Astronauts Brent W. Jett, Jr. (left) and William M. Shepherd participate in an old Navy tradition of ringing a bell to announce the arrival or departure of someone to a ship. The bell is mounted on the wall in the Unity node of the ISS. The bell-ringing took place shortly after an in-space reunion on STS-97 Flight Day 9. Photo taken december 8, 2000.
Courtesy of NASA
BS: I notice the ISS has a ship's bell. Do people treat it as a ship? Does it feel like a vehicle or more like a stationary station?
NS: Generally treat the station like a ship. We have the shipÂ’s bell and we use it in the Navy tradition to welcome and bid farewell to crewmembers and to sound out when there is a change of command. One of our recent crewmembers even assembled a small model of a ship while he was here and weÂ’ve placed it in the area of the bell. As IÂ’m floating in front of my computer right now, basically just holding myself with one foot behind a foot restraint, the way your body just naturally floats up and down is very similar to the roll of gentle waves on a ship. Interesting because itÂ’s your body in zero gravity thatÂ’s giving you the sensation; itÂ’s not anything that the space station is doing.
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