FACTBOX: Japan's space laboratory "Kibo"
(Reuters) - The largest of the International Space Station's laboratories will be Japan's Kibo, which means "hope." Here's a look at the complex, the first part of which will arrive at the station on board the space shuttle Endeavour:
*Kibo, which is about the size of a double-decker bus, is so big it needs three shuttle flights for launch and assembly.
*In addition to the main pressurized laboratory, Kibo has its own storage room and an outdoor porch that will have robot arms to tend to experiments in the vacuum of space.
*Areas of research include materials sciences, fluid physics and biomedicine.
*Japan is considering mounting a high-definition television camera outside the complex to beam pictures of Earth to the ground around the clock.
*Kibo will host cultural activities, such as art and orbital dance, in addition to serving as a workplace for science.
*Japan spent 20 years and more than $2.4 billion developing the complex.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral; editing by Michael Christie)
