NASA STS-127 Report #21 Saturday, July 25, 2009 – 1:00 p.m. CDT

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

The crews of space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station had a day off to rest in preparation of robotics operations to berth the Japanese experiment carrier in the shuttle’s payload bay Sunday and the fifth and final planned spacewalk of the mission on Monday.

Endeavour Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Chris Cassidy, Julie Payette, Tom Marshburn and Dave Wolf took some time out of their time off, however, to answer reporters’ questions from WISH-TV in Indianapolis, CBS News and WREG-TV in Memphis, Tenn.

Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike Barratt, Tim Kopra, Roman Romanenko, Bob Thirsk and Frank De Winne have a standard weekend schedule that includes exercise, routine station housekeeping and time off.

The 13-member combined crew of space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station will downlink a “crew choice” presentation at 4:03 p.m. CDT titled “The Partnership of the International Space Station.” NASA Television will air it live.

Spacewalkers Cassidy and Marshburn completed the final four battery swaps for the station’s Port 6 truss segment Friday, and those batteries are holding power. Later in the day, the new batteries will be integrated into the station’s power grid.

The station crew is scheduled to begin its sleep period at 6:33 p.m., followed 30 minutes later by the shuttle crew. The shuttle and station crews are scheduled to be awakened at 3:03 a.m. Sunday.

The next mission status report will be issued after crew wake or earlier if warranted.