Afternoon off for Discovery and ISS crew members

STS-131 Status Report #19

HOUSTON –

With transfer of equipment, experiments and supplies between the two spacecraft virtually complete, Discovery and International Space Station crew members got the afternoon off.


The morning was devoted largely to finishing the loading of the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo. Hatches between it and the station’s Harmony module are scheduled to be closed during the crew’s upcoming day. Only a few items await transfer to Discovery’s middeck. Some are experiments requiring refrigeration during their trip home.

Leonardo brought about six tons of material to the station and will return to Earth in Discovery’s cargo bay with about 2.5 tons from the station.

The crews’ hour-long midday meal break began about 5 a.m. CDT. That was followed by a 20-minute crew photo session. Next came the crew news conference, a 40-minute event with all 13 crew members and U.S., Russian and Japanese media representatives.

At 12:06 p.m., Commander Alan G. Poindexter and Mission Specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Clayton Anderson are scheduled to talk with Eastern Guilford High School students in Gibsonville, N.C., and with third- and fourth-graders from that school district.

Meanwhile, engineers on the ground continue to troubleshoot a stuck valve in a nitrogen tank assembly that’s needed to pressurize a new ammonia tank installed on the space station by Discovery’s astronauts. The ammonia tank was installed during three spacewalks by Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Anderson.