CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station looked like a busy orbital loading dock Tuesday as 10 astronauts and cosmonauts swiftly unpacked an Italian moving van for a fresh outpost crew.
Running 15 hours ahead of schedule, seven Americans and three Russians hauled carry-on luggage, travel trunks, science research racks and experiment packages into the station from a shuttle-borne shipping container now mounted on the side of the outpost.
It's "primarily just a big work day," said NASA lead station flight director Mark Ferring. "The moving van is here and all hands are going to be on deck moving stuff back and forth between the International Space Station and the shuttle."
Taxied to the station aboard Discovery, U.S. astronaut Frank Culbertson and two Russian cosmonauts -- Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin -- took command of the complex Monday, kicking off a planned four-month research tour.
The trio replaced Russian station skipper Yuri Usachev and two U.S. flight engineers -- Susan Helms and Jim Voss -- who have been living and working at the station since March and will hitch a ride back to Earth aboard the shuttle.
Amid all the move-in activity, the incoming and outgoing outpost crews started a two-day series of hand-over briefings aimed at familiarizing the new tenants with critical station systems.The first item on the agenda: A refresher course on how to operate station fire suppression systems as well as a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that serves as an outpost lifeboat.
"The number one thing, of course, is safety, so they go through all the basic emergency procedures: Obviously, how you get to the Soyuz, how you make sure it's ready to go," Ferring said.
The old crew also showed the new crew where to locate breathing masks, fire extinguishers and emergency oxygen tanks -- key safety gear in the event of a fire onboard the outpost.
The station's extensive computer network and its patched-together U.S. and Russian communications systems were expected to command attention.
Also to be covered in the briefings: The operation of all key life support systems, such as oxygen generation, carbon dioxide removal, water purification and air conditioning devices.
Culbertson and his crew went through extensive training prior to flight, but the briefings are aimed at pointing up the idiosyncrasies of operating actual systems hardware in orbit.
"Just imagine if you haven't seen anything, and people just tell you about it," Ferring said. "It's different than (saying) 'here's the actual equipment and here's how you do it.'"
The work within the moving van, meanwhile, involved off-loading more than three tons of food, clothing, research apparatus and science experiments for Culbertson and his crew. They plan to carry out 50 U.S. and Russian experiments during their stay on the station.
The "big ticket" items included two science research racks that will join two others that were set up earlier this year in the station's $1.4 billion U.S. Destiny science laboratory.
Later this week, Usachev and his crew will help load up the moving van with 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) of luggage, surplus station equipment and garbage for their return trip to Earth.
Two spacewalks -- the first on Thursday, the second on Saturday -- also are planned. Coolant tanks and power cables will be mounted outside the station during the excursions.
Discovery is scheduled to depart the station next Monday, heading toward a 12:48 p.m. EDT (1648 GMT) Aug. 22 landing at Kennedy Space Center. In space since March 8, Usachev, Helms and Voss will have spent 167 days in orbit.
Culbertson and his crew, meanwhile, are scheduled to remain in space until Dec. 9.
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