NASA relocates ISS module

Update, 11 a.m.:

Today's robotic relocation of the International Space Station's Permanent Multipurpose Module is complete.

Earlier:

Robotics teams in Houston this morning are moving an 11-ton International Space Station module from one port to another in orbit, part of ongoing work to prepare the outpost for astronauts arriving in new commercial crew capsules.

The station's 58-foot robotic arm pulled the 22-foot-long storage closet called the Permanent Multipurpose Module, or PMM, from the Earth-facing port on the station's Unity node early this morning.

The arm is relocating the module to the Tranquility node's forward port.

The vacated port will serve as a backup for Boeing or SpaceX capsules that NASA hopes are ready to launch astronauts from the Space Coast by late 2017.

SpaceX's Dragon capsule will carry up a new docking adapter for one of the planned commercial crew ports on its next mission, targeted for launch from Cape Canaveral on June 26.

The PMM was formerly known as an MPLM, or Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. The Italian-built "moving van" was nicknamed Leonardo and hauled supplies to the station eight times, carried inside space shuttle payload bays.

In between flights, Leonardo was stored in Kennedy Space Center's Space Station Processing Facility.

But after flying up on shuttle Discovery's final mission in 2011, the module was left behind to give the station more closet space.

The robotic relocation began early Wednesday and was nearly complete by 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.