NASA STS-135 Report #10 Wednesday, July 13, 2011 – 1:30 a.m. CDT

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON – The space shuttle Atlantis crew received a special wakeup call today to kick off flight day 6 of the STS-135 mission.

“Good morning, Atlantis, this is Elton John,” the British singer said in a pre-recorded message. “We wish you much success on your mission. A huge thank you to all the men and women at NASA who worked on the shuttle for the last three decades.”

The message followed the day’s wakeup song, John’s “Rocket Man,” which was played at 1:29 a.m. It was not the first time the song has been played in space – “Rocket Man” has awakened four shuttle crew’s in the shuttle program’s 30-year history, and it was one of NASA’s top 40 wakeup call songs listed for voter selection during a contest to commemorate space shuttles Discovery and Endeavour’s last missions. In that contest, it earned nearly 5,000 votes from the public.

With the mission’s one spacewalk successfully behind them, Atlantis’ crew will return its focus today to unpacking the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module. The crew started the day 26 percent through the combined 15,069 pounds of cargo to transfer in or out of Raffaello – 9,403 pounds that launched on Atlantis and 5,666 pounds that it will bring home when it lands.

In addition, the crew will be taking some time out of its work at 11:54 a.m. to talk with reporters from WBNG-TV and WICZ-TV in Binghamton, New York, and KGO-TV of San Francisco.

The next status report will be issued at the end of the crew’s day or earlier if warranted. The crew is scheduled to go to bed just before 4:30 p.m.