Astronauts Take Out the Trash

The Italian Leonardo module was carried to the International Space Station filled with more than 3,175 kg (7,000 pounds) of clothing, food and supplies. The shuttle and station astronauts emptied it out, and today they’re going to fill it back up again with 1,800 kg (4,000 pounds) of unneeded hardware and trash. Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will also prepare themselves for tomorrow’s spacewalk – the third and final of the mission. Discovery is now halfway through its mission.

Repacking the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo will be the focus of today’s activities for the Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station crews.

More than 4,300 pounds of experiment results, unneeded hardware and trash is scheduled to be loaded onto the pressurized cargo module for return to Earth in Discovery’s cargo bay next week. Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson serves as the loadmaster for the extensive transfer activity.

All nine shuttle and station crew members will help gather and stow the return cargo in Leonardo. It brought more than 7,000 pounds of clothing, food and other supplies for the station.

Throughout the day, Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will also have spacewalk preparation tasks. They’ll recharge the spacesuits, gather and organize needed tools, and configure the airlock.

Before the day’s end, they’ll be joined by Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, and fellow Mission Specialist Lisa Nowak and Wilson for a review of the spacewalk procedures.

Kelly, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson and Sellers will talk with representatives from the Associated Press and USA Today. That 20-minute chat is scheduled to begin at 7:18 a.m. CDT.

The shuttle crew was awakened at 1:08 a.m. by “All Star,” performed by Smashmouth. It was for Nowak, requested by her family.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter were awakened 30 minutes later, at 1:38 a.m.

Original Source: NASA Status Report