Computer animation shows the Raffaello module being attached to the space station by Endeavour's robotic arm. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

Two-and-a-half hours after docking, and after Culbertson completes a mandatory space station safety briefing, the shuttle astronauts will begin moving cargo from the shuttle's middeck into the lab complex. The middeck is loaded with 1,060 pounds of gear and supplies.

The Expedition Three and Four crews, meanwhile, will begin handover activities to familiarize the newcomers to the station's operation, maintenance, quirks and idiosyncracies.

Most of the shuttle's cargo - 5,565 pounds of it - is housed in an Italian-built pressurized module called Raffaello that is mounted at the back of Endeavour's cargo bay. The day after docking, Kelly, operating the shuttle's 50-foot robot arm, will pluck the $150 million module from the cargo bay and position it within the reach of capture latches on the Unity module's downward-facing, or nadir, hatch.

It will take nine hours or so to unberth Raffaello, attach it to the station, complete leak checks and work through remote activation procedures. The astronauts will finally enter the module to begin unloading it late that evening.

In the meantime, the Expedition Three and Four crews will be trading places.

To be considered a full-time space station crew member, an astronaut or cosmonaut must have his or her custom-fitted Soyuz seat liner on board, along with a Russian Sokol spacesuit, in case of an emergency that might force a crew to bail out in the station's Soyuz lifeboat.

The Expedition Three crew will ride Endeavour home after four months aloft. Photo: NASA

While the shuttle crew works to attach the Raffaello module, the Expedition crews will replace the station's seat liners and suits in pairs. Walz and Tyurin will swap out their seatliners first, followed by Dezhurov and Onufrienko, then Culbertson and Bursch.

From that point forward, Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch will be considered the station's crew and would remain aboard the lab if the shuttle had to depart early for any reason. Culbertson, Dezhurov and Tyurin would leave with Endeavour's crew.

The combined crews will spend the next day unloading Raffaello and transferring fresh water to the space station. Late that evening, however, hatches between the shuttle and the station will be closed in preparation for a spacewalk the following day by Godwin and Tani.

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