International Space Station Crew Performs Leak Checks and Prepares for Discovery

The Expedition 17 crew members aboard the International Space Station began their work week with a light duty day on Monday.

Routine leak checks were conducted on the fuel and oxidizer lines on the newly arrived Progress 29 cargo craft. The P29 will be used later to transfer propellant to the Zvezda service module.

The crew also reviewed robotics procedures for the arrival of space shuttle Discovery during the upcoming STS-124 mission scheduled to launch May 31 at 5:02 p.m. EDT. Discovery will deliver the Japanese Experiment Module-Pressurized Module and a robotic arm system to the orbital outpost.

Over the weekend, the crew began unloading supplies from the P29 cargo ship. The new Progress cargo carrier docked to the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station’s Zarya module at 5:39 p.m. Friday with more than 2.3 tons of fuel, oxygen, air, water, propellant and other supplies and equipment aboard.

P29 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, May 14, at 4:22 p.m. It replaces the trash-filled P28 which was undocked from Pirs on April 7 and destroyed on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.