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Astronauts will attach cargo module to station today BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: August 31, 2009 
Space station flight engineer Michael Barratt and shuttle pilot Kevin Ford, operating the lab's big robot arm, geared up Monday to pluck a 13.5-ton cargo module out of Discovery's payload bay for attachment to the station's forward Harmony module.
"Buenos dias," Hernandez called down. "A special good morning to everybody who's listening to us. I want to give a special thanks to my wife, my family and friends who suggested this song. I'm just happy to be able to share my experiences over my Twitter account, a special thanks to those who are following along. Just haoppy to be here and continuing on with our mission." As of Monday morning, nearly 25,000 people were "following" Hernandez's updates in English and Spanish. The Italian-built Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module, or MPLM, is loaded with more than seven tons of equipment and supplies, including two science racks, an experiment sample freezer, a new carbon dioxide removal system, a crew sleep station and a new treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert. If all goes well, Ford and Barratt will unberth Leonardo around 4:10 p.m. and slowly maneuver it into position for attachment to the Earth-facing, or nadir, port on the Harmony module around 5:30 p.m. Discovery is docked to Harmony's forward port and the distance from the shuttle's cargo bay to the nadir port is relatively short. "From my perspective, it's just a bit of a rotation," Ford said of the robot arm work. "It's about a ninety-degree rotation and then we'll line it up with the berthing mechanism on the nadir port of the station and we'll just guide it in using some cameras and some mirrors to bring it in about eight centimeters away. And then some hooks will grab it from there." Sixteen bolts then will be electrically driven in the common berthing mechanism, or CBM, to firmly attach the cargo module to Harmony. The bolt-driving procedure should be complete by around 6:20 p.m. After that, the astronauts will pressurize the vestibule between Harmony's nadir hatch and Leonardo's, carry out leak checks and connect power, data and cooling lines. Ingress is targeted for around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. "Today's the big day for the MPLM, the cargo carrier, that's currently in the payload bay of the orbiter," said station Flight Director Royce Renfrew. "We're going to get that out and put it on the stack today. My team spent the evening last night checking out the port where we're going to install it. "So today the crew is going to get the MPLM out of the payload bay using the space station's robotic arm, they'll go ahead and take it out and put it up onto the node 2 (Harmony) nadir CBM. Once we can get into the interface there, we'll drive 16 bolts into the interface and make a structural attachment between the MPLM and the ISS. Once we get that done, we'll pressurize the vestibule, the area between the two hatches, make sure that's a good airtight seal, then we'll open the hatches." Cargo transfer work is scheduled to begin in earnest Tuesday when a materials science rack, the new air revitalization system, the sleep station and the COLBERT treadmill are moved into the station. While Leonardo's attachment to the station was the highlight of the crew's flight plan Monday, shuttle astronaut John "Danny" Olivas and newly arrived space station flight engineer Nicole Stott planned to check out the equipment they will use during a spacewalk Tuesday, the first of three planned for Discovery's mission. After an all-hands spacewalk procedures review, Stott and Olivas will end the day camping out in the station's Quest airlock module at a reduced pressure of 10.2 pounds per square inch. The campout procedure is designed to help purge nitrogen from a spacewalker's bloodstream before working in NASA's 5-psi spacesuits. A Mission Management Team update is scheduled for 4 p.m. and a mission status briefing is on tap at 8:30 p.m. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision F of the NASA television schedule; abbreviations: SSRMS: station robot arm; MPLM: multi-purpose logistics module): EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 08/31 01:29 PM...02...13...30...STS/ISS crew wakeup 03:29 PM...02...15...30...ISS daily planning conference 03:39 PM...02...15...40...SSRMS grapples MPLM 04:00 PM...02...16...01...Post-MMT briefing on NTV 04:09 PM...02...16...10...SSRMS unberths MPLM 04:29 PM...02...16...30...ISS locker install 04:34 PM...02...16...35...Middeck transfers 05:29 PM...02...17...30...MPLM installation 05:59 PM...02...18...00...MPLM: 1st stage bolts 06:19 PM...02...18...20...MPLM: 2nd stage bolts 06:29 PM...02...18...30...Post-docking EVA transfers 07:24 PM...02...19...25...Crew meals begin 07:39 PM...02...19...40...SSRMS ungrapples MPLM 08:30 PM...02...20...31...Mission status briefing on NTV 08:34 PM...02...20...35...MPLM vestibule pressurization 09:09 PM...02...21...10...REBA checkout 09:19 PM...02...21...20...SSRMS ops review 09:24 PM...02...21...25...EVA tools configured 09:49 PM...02...21...50...MPLM vestibule readied for ingress 10:29 PM...02...22...30...Univision PAO event 10:54 PM...02...22...55...Equipment lock preps 11:19 PM...02...23...20...MPLM activation (part 1) 09/01 12:54 AM...03...55...00...EVA-1: Procedures review 01:14 AM...03...01...15...MPLM vestibule closeout 01:34 AM...03...01...35...MPLM ingress 01:54 AM...03...01...55...ISS daily planning conference 03:24 AM...03...03...25...EVA-1: Mask/pre-breathe 04:09 AM...03...04...10...EVA-1: Airlock depress to 10.2 psi 04:29 AM...03...04...30...ISS crew sleep begins 04:59 AM...03...05...00...STS crew sleep begins 05:00 AM...03...05...01...Daily highlights 11:00 AM...03...11...01...Flight director update on NTV 12:59 PM...03...13...00...Crew wakeup
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VIDEO:
SUNDAY NIGHT'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING 