Exhibit shows how astronauts live

While most Iowans will never climb aboard the orbiting International Space Station, hundreds will be able to walk through a giant exhibit of the station this week in central Iowa. Tiffany Cordell, a spokeswoman for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, says the interactive display is being trucked into Ames and will open Thursday on campus at Iowa State University.In the habitation module, Cordell says visitors will see how astronauts live and work aboard the station, where they sleep and examples of a bathroom and shower. She says there’s also a laboratory module.The exhibit is aboard two 48-foot semi trailers linked into an L-shape to form two space station modules. Cordell says southern Iowa native Peggy Whitson, who spent several months aboard the real space station last year, will be making a few appearances in Ames this weekend.Whitson will be signing autographs Saturday and Sunday and giving a talk at I-S-U’s Howe Hall on Saturday at 8 P-M. The exhibit will be open Thursday through Sunday, it’ll be closed Monday for the Memorial Day holiday, and will be open again next Tuesday, the 27th.