Integrated Truss Structure

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Integrated Truss Structure forms the backbone of the International Space Station, with mountings for unpressurized logistics carriers, radiators, solar arrays, and other equipment. In the initial Space Station Freedom plans, a variety of designs for the truss were used, all of them intended to be shipped up as girders where they would be assembled and their equipment installed by astronauts on spacewalks once it had been launched. After the 1991 redesign, NASA switched to shorter, prefabricated pieces that were easier to install.