Shuttle Astronauts Take Time Off From Busy Flight

This story was updated at 9:33 p.m. EDT.

HOUSTON - Astronauts aboard NASA?s shuttle Endeavour took some time off Wednesday in a well deserved break from their record-long construction flight at the International Space Station (ISS).

Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Dominic Gorie, Endeavour?s seven astronauts are in the midst of a packed 16-day mission to deliver a new crewmember, Japanese module and Canadian-built robot to the orbiting laboratory. The spaceflight is the longest shuttle mission to the station to date, with Gorie and his crew well ahead of their original work schedule.

?They?ve gotten far enough ahead that we certainly won?t have to twist their arms too much to get them to rest,? ISS flight director Kwatsi Alibahuro told reporters late Tuesday. ?This is a long enough mission.?

Station commander Peggy Whitson, who has a reputation for working through breaks, said even she reveled in the hiatus from orbital work. ?

?We?re having a great time taking a break, just relaxing a bit,? Whitson told CBS News Wednesday night during a series of televised interviews. ?I think we really needed it ? It was nice to be able to get eight hours of sleep.?

Break time in space

Endeavour?s STS-123 astronauts have performed three of the record five spacewalks planned for their orbital construction mission since their March 11 launch. They delivered the Japanese Logistics Pressurized module - an attic-like room for Japan?s tour bus-sized Kibo station lab - as well as Canada?s two-armed Dextre maintenance robot, which astronauts assembled over the course of their three spacewalks.

?The view out the window is better than movie you might think about,? Gorie told NBC News. ?Everybody?s been doing a little bit of that, and we had an opportunity for folks to get on a conference with their families, say hello and see their smiling faces on a computer laptop.?

Mission managers added today?s off-duty day to Endeavour?s flight to break up what would otherwise be a continuous marathon of exhausting work for the shuttle?s seven astronauts.

?We added that extra flight day in the mix to get some time off between spacewalks and the late [heat shield] inspection,? Gorie told SPACE.com before flight. ?That made the flight a lot easier to contemplate because you can?t run a crew for 15 or 16 days without a little bit of a break.?

Gorie and his crew are preparing for their mission?s fourth spacewalk, a Thursday excursion to test a shuttle repair technique in which astronauts will use a caulk gun-like tool to squeeze a pink ablative goo into intentionally dinged heat shield tiles to test its effectiveness as an in-flight fix.

NASA has kept a close watch on shuttle heat shield health since the 2003 loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew due to wing damage. The caulk gun and goo-like material is the only repair technique yet to be tested under actual spaceflight conditions.

Japan?s ?Hope? in space

Early this morning - but dinner time for the astronauts aboard Endeavour and the ISS - the 10 spaceflyers aboard both spacecraft convened for a rare meal together in the station?s Russian segment.

?Our motto is ?it?s all about the sauce,?? Whitson told the visiting shuttle crew with a laugh during the partially televised dinner. ?It doesn?t matter what food it is as long as there?s sauce!?

They used chopsticks to sample Japanese space cuisine courtesy of Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, who is also testing new space undergarments and an orbital boomerang during his flight.

?The Japanese food was the best food we?ve had so far on this flight,? Gorie told Japan?s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda during a space-to-ground video link late Wednesday.

Fukuda lauded the astronauts? successful installation of the logistics module for Japan?s massive laboratory Kibo, which means ?Hope? in Japanese. The small module is a storage room for its much larger parent Kibo lab. Whitson and Gorie both said the honor was theirs while Doi gave Fukuda and students in Japan a tour of the new module.

?The Kibo module is filled with the dreams of the Japanese people and I?m very happy to fulfill the first step,? Doi said. ?It?s a very small space, about four and a half tatami mats wide.?

Endeavour astronauts are now gearing up for Thursday's spacewalk, which includes the replacement of a station circuit breaker box in addition to the heat shield repair test.

?They?ve all been working so hard, that I think they?ll make good use of their time tomorrow to relax and get some rest in preparation for the two remaining spacewalks still ahead for this mission,? Alibaruho said.

NASA is broadcasting Endeavour's STS-123 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission coverage and NASA TV feed.

• NEW VIDEO: Space Station's Dextre Robot, AKA 'Gigantor'
• NEW GALLERY: Launch Day for Shuttle Endeavour
• NEW VIDEO: Japan's First Space Station Module