Robotic arm moved Harmony into place, tripling space station living area

The International Space Station gained 5,000 cubic feet of new volume on October 23, 2007, when the shuttle Discovery delivered the Harmony module to orbit.

Harmony measures 14 feet wide and 24 feet long, a dimension comparable to a minibus. Before its arrival, the station occupied space roughly equal to a three-bedroom house. With Harmony installed, the complex expanded to the scale of a five-bedroom house.

NASA astronauts attached Harmony temporarily to the Unity node during the STS-120 mission. After the shuttle departed, the crew used the station's robotic arm to move the shuttle docking port at the Destiny module. This maneuver cleared the forward port for Harmony's permanent berthing.

The module serves as a central hub for international cooperation. It connects the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory on the starboard side and Japan's Kibo laboratory on the port side. Harmony also houses the sleeping quarters for American astronauts and contains eight payload racks, with four dedicated to avionics and four used for stowage or crew quarters.

Italy-based Thales Alenia Space constructed the module for NASA. Originally designated Node 2, it followed Unity, or Node 1, as the second NASA-led hub. The module features five common berthing mechanisms that act as connection points for other structures. A public naming contest selected the name Harmony.

The 2007 delivery marked a new phase of station growth. The previous new room, Russia's Pirs docking module, had been added in 2001 and has since been discarded. Harmony's five berthing mechanisms allow future modules to connect to the station, while a roof port accommodates visiting cargo vehicles.