Vinogradov Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married, Three children. Born in Magadan, Magadan, Russia. Korolev Design Bureau Civilian Engineer, Energiya NPO.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Energia Engineer Group 11 - 1992. Active Entered space service: 3 March 1992. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 380.68 days. Number of EVAs: 6.00. Total EVA Time: 1.34 days.

• 5 August 1997 Flight: Mir EO-24. Flight Up: Soyuz TM-26. Flight Back: Soyuz TM-26. Flight Time: 197.73 days.

• 30 March 2006 Flight: ISS EO-13. Flight Up: Soyuz TMA-8. Flight Back: Soyuz TMA-8. Flight Time: 182.95 days.

3 March 1992 - Energia Engineer Cosmonaut Training Group 11 selected..

Filled with trash and items no longer needed, the Progress 19 vehicle undocked from the Zvezda living quarters module at 5:06 a.m. EST. Three hours later, Russian flight controllers commanded its engines to fire to put it on course to plunge into the atmosphere and burn up over the Pacific Ocean. The cargo ship was docked to the station since September 2005.

The station's Progress 20 cargo vessel, which arrived in December 2005, remains attached to the Pirs Docking Compartment.

Also this week, McArthur replaced the trace contaminant control system in the Destiny Laboratory. The system removes impurities from the cabin air. It experienced a slightly degraded performance over the past few months, but is operating normally.

On Monday, McArthur will attempt to reconnect and activate the major constituent analyzer in Destiny. It is a mass spectrometer that measures compounds in the station's atmosphere. Efforts to activate the system two weeks ago were unsuccessful due to what is believed to be damaged or bent electrical connectors.

Once the device is activated, plans can resume for a crew "campout" in the Quest Airlock to test streamlined spacewalk preparation procedures. The new procedures will shorten the time needed to cleanse nitrogen from spacewalkers' bodies to prevent decompression sickness. For the test, the crew will spend the night in Quest at a reduced pressure, lessening the time needed to breathe pure oxygen in advance of a spacewalk.

The "campout" technique will be used for the first time for spacewalks on the STS-115 shuttle mission later this year. If the major constituent analyzer is successfully activated, the campout test will be scheduled around March 23.

McArthur continued preparations for the arrival of the next shuttle mission. Discovery is targeted for launch no earlier than May on that flight, designated STS-121. This week, McArthur put unneeded items in racks earmarked for return to Earth aboard Discovery.

McArthur and Tokarev will soon begin preparations for a short trip from the station. Managers have agreed on a tentative schedule on March 20 for the crew to relocate their Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft from the Earth-facing docking port of the Zarya module to the aft docking port of Zvezda. McArthur and Tokarev will undock from Zarya and conduct a 37-minute flight to re-dock at Zvezda. The move will clear the Zarya port for the April 1 arrival of the Soyuz carrying the next station crew, Expedition 13.

Expedition 13 is commanded by Pavel Vinogradov. Jeff Williams is NASA Flight Engineer. Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes will fly with them to the station for a short stay, returning to Earth a week later with McArthur and Tokarev.

Next week, McArthur will brush up on his robotics skills, operating the Canadarm2 for engineering tests. The arm also will be remotely commanded by flight controllers in Houston. They will operate the arm to survey one of two integrated umbilical assembly mechanisms on the mobile transporter rail car. The assembly's cutting blade system malfunctioned Dec. 16, severing one of two umbilicals on the transporter. The assembly will be replaced on the second of the three spacewalks planned for Discovery's mission. Controllers also will use the arm to survey a vent port for the carbon dioxide removal assembly on the Destiny Laboratory.

If all goes as planned, the flight will take less than 40 minutes. Undocking is scheduled for 1:49 a.m. EST; with docking scheduled for 2:23 a.m. EST.

This move will clear the Zarya port for the March 31 arrival of the Expedition 13 crew and a Brazilian Space Agency astronaut on another Soyuz vehicle.

Preparations included testing Soyuz systems and thrusters and reviewing trip procedures. On Sunday, the crew will configure station and Soyuz systems. The configuration is to ensure the station could operate without the crew onboard; in the unlikely event the Soyuz could not successfully re-dock.

This week, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams completed final training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

The crew will travel Saturday to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for final launch preparations, along with Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes. Pontes will fly to the station with Expedition 13 on a 10-day mission, returning to Earth with Expedition 12. Launch is scheduled for March 29 at 9:30 p.m. EST.

