first of two docking adaptors.
It took the astronauts more than two hours to tie down the docking adaptor, which was built by Boeing.
The “parking spot” will be used by commercial spaceships as the ISS expects more traffic in the coming years.
After the work was finished, Nasa's Mission Control commentator Rob Navias said: “We have a new port of call for the new US commercial crew vehicles.”
Nasa has described the new docking station as “a metaphorical gateway to a future”.
Show all 30 1 /30The most incredible space images of Earth The most incredible space images of Earth Striking Africa Explore ESA astronaut Tim Peake's stunning photos of Earth, taken from the International Space Station during his six month mission (captions by Tom Peake)
"The striking colour and texture of Africa Illizi, Algeria"
The most incredible space images of Earth Favourite Reef "Every day spent living in space is a great day, but today was particularly special. I got to speak with one of my inspirational heroes Prof Stephen Hawking and his amazing daughter Lucy, who developed the Principia Space Diary to engage children with STEM subjects. As well as talking about dark matter, quantum entanglement, alien life and light beam powered nanocraft we also got to see an amazing pass over the Bahamas and this - my favourite reef smile emoticon"
The most incredible space images of Earth Russia's north-east coast "Sunrise approaching Russia's frozen north-east coast"
The most incredible space images of Earth Hello London "Hello London! Fancy a run? :) #LondonMarathon"
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The most incredible space images of Earth Yinchuan "Snow on the mountains next to Yinchuan in China"
The most incredible space images of Earth Rocket flames in Africa "Is it just me or do I see some rocket flames down there? These strange land features are in the Erg Iguidi desert, with its yellow stripes of sand stretching from Algeria to northern Mauritania in the Sahara"
The most incredible space images of Earth Stunning colours "Sunlight reflecting the stunning colours of this Himalayan lake"
The most incredible space images of Earth The real Everest "The real thing: found Everest! Last picture turned out to be third-tallest mountain Kanchengjunga"
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The most incredible space images of Earth Smoking volcano "Spotted volcano smoking away on Russia’s far east coast this morning – heat has melted snow around top"
The most incredible space images of Earth New Zealand "New Zealand looking stunning in the sunshine. Mt Cook centre left with the Grand Plateau to the front and Mt Tasman (3,497m) to the right of the Grand Plateau. Fox Glacier in the middle then Franz Josef curving right. Tasman Lake (largest at front) is at the foot of the Tasman glacier which runs along the front of them. The Hooker Glacier flows out behind Mt Cook coming down to meet the Mueller Glacier on the left of the photo. The Murchison Glacier is at the front of the photo running parallel with the Tasman Glacier"
The most incredible space images of Earth Plankton bloom "Another great pass over Patagonia and a swirling plankton bloom off the coast"
The most incredible space images of Earth Alaska "We don’t often get such clear views of Alaska"
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The most incredible space images of Earth Kamchatka "The Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ clear to see amongst the volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia"
The most incredible space images of Earth Cumulonimbus "I’m guessing there was an impressive storm going on under that cumulonimbus cloud"
The most incredible space images of Earth Night Sahara "Night-time Sahara – you can really see how thin the Earth’s atmosphere is in this picture"
The most incredible space images of Earth Japan "Tokyo and Japanese coast. This image shows most of Japan with the largest mass of light corresponding to Tokyo. The white lights on the left are fishing boats"
The most incredible space images of Earth Morning sun volcanoes "Morning sun striking active volcanoes in Guatemala"
The most incredible space images of Earth Tapajos River "The vast waters of the Tapajos river, Amazonia"
The most incredible space images of Earth Patagonia "Beautiful glacial river water flowing from this Patagonian ice field Lake Viedma, West is up"
The most incredible space images of Earth Dubai Palms "Minus the #Dragon photobomb this time..."
The most incredible space images of Earth Sediment in Ethiopia "Sediment spilling into this mountain lake, Ethiopia"
The most incredible space images of Earth Italy "We have phases of ‘short nights’ on the International Space Station – sunlight is nearly always visible right now. No prizes for guessing where this is…"
The most incredible space images of Earth Panama Canal "From one mighty ocean to another – ships passing through the Panama canal"
It is more sophisticated than any previous docking stations and allows for automatic parking, as opposed to the current system of grapple and berthing which is managed by astronauts.
The new system will work with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon, with the first flights expected as early as next year.
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