Astronauts from the U.S. space shuttle Discovery have finished the first of five spacewalks to add a new section to the International Space Station..

Astronauts Douglas Wheelock, below the antenna and astronaut Scott Parazynski, feet towards camera, work on stowing the broken antenna in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery, 26 Oct 2007

Friday's six-hour construction mission involved moving the new Italian-made "Harmony" docking module from the shuttle to a temporary position on the space station. 

The spacewalkers maneuvered the bus-sized module into place, while fellow astronauts attached it to the orbiter with the space station's robotic arm.

The U.S. space agency NASA says Harmony will be a docking port for European and Japanese science laboratories set to be brought up on later missions.

The spacewalkers also prepared an existing segment of the space station for relocation later on the flight, and removed a broken antenna from the space station.

Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli coordinated Friday's spacewalk from Discovery's flight deck.

Discovery's two-week construction mission is considered one of most difficult in the history of the U.S. space shuttle program.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.