NASA moves space station module for future arrival of crew vehicles

U.S. space agency NASA on Wednesday relocated a cargo module at the International Space Station as part of an ongoing reconfiguration to prepare the orbiting laboratory for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew vehicles.

The Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), which was used as a supply depot, was detached from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module and then successfully moved to the forward port of the Tranquility module, NASA said.

The 11-ton PMM was maneuvered to its new location via the station's robotic arm, dubbed Canadarm2, which was remotely operated by engineers from the ground. The relocation work was overseen by astronauts aboard the space station.

"The operation opened the Earth-facing port of Unity as another berthing location for U.S. commercial cargo vehicles," NASA said in a statement.

Currently, the Earth-facing port on the Harmony module is used as the home port for U.S. cargo craft. The backup docking location is Harmony's space-facing port.

By freeing Unity's Earth-facing port as a new docking location for cargo vehicles, Harmony's space-facing port, in conjunction with the module's forward port, can now be repurposed as the arrival locations for U.S. commercial crew spacecraft.

NASA said the transformation of Harmony's space-facing and forward ports for crew arrivals will continue later this year, when a pair of International Docking Adapters (IDAs) will be delivered by two cargo resupply missions.

The IDAs will welcome U.S. commercial crew spacecraft currently in development by Boeing and SpaceX, which are scheduled for launch in 2017.

NASA has had to rely on Russian spacecraft to transport its astronauts to the space station and back since the space shuttle program retired in 2011. Endite