CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Endeavour's astronauts started packing up an Italian moving van at the International Space Station Wednesday, aiming to return to Earth next week with three men anxious for hot showers and frothy cold beers.
With the linked shuttle-station complex circling high above the planet, the shuttle astronauts and their station colleagues formed a "bucket brigade" at the threshold of a cylindrical cargo carrier now mounted to the underside of the outpost.
Endeavour mission specialist Linda Godwin supervised the orbital loading dock work, directing her crewmates as they began to load the pressurized freighter with 1.8 tons of luggage and gear to be flown back to Earth with a homebound outpost crew.
"You can see what a good loadmaster Linda is," station flight engineer Daniel Bursch said.
"Well, we're glad she's so good at what she's paid to do," astronaut Shannon Lucid replied from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.
Granted an extra day at the station, the shuttle astronauts also pitched in with some maintenance work at the outpost, setting out to overhaul a treadmill in the station's Russian-built crew quarters.
NASA mission managers wanted to get the treadmill work done so that year-old exercise machine parts could be brought back aboard Endeavour for refurbishment before being shipped back to the station next year.| Mission Updates |
| For the very latest updates on Endeavour's mission to the space station, the first place to look is our Shuttle Missions page. |
Launched last Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center, Endeavour ferried the Expedition Four crew up to the station for a planned five-and-a-half-month tour of duty. The crew includes Russian commander Yuri Onufrienko and two American flight engineers, Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz.
Walz, a veteran shuttle astronaut making his first long-term stay in space, told reporters Tuesday that he was amazed at the sheer size of the sprawling outpost, the pressurized core of which stretches 171 feet (52 meters) from end to end.
"It's sort of like having your stateroom on one side of a football field and your office on the other, and you're constantly running -- well, flying -- between those two places," he said. "So it's a neat feeling. It just emphasizes the tremendous size of the station."
Onufrienko, Bursch and Walz are replacing U.S. station skipper Frank Culbertson and his two cosmonaut colleagues -- Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin -- the three of whom have been in space since August and will return to Earth aboard Endeavour.
Culbertson said it would be emotionally tough to leave the outpost.
"I'm certain there will be mixed feelings," the retired U.S. Navy captain said. "This has been where we've lived and worked for four months and a very significant part of our lives, one of the most important things in our lives, probably."
After four months of sponge baths and freeze-dried space food, though, Culbertson said he's looking forward to "a real hot shower" and a "nice bowl of ice cream." Dezhurov is yearning for a warm sauna and Turin said, "a big glass of cold beer would be fine."
All three are looking forward to being reunited with family and friends, but those earthly pleasures remain five days away.
Up first: A change-of-command ceremony at the station. Culbertson is scheduled to officially turn over the outpost to Onufrienko on Thursday afternoon.
The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts now onboard the station also have to finish packing the Italian space freighter, which was used to haul up some 3.5 tons of food, clothing, supplies and equipment for the Expedition Four crew.
The 4.5-ton module is to be stowed back in the shuttle's cargo bay Friday.
With Endeavour pilot Mark Kelly at the controls, the shuttle is to depart the station Saturday, heading off on a two-day trip back to Earth. Landing remains scheduled here at NASA's coastal Florida spaceport at 1:03 p.m. EST (1803 GMT) Monday.
Anticipated total time in space for the Expedition Three crew: 129 days.
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