NASA STS-133 Report #17 6 p.m. CST Friday, March 4, 2011

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – Today was moving day for Discovery’s crew members. On the first of two days added to the shuttle’s stay at the International Space Station they unloaded more from the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module they brought into space.

The crew members began their day’s activities with the NASA Educational Technology services team and student interns at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Joined by station Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Cady Coleman for the event just after 6 a.m. CST, they answered students’ questions submitted through the NASA education Taking Up Space blog.

Most of the shuttle crew went right to work on Leonardo activities, moving supplies and equipment from the new module into the station and outfitting the interior of the module.

Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen, Nicole Stott and Michael Barratt and their station colleagues, Expedition 26 Commander Kelly, and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri, Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli and Coleman all gathered for the joint news conference. They took questions from reporters at Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center and in Italy.

During their afternoon, Bowen and Drew stowed tools they used outside on spacewalks, while colleagues continued with the Leonardo-related work. Kelly said the extra days with shuttle astronauts gave the station crew an important leg up on that work.

The Discovery crew’s sleep period begins at 6:23 p.m. The next status report will be issued after the crew’s 2:23 a.m. wakeup Saturday, or earlier if warranted.