Spaceflight

The European-built International Space Station module Node 2, which is called Harmony, sits in the payload bay of NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery on flight day two of the 14-day mission STS-120 that began on 23 October.

©NASA
Above: Harmony in the payload bay of NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-120 flight day two

After future missions Harmony will have attached to it the laboratory modules Columbus, from the European Space Agency, and Kibo, from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

During STS-120, also known as assembly flight A10, the Discovery crew, including ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, will work with the ISS's Expedition 16 team to install Harmony and relocate the P6 truss element and solar array.