Shuttle-Station Crews Aim To Protect Tranquility

The joined crews of shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station are in the midst of an operation aimed at moving a spare shuttle docking port to the newly arrived U.S. Tranquility module from the U.S. Harmony module.

Station commander Jeffrey Williams and flight engineer Soichi Noguchi of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are in the U.S. Destiny laboratory, sending computer commands that will release bolts that are holding the conical docking port to the Harmony module.

The station's 57.5-foot status robot arm then will be used to move the Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 to its new home at the forward end of the Tranquility module. The move is being made to better protect the Tranquility module from micrometeorite and orbital debris.

The outfitting of the station's new Italian-built observation deck will continue, and the shuttle crew will also have some off-duty time.

You can watch mission operations unfold live here in The Flame Trench. Click the NASA TV box on the right side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and round-the-clock coverage of Endeavour's mission to the station. Refresh this page, too, for periodic updates.

Check out the timing of for major mission milestones in this latest revision -- Rev I -- of the STS-130 NASA TV Schedule.

The crew's detailed timeline is in this Flight Day 9 Execute Package.