STS-120 to Open Gateway to International Partners

A new gateway to space is about to open, providing truly international access to the International Space Station (ISS).

Harmony, the first pressurized module to join the ISS in six years, will launch aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-120 and provide a connection to European and Japanese laboratory components.

The Node 2 module, named Harmony in a school contest, is similar to the six-sided Unity module that connects the United States and Russian segments of the Station.

“This is an important step for us,” said United Space Alliance International Space Station Program Manager Brian Breen. “Harmony adds the connection points for our International Partners and gives us the life support systems to increase the crew size of the Station.”

Built in Italy for the United States, Harmony is a 23- by 14-foot passageway that will connect the U.S. segment of the Station to the European and Japanese modules to be installed later this year and early next year, respectively.

STS-120’s crew will install Harmony but not to its final location. Discovery will dock to an adapter port where the node is intended to be, allowing Harmony to be installed in a temporary location on the Unity module until the end of the mission. Later, the ISS crew will use the Station robotic arm to move Harmony once Discovery departs.

Commander Pam Melroy, Pilot George Zamka and Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski, Douglas Wheelock, Stephanie Wilson and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency will also deliver Daniel Tani to the ISS and return Flight Engineer Clay Anderson.

After Harmony is installed, the crew will move the truss segment that holds the Station’s first set of solar arrays to a new home. The Port 6, or P6, arrays have been attached to the middle of the truss for the past seven years, positioned vertically to the rest of the Station and acting as a temporary power system.

With the addition of two sets of arrays brought to the Station on recent Shuttle flights, the original arrays will be relocated during STS-120 to their permanent position at the very end of the left side of the truss using the Station’s robot arm.

Four spacewalks are planned for the 13-day mission, involving combinations of Discovery and ISS astronauts Parazynski, Wheelock, Tani, Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko.

STS-120 is targeted for launch on October 23 at 11:38 a.m. EST.

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