Shuttle Crew Prepares to Leave Space Station

by Tariq Malik, Senior Editor

Date: 10 June 2008 Time: 03:39 AM ET

A “fish-eye” lens on a digital still camera was used to record this image of the STS-124 and Expedition 17 crewmembers as they share a meal on the middeck of the Space Shuttle Discovery while docked with the International Space Station. Pictured counter-clockwise (from the left bottom) are NASA astronauts Mark Kelly, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, astronaut Garrett Reisman, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, astronauts Greg Chamitoff and Mike Fossum, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Ken Ham.
CREDIT: NASA.

This story was updated at 8:47 a.m. EDT.

HOUSTON — The seven astronauts of NASA?s shuttle Discovery will say farewell to the International Space Station (ISS) crew Tuesday as they prepare to head home after adding a massive Japanese laboratory to the orbiting outpost.

Shuttle commander Mark Kelly and his crew will shut the hatches between Discovery and the station at about 3:57 p.m. EDT (1957 GMT) after nine days of construction work to deliver Japan?s billion-dollar Kibo laboratory.

?The Japanese laboratory is big, capable, pretty much ready to go,? Kelly said from orbit Monday. ?It?s in good shape.?

The shuttle crew will take a few hours off today before shutting the hatches between the station and their spacecraft. Discovery is set to undock from the space station Wednesday at 7:42 a.m. EDT (1142 GMT).

Discovery astronauts delivered Japan?s tour bus-sized Kibo laboratory and attached its rooftop storage attic last week. The astronauts performed three spacewalks to prime the new lab and its 33-foot (10-meter) robotic arm for orbital work.

?It?s simply spectacular to see the Kibo robotic arm partly deployed,? said Tetsuro Yokoyama, deputy Kibo operations project manager for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which built the new 37-foot (11-meter) lab.

The nearly 16-ton Kibo lab?s arrival boosted the station?s mass to more than 600,000 pounds (277,598 kg), leaving it about 71 percent complete, NASA officials have said. A smaller robotic arm and porch-like external experiment platform are expected to complete the Kibo lab when they launch next year, but JAXA officials are hoping to begin the first science experiments as early as August, Yokoyama said.

?Of course, the opportunity to do science research grew incredibly now that we have an additional science module,? said station commander Sergei Volkov of Russia. ?It?s great, and we are looking forward to doing this.?

In addition to the Kibo module, Discovery also ferried NASA astronaut Gregory Chamitoff to the space station. He replaced fellow U.S. spaceflyer Garrett Reisman, who has lived aboard the station for the last three months.

?I can?t imagine what these past few months would have been like without the help you?ve given me,? Reisman told mission controllers here in Houston, as well as at all the station?s centers in the U.S., Canada, Russia, Europe and Japan.

Reisman joined the station's Expedition 16 crew in March and stayed aboard in April when his Expedition 17 crewmates, Volkov and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, arrived.

"Garrett, best wishes to you as you spend the last day of your mission on the space station," Mission Control radioed up Reisman during his last morning briefing. "Thanks for all your hard work over the last several months, we all look forward to your return."

Chamitoff is settling in for a six-month stay aboard the station as part of its three-man crew, while Reisman will return to Earth aboard Discovery.

?When they leave, I think it?s going to be very sad for me to see them go,? Chamitoff said Monday. ?I think that one moment, when we close the hatch, that?s going to be the hard moment.?

Discovery and its astronaut crew are scheduled to land at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday.

NASA is broadcasting Discovery's STS-124 mission live on NASA TV on Saturday. Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission updates and NASA TV feed.