NASA STS-133 Report #11 Tuesday, March 1, 2011 – 5:30 p.m. CST
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
HOUSTON – The International Space Station has a new room, filled with equipment, supplies and a new device that could be a precursor of spacewalking robots. The room was christened at 5:17 pm when the hatch was opened and Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly was first to enter.
The Permanent Multipurpose Module Leonardo was installed on the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity node Tuesday at 9:05 a.m. If it had windows, it would be a room with a heck of a view.
The PMM adds 2,472 cubic feet of pressurized storage space to the station. It also brings to the station, in addition to a humanoid robot called Robonaut 2, a payload of about 28,000 pounds. It includes an express rack capable of housing a variety of scientific experiments, five resupply stowage racks, six resupply stowage platforms and two integrated stowage platforms.
The new module was unberthed from Discovery’s cargo bay at 7:26 a.m. by the station’s arm. Mission Specialists Michael Barrett and Nicole Stott used arm controls in the station’s cupola. The module had made seven previous visits as a cargo carrier.
One of three such carriers built in Italy under contract to the Italian Space Agency, its conversion to a permanent module included adding shielding and rewiring.
Preparations for Wednesday’s spacewalk by Mission Specialists Steve Bowen and Al Drew included tool configuration and a spacewalk procedures review by eight of the shuttle and station crew members. The spacewalkers were to begin the standard campout in the Quest airlock at 6:48 p.m.
Barratt, Stott, shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and station Commander Scott Kelly talked with media representatives from KTRK-TV of Houston and KING-TV and KOMO-TV, both of Seattle, at 3:23 p.m.
Commanders of both spacecraft were told about 10:15 a.m. that a proposed Soyuz flight at the station would not take place. Discovery will still get an extra day at the station, to be used for PMM outfitting. Landing is now scheduled for 10:36 a.m. Tuesday, March 8. Transfer work continued Tuesday, and is now about 60 percent complete.
The next status report will be issued after crew wakeup at 4:23 am Wednesday, or earlier if warranted.
