The space shuttle Discovery may be installing a massive
16-ton solar power plant at the International Space Station today, but its
astronaut crew also packed something a little sweeter for the orbiting lab's
veteran commander.
Discovery skipper Lee Archambault made sure his crew packed
away a small chocolate cake in the spacecraft's cupboards for NASA astronaut
Michael Fincke, who celebrated
his 42nd birthday last Saturday - a day before the shuttle launched.
"We had a stowaway, very chocolate-y cake," shuttle
astronaut John Phillips radioed Mission Control late Wednesday while beaming
down some video. "The crew does have some chocolate fans, so they were glad to
see some fresh chocolate."
Chocolate is
a luxury on the space station, chocolate cake even more so. NASA astronaut
Sandra Magnus, who has lived on the station since November, told SPACE.com that she made a special
request for extra chocolate when a Russian cargo ship launched to the
outpost last month.
Archambault said he and his crew sang a belated "Happy
Birthday" to Fincke after they arrived at the station on Tuesday while the
station commander somersaulted in weightlessness. Fincke has lived aboard the
station since last October and will return to Earth next month.
"Eventually, the song ended and we got that cake open," said
Archambault, who also handed out matching crew shirts to Fincke, Magnus and
their third crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov.
Phillips said Fincke's birthday cake was baked by fellow NASA
astronaut Marsha Ivins. It was rich and tasty, fairly crumbly in zero gravity
until the astronauts started taking bigger, more put-together pieces, he said.
With their makeshift party over, the 10 astronauts aboard
Discovery and the International Space Station will perform the
first of three spacewalks planned for their mission later today.
Discovery astronauts are replacing a member of the station's
three-person crew and delivering a $298 million set of solar wings, the last
major American-built piece of the orbital laboratory, during their 13-day
mission.
SPACE.com is providing continuous coverage of STS-119
with reporter Clara Moskowitz and senior editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for mission
updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.
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