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ISS prepares for arrival of a new module

Aug 29 ,Space & Earth science


The Expedition 15 crew was busy Wednesday working with robotics aboard the International Space Station.

The crew was preparing for the Thursday relocation of Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 to make room for the installation of the Harmony node that is to arrive aboard space shuttle Discovery in October.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration controllers in Houston said astronaut Clay Anderson and cosmonaut Oleg Kotov used training software Tuesday to simulate the robotic arm operations that will be required for the PMA-3 relocation.

Later, Anderson moved the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, into its starting configuration for Thursday's activities. Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Kotov were reviewing berthing mechanism operations, NASA said.

PMA-3 is being moved from the Unity node's port docking mechanism to its nadir, or earth-facing, docking mechanism to make room for the Harmony node.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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