NASA's payload operations team at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., worked with McArthur to test an experiment facility on the station. The thermal and pressure sensors inside the microgravity science glovebox are checked annually to keep it certified for experiments. McArthur completed inspection and cleaning of the facility.

McArthur also dedicated some of his free time last weekend to research work. On Saturday morning, he conducted an experiment that aims to improve future experiments that involve mixing fluids.

The cellular biotechnology operations support systems fluid dynamics investigation is a series of experiments to improve fluid mixing techniques and control bubble distribution for cell culture in orbit.

If all goes as planned, the flight will take less than 40 minutes. Undocking is scheduled for 12:49 a.m. CST with docking scheduled for 1:23 a.m. CST.

This move will clear the Zarya port for the March 31 arrival of the Expedition 13 crew and a Brazilian Space Agency astronaut on another Soyuz vehicle.

Preparations included testing Soyuz systems and thrusters and reviewing trip procedures. On Sunday, the crew will configure station and Soyuz systems. The configuration is to ensure the station could operate without the crew onboard; in the unlikely event the Soyuz could not successfully re-dock.

This week, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams completed final training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

The crew will travel Saturday to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for final launch preparations, along with Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes. Pontes will fly to the station with Expedition 13 on a 10-day mission, returning to Earth with Expedition 12. Launch is scheduled for March 29 at 8:30 p.m. CST.

NASA's payload operations team at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., worked with McArthur to test an experiment facility on the station. The thermal and pressure sensors inside the microgravity science glovebox are checked annually to keep it certified for experiments. McArthur completed inspection and cleaning of the facility.

McArthur also dedicated some of his free time last weekend to research work. On Saturday morning, he conducted an experiment that aims to improve future experiments that involve mixing fluids.

The cellular biotechnology operations support systems fluid dynamics investigation is a series of experiments to improve fluid mixing techniques and control bubble distribution for cell culture in orbit.

Soyuz Commander Valery Tokarev and Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur moved their Soyuz spacecraft from the Zarya module to the Zvezda living quarters module early Monday. They will use the same vehicle to return to Earth April 8. This week's move opened the Zarya docking port for the arrival of the Expedition 13 crew.

The Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams, are in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, awaiting launch. They are scheduled to lift off at 9:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, March 29.

Managers reviewed preparations for the mission and approved moving forward with launch at the Soyuz Flight Readiness Review on Thursday. Although no spacewalk is planned from the station until July, managers also reviewed issues with spacewalking capability. They approved a temporary solution to allow a spacewalk if needed.

The concern with U.S. spacewalks surfaced when engineers found blisters on handrail bars during production work on the ground. The finding led to an ongoing evaluation to ensure the handrails' strength is sufficient. The evaluation is expected to be completed by the end of April. Meanwhile, the approved procedure for spacewalks, if one were to be needed, involves attaching crew safety tethers at the base of the handrails rather than on the bar of the rails.

Tokarev and McArthur also are continuing to look for Russian lithium hydroxide canisters on the station. The canisters are used to scrub carbon dioxide from Russian Orlan spacesuits and would be used if a spacewalk required using those suits. Regardless of the outcome of their search, a new supply of canisters will be carried to the station on a Progress cargo vehicle in April, and the next spacewalk planned using Russian spacesuits is set for August.

Vinogradov and Williams are planned to dock to the station at 11:19 p.m. EST next Friday. They will be joined by Brazil's first astronaut, Marcos Pontes, for launch. Pontes will spend eight days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency and return home with McArthur and Tokarev.

After a day of light duty and rest Tuesday, McArthur and Tokarev resumed normal operations, focusing on packing and preparing for the trip home. They packed personal items as well as hardware and science supplies that will return with them.

They also continued several science experiments that study plants in weightlessness and crystal growth in space. The studies included work with the Russian Matroshka and PLANT experiments and two Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency experiments, the Granada Crystallization Facility and the Photon Crystals Growth Facility. McArthur disassembled and stowed components from the U.S. Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Spaceflight experiment. The crew recently completed that study which investigated the effects of weightlessness on the legs and feet.

