NASA STS-124 MCC Status Report #18

HOUSTON – Discovery’s crew was awakened at 4:02 a.m. CDT, beginning a day that will see the final deployment of the arm on the Kibo laboratory and the opening of the hatch between Kibo and the logistics module.

The wakeup call this morning was “The Spirit of Aggieland” performed by the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. The song was played for Mission Specialist Mike Fossum.

The final deployment of the Kibo laboratory’s robotic arm will begin at 7:22 a.m., and the maneuvers should take about a half hour. At that point, the arm will be returned to its stow position and will have its brakes tested out.

The crew will swap out a battery charger module inside the station’s Quest airlock. They will also open the hatch between Kibo and its logistics module after lunch.

All 10 crew members are scheduled to participate in the joint crew news conference. They will be speaking with media outlets in the United States and Japan in a live interactive event. That news conference will begin at 4:02 p.m. and will be carried on NASA TV.

The next status report will be issued at the end of the crew’s day, or earlier if events warrant.