An artist's concept of the new PMA 3 docking port being removed from its platform in Discovery cargo bay. The Z1 truss houses four stabilizing gyroscopes and the station's main communications antennas. It also will serve as a mounting point for a set of solar arrays scheduled for attachment in December. See our full story on the spacewalk.
Unity has four radial hatches and one on each end.
Discovery is docked to the forward hatch while the Russian Zarya module is attached to the aft port. The shuttle Endeavour will use the PMA-3 docking port for the first time in early December when the station's first set of U.S. solar arrays will be attached to the top of Z1 truss. It also is required early next year when the U.S. laboratory module Destiny is attached to PMA-2, Discovery's current docking port. PMA-3 was carried into space bolted to a Spacelab pallet in Discovery's cargo bay. Lopez-Alegria and Wisoff will manually unbolt the mating adapter so robot arm operator Koichi Wakata can position it for attachment to the station.