McArthur took time to talk with students during two amateur radio sessions, one with the Sir James Lougheed Elementary School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and a second with more than a thousand students in Rutigliano, Italy. McArthur has conducted 34 such sessions with students during his six months in orbit, more than any other station crew member.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, NASA Science Officer and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and Brazilian Space Agency astronaut Marcos Pontes will dock to the station late Friday. Vinogradov and Williams will spend six months on the complex during Expedition 13. Pontes, flying under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will stay on the station for eight days.

The 162-foot tall Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:30 p.m. EST. About 10 minutes later, the Soyuz was in orbit with its solar arrays and antennae extended. Docking is planned for 11:19 p.m. EST Friday.

Vinogradov, Williams and Pontes will open hatches at about 12:30 a.m. EST Saturday to join Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev inside the space complex.

The five space fliers will be available for a crew news conference at 10:55 a.m. EST Monday. Reporters at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, Russia, may ask questions.

The two crews will spend about a week handing over operations of the station, and Pontes will conduct a series of research investigations. McArthur, Tokarev and Pontes return to Earth April 8. At landing, McArthur and Tokarev will have spent almost 190 days in space.

Earlier this week, McArthur found a supply of lithium hydroxide canisters used to scrub carbon dioxide from the air in Russian space suits during a spacewalk. The find ensures Russian suits can be used if a spacewalk is needed.

With Expedition 13 and Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov at the controls, the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft automatically linked up to the Earth-facing port on the station's Zarya module at 11:19 p.m. EST Friday. The spacecraft were above China near the Russian, Kazakh and Mongolian borders at the time.

Aboard the Soyuz with Vinogradov were NASA Flight Engineer and Science Officer Jeff Williams and Brazilian Space Agency astronaut Marcos Pontes. Pontes will spend eight days on the complex under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

After systems checks, hatches between the Soyuz and the station were opened at 12:59 a.m. EST Saturday. Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, nearing the end of their six-month mission on the station, greeted their colleagues with handshakes and hugs and offered the traditional bread and salt. Russian, American and Brazilian dignitaries viewed the docking from the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow, and congratulated the crews after hatch opening.

The new crew will now transfer cargo from the Soyuz to the station, deactivate the new Soyuz' systems and stow their launch and entry suits. Pontes will move his custom-made seatliner into the older Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft that will bring him home, and he will begin several experiments. The two station crews will continue handover activities throughout the week, including robotics training with the station arm and detailed briefings on scientific experiments. Vinogradov and Williams will remain on board the station until September.

All five astronauts and cosmonauts will participate in a news conference at 10:55 a.m. EDT Monday. NASA Television will broadcast this event live.

Monday night, McArthur and Williams will "camp out" in the Quest airlock. They will sleep in the airlock, isolated from Tokarev, Vinogradov and Pontes, to test a new procedure that may reduce the preparation time for spacewalks. The new procedure will have spacewalkers stay in the airlock overnight at a lower air pressure to help purge nitrogen from their bodies to prevent decompression sickness. McArthur and Williams will begin their airlock stay at about 6:20 p.m. EDT Monday and finish at 3:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

McArthur, Tokarev and Pontes will leave the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-7 and land April 8.

Aboard the complex, one crew prepared for a return to Earth while another focused on taking the helm in orbit.

Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev and Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes head home Saturday, closing hatches as they leave the station at 1:35 p.m. EDT. They will undock their Soyuz spacecraft at 4:28 p.m. EDT. That sets the stage for a deorbit burn at 6:58 p.m. EDT to drop the 15,000-pound spacecraft out of orbit. The Soyuz will parachute to a landing at 7:48 p.m. EDT on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Expedition 12's homecoming preparations began in earnest after last week's arrival of the 13th station crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams, who arrived with Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut. Pontes will have spent eight days on the station conducting experiments as part of a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

This week began with a partially completed "campout" by McArthur and Williams in the Quest Airlock. The planned overnight stay in the airlock tested procedures that can shorten the time needed to prepare for future spacewalks.

Quest was sealed off from the rest of the station at 6:45 p.m. EDT Monday with McArthur and Williams inside, and its air pressure was later lowered to 10.2 pounds per square inch. The rest of the station remained at the normal air pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch. An overnight stay at the lower air pressure helps purge nitrogen from the body, a necessary step to avoid decompression sickness. McArthur and Williams were awakened four hours into their sleep in the airlock by an error tone.

The tone was generated by software that monitors the composition of air on the station. Flight controllers opted to end the campout test Tuesday at 12:43 a.m. EDT, open the airlock hatch to the station, and allow the crew to go back to sleep. Despite the glitch, all of the test objectives were achieved. Engineers are reviewing data to determine whether changes are needed to use the technique during the STS-115 shuttle mission later this year. Engineers could decide to repeat the test at another time.

On Wednesday, Williams trained with the station's robot arm, Canadarm2. Late this week, McArthur briefed Williams on payload operations in the Destiny laboratory while Tokarev, the Soyuz commander, stowed equipment and payloads in the Soyuz for the trip home. Tokarev also reviewed procedures for the undocking, entry and landing with flight controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow.

With them was Marcos Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut.

The Soyuz spacecraft with McArthur, Tokarev and Pontes landed in central Kazakhstan, about 30 miles northeast of Arkalyk, at 7:48 p.m. EDT, Saturday. The crew's families will greet them at Star City, Russia, near Moscow, early Monday. McArthur and Tokarev will remain in Star City for post-flight debriefings before returning to Houston later this month. McArthur and Tokarev launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sept. 30, 2005.

They spent 189 days, 18 hours and 51 minutes in space. During their mission, they conducted two spacewalks and relocated their Soyuz spacecraft twice, becoming the first ISS crew to dock to every Russian docking port on the complex. They also became the first two-person station crew to conduct a spacewalk in both Russian and U.S. spacesuits. Pontes flew to the station with the Expedition 13 crew last week as part of a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos. He spent eight days on the station conducting experiments.

The new station crew, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, will have light duty for the next few days as they rest from a busy handover. They will remain in orbit for six months. The crew plans to perform two spacewalks and greet two space shuttle crews during their expedition.

Joining them during their stay on the station will be Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany, also flying under a commercial agreement with Roscosmos. Reiter is scheduled to come to the station on the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission, targeted for a July launch.

Reiter will be the first non-Russian, non-U.S. long-duration crew member on the station. His arrival will bring the station crew size to three for the first time since May 2003, when the crew size was reduced to conserve supplies in the wake of the Columbia accident.

Shuttle Atlantis' STS-115 mission is also scheduled during Expedition 13 and will resume major assembly of the station. The shuttle and station crews will work together to add another set of batteries and solar arrays to the complex.

The crew's work has included station maintenance, medical and other experiments and standard daily exercise.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams said farewell to their predecessors last Saturday. The Expedition 12 crew and a visiting Brazilian astronaut undocked that afternoon and landed in Kazakhstan at 7:48 p.m. EDT.

Vinogradov and Williams had light duty Sunday and Monday, a break after completing eight days of extensive handover activities with their counterparts.

Maintenance work included a three-and-one-half hour scheduled replacement of station toilet components on Tuesday. Both crew members also took time to talk with two Russian news organizations and participants at a Russian school children's aerospace festival.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the crew from the Kremlin. Putin's call came on the 45th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin, a landmark event commemorated by the Russian holiday Cosmonautics Day. That date, April 12, was also the 25th anniversary of the first NASA space shuttle launch in 1981.

Putin told the crew it was a pleasure to see representatives of the United States and Russia working together on the same spacecraft. During the light-hearted exchange, Vinogradov invited Putin to visit the space station.

The crew continued loading the station's Progress cargo craft with trash and conducted physical evaluations and experiments Thursday. Vinogradov and Williams practiced an emergency evacuation drill Friday. Throughout the week, they had time to familiarize themselves with their new home.

Vinogradov and Williams will remain in orbit for six months. During that time, they plan to welcome two space shuttles and perform two spacewalks. Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission, targeting a launch no earlier than July 1, will bring European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter aboard the station.

Reiter will increase the station crew size to three for the first time since May 2003 when the crew size was reduced to conserve station supplies following the Columbia accident.

Back on Earth for almost a week, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev remain in Star City, Russia, near Moscow. They continue to undergo debriefing and rehabilitation after 190 days in space. With them is Marcos Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, who launched with Expedition 13. He returned to Earth with the Expedition 12 crew after spending about eight days on the station conducting experiments.

Tentative plans call for McArthur to return to Houston later this month.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams also had time set aside each day to continue to become familiar with their orbiting home.

In scientific work, Williams operated the Capillary Flow Experiment, which uses liquid silicone to study how fluids move in a microgravity environment. This portion of the experiment examined the interface between the liquid and the solid surface of the container. The results could be used by designers of systems for future spacecraft.

