Astronauts Move Japanese Exposed Section to Station

July 21, 2009

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Commander Mark Polansky (left) and Pilot Doug Hurley are pictured at Endeavour's aft flight deck controls while docked to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA

Space shuttle Endeavour's astronauts completed the delicate move of the Japanese Experiment Section from Endeavour's payload bay to the end of the Japanese Exposed Section, the so-called "porch" on the Kibo laboratory.

At 8:28 a.m. EDT, Commander Mark Polansky and Julie Payette attached the shuttle robotic arm to the Exposed Section and lifted it out of the bay. They moved it away from Endeavour to a point where the space station arm, operated by Koichi Wakata and Doug Hurley, grasped it at about 9:33 a.m.

When the handoff was complete, the station arm installed it on the Exposed Facility at about 10:36 a.m., as the International Space Station had just passed over Japan. Payette radioed the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Mission Control team in Tsukuba, Japan, that the hard mate was complete.

The Exposed Section carries three Japanese experiments that the Kibo robotic arm will move to the "porch" on Thursday.

Later this morning, the station arm will grab the Integrated Cargo Carrier from the station's mobile base system and move it to an overnight park position in preparation for Wednesday's spacewalk.

Provided by JPL/NASA (news : web)