Astronauts on the shuttle Discovery are battling a broken antenna and alooming space station docking, but they weren't too busy Tuesday to find outwho won the men's NCAA basketball championship title last night.
"Houston, Discovery, we're wondering if you could tell us who the Final Fourmen's champion was," radioed shuttle commander Alan Poindexter to MissionControl.
The astronauts launched into space Monday morning on the first of NASA's ownfinalfour" shuttle flights before the fleet is retired later this year.
Back to the big game, basketball powerhouse Duke University faced offagainst underdog Butler University for the NCAAMen's Basketball Championship title in Indianapolis, Ind., Monday nightwhile Poindexter and his crew were working in orbit.
"Duke won 61 to 59 at the last minute," Mission Control said afterchecking the score.
"Aww man, that sounds like great game," Poindexter said."Congratulations to the Blue Devils at Duke."
The astronauts inspected Discovery's heat shield for damage earlier todayand will sleep through most of the day because of their overnight shiftschedule. The shuttle is due to dock at the space station Wednesday morning at3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT).
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SPACE.com is providing complete coverage of Discovery's STS-131 missionto the International Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik and StaffWriter Clara Moskowitz based in New York. Click here for live shuttlemission updates and a link to NASA TV.
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