HOUSTON -Nine astronauts toiling to shift
more than two tons of cargo between the Discovery shuttle and International
Space Station more than 210 miles (337 kilometers) above Earth are ahead of
schedule, and even had time for a telephone call with the U.S. President, NASA
officials said.
President George W. Bush spoke with
the astronauts during a private ground-to-orbit telephone call this morning.
President Bush told Discovery's crew
that he watched closely as STS-121 spacewalkers Piers
Sellers and Michael
Fossum worked outside their spacecraft, and invited the astronauts and
their families to the White House once they return to Earth, White House spokesperson David Almacy told SPACE.com. President Bush also touched on the fact that Fossum is a graduate of Texas A & M University, Almacy added.
"He said that the astronauts represent the best of
service and exploration and thanked them for what they're doing," said
spokeswoman Dana Perino, according to the Associated
Press.
The call came as the STS-121 crew
buckled down for a day of hauling obsolete equipment, tools and other
unnecessary items into Discovery's Leonardo cargo module for the return trip to
Earth.
Working together, the combined crews
of Discovery and the space station's Expedition
13 mission have completed about 80 percent of their cargo transfer duties
and are ramping up for the last of three spacewalks this week, said Tony Ceccacci, lead shuttle flight director for the mission.
"The crew is working really hard on
that," Ceccacci said during a mission update here at
NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC).
Discovery will return about 5,421
pounds (2,458 kilograms) of material to Earth, more than 4,000 pounds
(1,814 kilograms) of which will be stowed in Leonardo during the descent, NASA
has said.
Among the first things to be
unpacked were 82 containers of food and about 187 pounds (85 kilograms) of
other provisions for the European Space Agency's (ESA) astronaut Thomas
Reiter, who joined station commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight
engineer Jeffrey
Williams as a member of the ISS Expedition 13 crew.
"His stuff was some of the first
they unloaded," Ceccacci told SPACE.com, adding
that because the shuttle crew is ahead of schedule, they can rest a bit easier
during their flight. "I think what it means is that they don't have to worry
and rush through things."
Final spacewalk on tap
While their crewmates shift cargo,
STS-121 astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum
readied their U.S.-built spacesuits for one
last spacewalk outside Discovery.
The spacewalkers will spend about
6.5 hours working inside Discovery's payload bay to test an experimental black,
heat-resistant non-oxide adhesive (NOAX) material for use in repairing small
cracks in the carbon composite panels that line the shuttle's wings and nose.
"NOAX is about the consistency of
peanut butter," Ceccacci said.
The material will be spackled onto a
set of test articles in Discovery's payload bay at precise times to gauge its
reactions to different temperatures in orbit, Ceccacci
said.
Sellers and Fossum
will also test out a new infrared camera by recording about 20 seconds of video
of the carbon composite panels along Discovery's wing edge. The test, NASA
officials hope, will verify whether the camera can be used as an additional
tool during shuttle heat shield inspections.
Wednesday's spacewalk begins at 7:13
a.m. EDT (1113 GMT) and will be broadcast live on NASA TV. You are invited to
follow the crew's progress using SPACE.com's feed of NASA TV, which is available
by clicking here.
The Associated Press contributed to
this report.
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