It connects the laboratory modules of the United States, Europe and Japan, as well as providing electrical power and electronic data.

[10][11] The Node 2 Challenge required students to learn about the space station, build a scale model, and write an essay explaining their proposed name for the module, which will serve as a central hub for science labs.

[13] It is composed of a cylindrical, 5.1 cm (2.0 in) thick 2219-T851 aluminium alloy pressure shell with two endcones and is thermally insulated by a goldised Kapton blanket.

[17] Harmony arrived on 1 June 2003 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after its flight in an Airbus Beluga oversize cargo vehicle.

[22] The handover of Harmony completed a major element of the barter agreement, between ESA and NASA, that was signed in Turin, Italy on 8 October 1997.

[22] Paolo Nespoli, an ESA astronaut born in Milan, Italy, accompanied the Harmony module aboard STS-120 as a mission specialist.

On 11 February 2008, ESA's Columbus laboratory was attached to the starboard hatch of the Harmony module during space shuttle mission STS-122.

On 14 March 2008, the Experiment Logistics Module Pressurized Section (ELM-PS) of Kibō was attached to its interim location: the zenith hatch of Harmony.

The zenith hatch was originally intended to be the permanent docking connector for the now canceled Centrifuge Accommodations Module (CAM).

When the Space Shuttle flew the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLMs) to the station, the MPLM would be temporarily berthed to the nadir mechanism of Harmony.