Monday, September 7, 2009

STS-128: Preparing to Undock

Quietly flying on the Dark Side of the Earth

As I write this the astronauts are in sleep mode and about an hour from wake up calls from Mission Control in Houston. Yesterday the shuttle team and ISS crew members completed most of the packing of the Leonardo Module and had a half day off of light activities, including broadcasts to journalists, one of which was a teleconference call with representatives of Sweden. The Leonardo, built by Italy for the European Space Agency, is a transportable module for use with the shuttle that allows scientists to transport supplies, equipment, and experiments up to the ISS, and then bring back waste objects, broken equipment, and finished experiments for evaluation.

The crew will detach the Leonardo module today and store it in the Discovery's large bay, then prepare the shuttle for undocking which should occur before midnight tonight.

No comments: