Aug 30 2007
From The Space Library
ISS crew members successfully moved an old docking port to a new location, clearing a space for a new module scheduled to arrive later in the year. ISS Expedition 1 Commander Fyodor N. Yurchikhi and Flight Engineers Oleg V. Kotov and Clayton C. Anderson worked from inside the space station to move the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) from its port-side perch on NASA’s Unity module to a berth facing Earth. The crew had delayed the relocation process by approximately 1 hour, because three of the sixteen bolts securing the PMA had returned intermittent fault messages. However, Mission Control determined that the error messages would not affect the relocation or the installation of the Harmony node later in the year. Kotov assisted Anderson in operating the ISS’s robotic arm, while Yurchkhin oversaw the bolt-latching systems, alternately freeing and securing the module during its relocation. PMA-3 detached from Unity at 8:23 a.m. (EDT) and, at 9:07 a.m. (EDT), the crew successfully reattached the port to its new berth. NASA’s lead Expedition 1 Flight Director Robert C. Dempsey acknowledged the cooperation between the Russian and American crew members. Dempsey remarked that Expedition 1’s crew was one of the first truly integrated crews that he had seen, noting that the mission marked the first time that Russian cosmonauts had operated NASA-controlled components, such as the Canadian-built robotic arm.
Tariq Malik, “Space Station Crew Clears Port for New Module,” Space.com, 30 August 2007, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070830_exp15_pma3move.html (accessed 30 June 2010).
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