Williams also set up and activated cameras that will be remotely operated by middle school students to take photos of Earth through the station window. Called the Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM) experiment, it allows students to study the Earth and then control a special digital camera mounted on the station. They photograph coastlines, mountain ranges and other geographic items of interest from the unique vantage point of space. More than 112 schools from eight countries have signed up for this session of the experiment. This is the 22nd time the experiment has been performed aboard the station.

Williams and Vinogradov completed the first of three sessions with the Renal Stone experiment, a study of whether potassium citrate can be used to reduce the risk of kidney stone formation. Astronauts have an increased risk of developing kidney stones because urine calcium levels are typically much higher in space. The crew recorded all consumed food and drinks and collected urine samples for later return to Earth. An understanding of the crew's diet during the urine collection timeframes will help researchers determine if the excess calcium in the urine is due to diet or a response to the microgravity environment.

The Expedition 13 crew also spent several hours practicing the use of a manual docking system for next week's arrival of the ISS Progress 21 cargo vehicle. The computer-based training will ensure they're ready to take control of the Progress if the automated system does not work properly. The 21st Progress to visit the station is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:03 p.m. EDT Monday, and dock with the space station at 1:40 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

A planned reboost of the station was aborted before any engines were fired this week when downlink telemetry showed one of two sunshade covers on the Zvezda Service Module thrusters was not fully open. The station's onboard software detected that the cover was not properly opened and did not ignite the thrusters. The firing was designed to test two thrusters that have not been used since Zvezda docked to the station in July 2000. Zvezda has several other thrusters that could be used if needed. Engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev are reviewing data and considering whether additional tests are required.

Friday the crew talked with experts in Mission Control, Houston, about an electrical repair procedure planned for Monday. The pair will replace a failed type of circuit breaker called a Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) in the Destiny Laboratory. The RPCM failed during the last crew's stay aboard the station, and power for several systems has been routed by an alternate path until it is replaced.

Vinogradov and Williams will remain in orbit for six months. During that time, they expect to welcome two space shuttles and perform two spacewalks. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter will join the Expedition 13 crew when the Space Shuttle Discovery arrives on the STS-121 mission, targeted for launch no earlier than July 1. Reiter will increase the station crew size to three for the first time since May 2003 when it was reduced to conserve supplies following the Columbia accident. The payload operations team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on the station.

The ISS Progress 21 cargo spacecraft was launched today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The new resupply ship lifted off at 12:03 p.m. EDT (10:03 p.m. Baikonur time). Less than 10 minutes later, the cargo ship reached orbit, and its solar arrays and navigational antennas were deployed for its two-day trip to the orbital outpost.

Two pre-programmed firings of the Progress' main engine are scheduled today to fine-tune the ship's path to the space station. Additional rendezvous maneuvers are planned Tuesday and Wednesday.

When the Progress launched, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams were flying 219 miles over the Earth off the northeast of Australia. This is their 26th day in space and their 24th day on the complex.

Carrying 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel, oxygen, air, spare parts and other supplies, the new Progress is scheduled to automatically dock to the aft port of the station's Zvezda Service Module at 1:40 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The older ISS Progress 20 supply ship, which arrived at the station just before Christmas, will remain at the Pirs Docking Compartment until mid-June. It will be used to stow trash, and its supply of oxygen will help replenish the station's atmosphere.

The ISS Progress 21 is filled with 2.5 tons of food, fuel and personal items for the station's Expedition 13 crew.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will open the hatch to the supply ship once leak checks are completed later today. The crew will begin unloading items Thursday.

Automatically guided by its computers, the Progress docked to the aft port of Zvezda at 1:41 p.m. EDT as the spacecraft and the station sailed 219 miles above Greece. The Progress was launched Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The supplies include food, fuel, oxygen and air, clothing, experiment hardware and spare parts, as well as personal items from the crew's families. The new Progress joins an older Progress supply ship that arrived at the station's Pirs Docking Compartment just before Christmas. Progress 20 will remain docked until mid-June. It will be used to stow trash, and its supply of oxygen will help replenish the station's atmosphere.

