Harmony Move Planned For Wednesday.

One down... one to go. Crew members onboard the International Space Station crew members successfully relocated a shuttle docking port to the newly-delivered Harmony node Monday, clearing the way for Wednesday's planned relocation of Harmony to its permanent berth adjacent to the Destiny laboratory module.

NASA reports Harmony -- with the Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 on its outboard end -- is scheduled to be moved from its temporary position on the Unity node to the front of Destiny early Wednesday morning. Disengagement of the first set of bolts holding PMA-2 in place began about 0435 EST, initiated by Peggy Whitson working in Destiny.

As ANN reported, Whitson and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko successfully completed a six-and-a-half hour excursion last Friday to prepare the docking adaptor for its move. Dan Tani, the newly-arrived flight engineer of Expedition 16, used the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to move PMA-2 from its former berth on the Destiny module -- its location since 2001 -- to Harmony.

After its Wednesday move, Harmony will be in position to welcome visiting space shuttles -- and just in time, as Atlantis is scheduled to arrive at the ISS early next month. It also will offer docking ports to the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory -- scheduled to arrive onboard Atlantis -- and Japan's Kibo experiment module, to become a part of the International Space Station next year.

NASA has 11 more construction missions and two resupply flights planned before the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

(Image courtesy of NASA TV)

FMI: www.nasa.gov