Image above: From left, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson don hard hats in a light-hearted moment during Thursday's relocation of Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. Image credit: NASA TV

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Busy week of robotics for space hams

The Expedition 15 crew wrapped up a busy week of robotics and set the stage for future growth of the International Space Station with the relocation of Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3).

Thursday, Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, used the station's robotic arm to move PMA-3 from Unity's port docking mechanism to its nadir, or earth-facing, docking mechanism to make room for the installation of the Harmony node, which is set to arrive on Space Shuttle Discovery in October.

During the move, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI, worked with the docking systems. Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov backed up both men.

Intensive preparations for the move began Monday. Throughout the week the crew trained with computer-based simulations, relocated the robotic arm through a series of moves to the Power Data and Grapple Fixture on the Destiny Lab and set up the Centerline Berthing Camera System (CBCS).

The crew wrapped up their busy week on Friday with routine hearing tests and clean-up activities associated with the PMA-3 move.