Astronauts unveil phenomenal new window on world

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In a highly anticipated grand finale to their mission, astronauts opened the shutters on the International Space Station's new observation deck Wednesday and were humbled by "absolutely spectacular" views of Earth from inside the elaborate atrium of windows.

The $27 million lookout opened each of its seven eyes one window at a time as the crews of the station and shuttle Endeavour carried out their third and final spacewalk.

It was the moment everyone had been waiting for: The round central window — the largest ever flown in space — was the first exposed as astronauts inside cranked open the shutter as they sailed 220 miles above the South Pacific.

"As expected, the view through window seven is absolutely spectacular," space station commander Jeffrey Williams said. "When we have the others around it open, it will give us a view of the entire globe. Absolutely incredible."

Mission Control set the night's mood by beaming up a recording of Jimmy Buffett's "Window on the World."

"I don't think space station's ever going to be the same after this," Mission Control said in a congratulatory call.

The astronauts closed the round shutter covering the window, which measures 31 inches across, after three minutes to test the mechanisms. They repeated the process until all the windows were checked, opening the last two as the linked shuttle and space station flew above France and Greece.

It was a satisfying conclusion to this construction mission for the 11 astronauts. Though Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken completed a multitude of other chores during Tuesday night's spacewalk, including opening valves on an ammonia coolant line they previously installed on Tranquility, a new room that the astronauts connected to the space station last Friday.

"Great job raising ...