Docking Port Moved To Station's Tranquility Module

A docking port was moved to a new home at the International Space Station today as the joined crews of shuttle Endeavour and the outpost continued the outfitting of a newly arrived American module.

Endeavour mission specialists Bob Behnken and Nicholas Patrick used the station's 57.5-foot robot arm to move the docking port from the U.S. Harmony module to the front end of the U.S. Tranquility module, which was hauled up aboard the shuttle after a Feb. 8 launch from Kennedy Space Center.

Operating the arm from a work station inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory, Behnken and Patrick relied soley on camera views of maneuver the Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 into place.

There, it will serve as both a back-up berthing port and a shield to protect the Tranquility module from micrometeorite or orbital debris.

Station commander Jeffrey Williams and Soichi Noguchi of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency operated the berthing mechanisms that released the docking port from Harmony and linked it to Tranquility.

Click Read More to see a few NASA TV screen grabs captured during the move.