NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts prep for Dragon port relocation on ISS

The crew members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing for the port relocation of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to make way for an upcoming SpaceX cargo spacecraft.

On Saturday, May 6, NASA Flight Engineers Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will undock from the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module at 7:10 a.m and then dock again at the station's forward Harmony port at 7:53 a.m.

This relocation, which will be the third port relocation of a Dragon crew spacecraft, will free up Harmony's space-facing port for the docking of the next Dragon cargo spacecraft set to launch in June.

According to NASA, the zenith port on Harmony allows the Canadarm2 robotic arm easier access to the International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or IROSAs. This will be particularly helpful when installing the IROSAs, which are set to arrive on SpaceX's 28th commercial resupply mission and will require a series of spacewalks to be properly installed.

The Dragon relocation activities will be covered live on NASA's app and website.

This weekend, our #Crew6 astronauts are taking their Dragon out for a spin. Tune in at 7am ET (1100 UTC) on Saturday, May 6, as they move the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft to a new port on the @Space_Station: https://t.co/2g8Juligsn pic.twitter.com/puDNleOO9P

— NASA (@NASA) May 1, 2023