Written by Derek Kessler on
Saturday, 27 October 2007
The Italian-built connecting module 'Harmony' was today attached to the International Space Station by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, which is currently docked at the orbital station. Discovery docked with the station yesterday and began a long series of complicated ISS contruction missions, beginning with the movement of the Harmony Node from the shuttle's payload bay to a temporary berthing on the ISS.
Astronauts also started work on the relocation of the 17 ton P6 solar array, which will be moved from its current berth on the Unity node to a spot along the main truss - the station's backbone. There the array will be unfurled and start power generation. The mass and complexity of the maneuver will test the station and shuttle's robotic arms to their limits, though NASA engineers on the ground and the astronauts in the coupled spacecraft are confident in the abilities of both the equipment and the people operating.
Between the docking of the Harmony Node and the prep work for the solar array move, Discovery astronauts Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock spent over six hours on the spacewalk. Despite the busy schedule, they still found the time to wave at Mission Control in Houston as the station passed over Texas.
The addition of Harmony increases the ISS's total volume to 2666 cubic feet, and will allow future shuttle missions to easily add new station components, including laboratories from Europe and Japan. After Discovery departs from the ISS in just over a week, the station's astronauts will use their own robotic arms to move the Harmony Node from its current temporary berthing to its permanent position at the front end of the US Destiny module.
The Italian-built connecting module 'Harmony' was today attached to the International Space Station by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, which is currently docked at the orbital station. Discovery docked with the station yesterday and began a long series of complicated ISS contruction missions, beginning with the movement of the Harmony Node from the shuttle's payload bay to a temporary berthing on the ISS.
