ISS shuttle dock

[Kebra]

Hi everyone,

Does the ISS still have the shuttle dock or was it retired along with the shuttles?

I picture it as a storage unit now

[Karriz]

The shuttle docking ports (APAS-95) are still there, but adapters will be installed later this year to allow docking Dragon 2 and CST-100.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Docking_Adapter

[Nibb31]

The Shuttle used Russian APAS-95 docking ports to dock to the ISS, because the docking system was designed for the Shuttle-MIR program in the 80's.

The docking segments on the ISS are called PMAs (Pressurized Mating Adapters), which have a CBM port on one end and an APAS-95 docking port on the other. They are the black thing on this picture. As you can see, they are too small to be used for storage.

There are 3 PMAs on the station. One of them permanently connects Node1/Unity to Zarya and cannot be removed. The others are the actual docking ports for visiting spacecraft and will be used by commercial crew vehicles (Dragon and CST-100). They will be fitted with another adapter that will convert the APAS-95 ports to the new IDS standard.

[Mazon Del]

I must say, I never noticed before the part of the shuttle that says "CUT HERE FOR EMERGENCY RESCUE". Interesting. Thanks for the pic!

[Bev7787]

That's what happened to those ports. I was wondering what they were going to do with them.

[okan170]

Its part of a lot of upgrades this year. The PMM will be moved to Node 3 forward to permit Node 1 Nadir to be used as a second cargo port. PMA 3 also needs to go up to the Node 2 Zenith to serve as the 2nd commercial crew docking port.