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Astronauts now focusing on hectic cargo transfer work BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: July 13, 2011 
With a final shuttle-era spacewalk behind them, the Atlantis astronauts focused on logistics transfers Wednesday, devoting their day to moving cargo and supplies from the shuttle's crew cabin and the Raffaello multi-purpose module into the International Space Station.
"We have a lot of clothing, a lot of food and of course we want to put the space station in a good position to be self-sustaining for up to a year and that's about what it takes," shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson said in a NASA interview. "We're also taking a lot of environmental supplies. We have the urine processor on board (the station), and that requires a fairly scheduled and systematic delivery of filter tanks ... we'll be taking six or seven of those, a lot of other components for the environmental system. "We'll be bringing back an awful lot as well. We'll be bringing back a heat exchanger and a lot of the components that were stationed full time aboard the ISS just to support the space shuttle. We can bring that all back with us. Like I said, in addition to delivering an awful lot of cargo we're also hoping to offload trash, maybe things that could be repaired and sent back up (aboard unmanned cargo ships)." The station crew will help out with cargo transfers Wednesday morning before carrying out a variety of maintenance activities later in the day. During transfer work Tuesday, "we ... had a hurricane of activity," astronaut Sandra Magnus, the designated "load master," told flight controllers. "Our Russian colleagues came, they conquered and then they went. I haven't even quite caught up yet with everything that got done." One area of interest to flight controllers is the performance of the U.S. toilet and urine recycling system in the Tranquility module. The crew reported a strong odor around the equipment Monday. The urine processor was shut down and the intensity of the smell subsided. "We don't have a firm understanding (of what caused the odor), but we have a couple of good ideas and we're going to find out today if it's related to the processing in the urine processing assembly, doing a cycle through the processor to see if the smell increases again," said Flight Director Courtenay McMillan. "We didn't get any more reports from the crew, they had told us the night before (the spacewalk Tuesday) the smell had improved considerably. "We're going to kick off a short cycle in the morning when the crew is awake and see if we notice anything," she said. "That will also get us some more data on the performance of the system. So far, all the data shows the system is performing totally nominally. So we're not entirely sure yet (what is causing the smell) but we have a couple of ideas and this will help us figure out for sure where it's coming from." Ferguson and his crewmates will participate in the mission's first round of media interviews starting at 12:54 p.m. EDT (GMT-4). The daily mission status briefing is scheduled for 5 p.m. Here is an updated timeline of the crew's planned activities for flight day six (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision F of the NASA television schedule; best viewed with fixed-width font): DATE/EDT...DD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT 07/13 12:45 AM...04...13...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV 01:45 AM...04...14...16...00...Flight director update replay 02:29 AM...04...15...00...00...Crew wakeup 04:09 AM...04...16...40...00...ISS daily planning conference 04:29 AM...04...17...00...00...Middeck transfers resume 04:59 AM...04...17...30...00...MPLM transfers resume 04:59 AM...04...17...30...00...Lithium hydroxide transfer 07:54 AM...04...20...25...00...Crew choice recording (not live) 08:24 AM...04...20...55...00...Middeck, MPLM transfers resume 09:14 AM...04...21...45...00...Joint crew meal 10:14 AM...04...22...45...00...MPLM transfer resumes 12:54 PM...05...01...25...00...WBNG-TV/WICZ-TV/KGO-TV crew interviews 01:14 PM...05...01...45...00..."Face in Space" downlink 01:19 PM...05...01...50...00...MPLM transfers resume 02:44 PM...05...03...15...00...ISS evening planning conference 02:59 PM...05...03...30...00...Transfer tagup 04:59 PM...05...05...30...00...ISS crew sleep begins 05:00 PM...05...05...31...00...Mission status briefing on NASA TV 05:29 PM...05...06...00...00...STS crew sleep begins 07:00 PM...05...07...31...00...Flight day 6 highlights on NASA TV 10:00 PM...05...10...31...00...William Shatner "The Space Shuttle" on NASA TV 07/14 12:45 AM...05...13...16...00...Flight director update on NASA TV 01:29 AM...05...14...00...00...Crew wakeup 01:45 AM...05...14...16...00...Flight director update replay
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MISSION STATUS CENTER |
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VIDEO:
WEDNESDAY MORNING FLIGHT DIRECTOR UPDATE 