Astronauts to unpack cargo
2008-11-17 11:59
Houston - Astronauts aboard the international space station and the newly arrived shuttle Endeavour planned Monday to start unpacking a new toilet and a contraption that purifies urine and sweat into drinkable water at the orbiting outpost.
The main business of the day is unloading a cargo container nicknamed "Leonardo" from space shuttle Endeavour's belly and attaching it to the international space station. Inside the 6.4m-long container is almost 6 800kg of equipment that will allow the space station to expand from three to six crew members next year.
"Things are going exceedingly well," said LeRoy Cain, chairperson of the mission management team.
Besides the extra bathroom and urine processor, Endeavour delivered an exercise machine, kitchenette and two sleeping compartments. Endeavour docked with the space station on Sunday afternoon almost two days after it launched from Florida.
Family reunion?
The shuttle's crew will spend almost two weeks orbiting 354km above earth at the outpost, setting up the new equipment and going on four spacewalks to clean and lubricate a solar wing-rotating joint that broke down more than a year ago.
Once the hatch opened between the space station and shuttle, it looked like a family reunion. The shuttle's seven astronauts exchanged a cacophony of greetings with the station's three crew members, wrapping one another in bear hugs and shaking hands. In a long-standing tradition, a bell was rung at the station's entrance.
"Sandy, welcome to your new home," space station commander Mike Fincke told astronaut Sandra Magnus, who traded places with astronaut Gregory Chamitoff as a space station crew member. After living for six months at the station, Chamitoff will return to Earth with Endeavour.
- AP