HOUSTON - Nine astronauts are working
through a moving day in orbit today as they haul cargo into the International
Space Station (ISS) from the Discovery shuttle and its Leonardo
module.
The
three-astronaut ISS crew, counting recently-arrived European spaceflyer Thomas
Reiter, and Discovery's six-person shuttle crew are continuing their
station resupply work to deliver more than 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms)
of fresh food, equipment and basic stores like air and water.
"Today was
the first day that really all of the crew got involved in doing transfer activities,"
said Tony Ceccacci, NASA's lead shuttle flight director for Discovery's STS-121
mission said Sunday. "Today it's more of a pack mule day."
In a video link
with reporters here at Johnson Space Center and other NASA centers, the ISS
Expedition 13 and STS-121 astronauts said today's cargo transfer duties
made for a rather welcome break from the last five busy days of spaceflight.
"We've been
fortunate enough not to have a lot of stuff to trip us up and we've been
staying on top of it," said STS-121 shuttle pilot Mark
Kelly. "The transfer is going very well...today has been a relatively light
day compared to the others."
Ceccacci
said the STS-121 astronauts will go to sleep one hour earlier today, giving
them a 15-hour work day, due to schedule changes following their mission's one-extension
on Friday.
"We'll make
sure they're not going to lose any sleep," Ceccacci said.
A good
flight
The six
astronauts who will return to Earth aboard Discovery said their flight is going
well, though the adaptation to the orbital environment did take some getting
used to for some first-time flyers.
"Well this
is my first flight and the first day, the first 24 hours, I didn't feel so
great and it took me a while to adapt," said STS-121 Lisa
Nowak, who along with crewmates Stephanie
Wilson and Michael Fossum is making her first orbital flight. "But I'm
happy to say I think I'm completely adapted now."
Shuttle
managers are expected later today to close out their final
concerns over Discovery's heat shield, which is a milestone the STS-121
crew is eager to hear.
"We're
motivated to know that our vehicle is clean so we can come in and reenter,"
Discovery commander Steven
Lindsey said. "So we'll be happy to hear those words."
In the
meantime, Lindsey, his shuttle crew, and the Expedition 13 astronauts Reiter, Jeffrey
Williams and Pavel
Vinogradov will forge ahead with their cargo duties while two spacewalkers
prepare for their next orbital task in the vacuum of space.
STS-121
mission specialists Piers
Sellers and Michael
Fossum, the two spacewalkers aboard Discovery, gave their U.S.-built
spacesuits a checkup today to prepare for a critical repair job outside the ISS
Monday. During that spacewalk,
the second of three planned for their 13-day flight, the astronauts will restore
the space station's Mobile Transporter - a sort of railcar-mounted crane - to full
health to allow future ISS construction.
That Monday
spacewalk will come two days after their first
spacewalk, in which they prepared the Mobile Transporter for repairs and
tested shuttle heat shield repairs from the end of a 100-foot (30-meter)
combination of Discovery's robotic arm and orbital inspection boom.
"To see a
sunset and sunrise from the end of the boom, it's just beyond words," Fossum
said.
advertisement
