NASA - STS-133 Mission patch.
02.28.11
Moving equipment and supplies between Discovery and the International Space Station, robotics activities and preparation for Monday’s 6.5-hour spacewalk kept shuttle astronauts busy much of Sunday.
Shuttle docked at ISS at sunset
Transfer activities began during the crews’ morning. About 2,000 pounds of cargo was brought to the station on Discovery’s middeck, and about 2,600 pounds is to be returned to Earth by the shuttle.
One early activity for the shuttle crew, Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott, involved robotics. The station’s Canadarm2 arm, operated by Barratt and Stott, grasped the orbiter boom sensor system from the left sill of Discovery’s cargo bay.
Image above: The docked space shuttle Discovery and the Canadian-built Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, are featured in this photograph taken by the STS-133 crew aboard the station. The blackness of space and Earth's horizon provide the backdrop for the scene.
It handed the boom off to the shuttle’s arm, which could not reach it with the spacecraft docked at the station. The shuttle’s arm held it to await a decision on whether a focused inspection of its thermal protection system would be necessary.
It wasn’t. Experts completed their analysis of 302 photos (155 using an 800 mm lens, 147 with a 400 mm lens) of the heat shield taken by station Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman during Discovery’s backflip before docking to check for damage. The Mission Management Team met Sunday afternoon and decided that no focused inspection of the heat shield would be necessary.
Spacewalkers Drew and Bowen configured tools for their Monday spacewalk. All shuttle crew members along with station Commander Scott Kelly and Nespoli were scheduled for an hour-long procedures review. A little before 8 p.m. CST the spacewalkers will begin the standard campout in the low pressure of the station’s Quest airlock.
STS-133 Flight Day 4 Highlights - Spacewalk One Preparations Video
The shuttle crew with Kelly and Coleman also talked with media representatives during the afternoon. Asking the questions were reporters from The Weather Channel, Boston’s WBZ Radio, WSB-TV of Atlanta and WTVT-TV of Tampa, Fla.
Images, Video, Text, Credit: NASA / MCC / NASA TV on Youtube.
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