ISS Progress 21 holds 1,918 pounds of propellant for the Russian thrusters, 103 pounds of oxygen and air in tanks as a backup supply for the oxygen generated by the Russian Elektron system and 661 pounds of water to augment the supplies already on board. The spacecraft's cargo also includes more than 2,300 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and life support components.

The ISS Progress 21 cargo spacecraft, which launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, docked at the station Wednesday. The ship was the first supply shipment for Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams, who have been in space for almost a month.

The spacecraft brought fresh fruit and other foods, gifts from home, fuel, water, oxygen, spare parts and science gear. Two Progress cargo craft are now docked at the complex. Oxygen supplies from ISS Progress 20, which arrived in December, continue to be used to replenish the cabin air when required. The crew is loading that Progress with trash and unneeded equipment. The spacecraft will be jettisoned from the complex in mid-June.

Early in the week, Williams replaced a Remote Power Control Module, a type of circuit breaker, in the station's Destiny laboratory. The power control module had not been functioning for some time, and electricity for many lab systems had been delivered via an alternate path. To gain access to the worksite for replacement of the component, Williams had to disassemble and remove his sleeping compartment. Mission Control sequentially powered off many lab systems and lights to facilitate the replacement. Williams accomplished all the work ahead of schedule, and the new power control module has been functioning well.

Science activities aboard the station during the past week included work by Williams with the Capillary Flow Experiment, which is an investigation of fluid behavior in weightlessness that may assist in the design of future spacecraft. The crew members also completed urine collection and notes about their food consumption for an experiment studying the formation of kidney stones in weightlessness.

Vinogradov completed routine maintenance of the station's Elektron system. It was powered off much of the week and reactivated today. The Elektron provides oxygen for the cabin air from water.

Plans for next week include an engine firing to boost the station's altitude on Thursday, May 4; continued unloading of the newly arrived Progress vehicle; and periodic crew health checks.

Most of the week was focused around routine maintenance and inspections. Williams completed checks of the refrigerated centrifuge, updated the inventory system and took samples of potable water for routine testing. He also changed the cooling water used in the U.S. spacesuits to ensure that the pumps work and to prevent microbial growth in the water tanks.

Vinogradov did similar jobs in the station's Russian segment – completing an inspection of the pressure hull in the Zvezda living quarters, performing maintenance of the ventilation system in Zvezda and testing emergency vacuum valves in the Atmosphere Purification System.

On Wednesday, the crew updated onboard laptop computers. Williams began to install new software on the Medical Equipment Computer, but stopped to allow ground specialists to troubleshoot some difficulties he encountered. The problem was resolved and the task will be rescheduled for Williams. Vinogradov installed and tested new software on a Russian laptop.

Both crew members spent time packing unneeded gear inside the ISS Progress 20. The 20th Progress to visit the station is docked to the Pirs compartment and will be jettisoned from the complex in mid-June to burn up in the atmosphere. Russian flight controllers also fired the newer ISS Progress 21 cargo craft's engines for about six and a half minutes on Thursday to boost the station’s altitude by about 1.7 miles. The Progress 21 is docked at the aft docking port of the Zvezda module.

Williams kicked off the first Expedition 13 session of the Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation this week. It is an experiment that studies bubbling that occurs in weightlessness as liquids cool and turn into solids. It provides insight into how materials solidify in space and may benefit similar processes used in industry on Earth. The experiment is performed in the Microgravity Science Glovebox in the Destiny Lab.

The crew took time this week to reach out to more than 1,500 students, teachers and NASA personnel participating in a Space Day educational event at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The event was part of a larger program highlighting NASA Explorer Schools as well as a collaboration between NASA and America Online (AOL).

Williams also spoke to students in the Inuit community of Kuujjuaq, Canada, via HAM radio. More than 340 students attend the school, which is located 900 miles north of Montreal at the base of Ungava Bay.

Using the microgravity science glovebox, Williams began the second of three sessions Wednesday of the Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation experiment. This experiment studies bubbling that occurs in weightlessness as liquids cool and solidify.

Williams will begin his first Saturday Science activity this weekend with the Cellular Biotechnology Operations Support Systems Fluid Dynamics Investigation. This is a series of experiments to improve fluid mixing techniques and to control bubble distribution for cell culture in orbit.

On May 4, ISS Progress 21 engines were used to reboost the station. Afterward, an error message indicated the Zvezda Service Module computers couldn't command the Progress engines to reconfigure for normal operations. The reboost was not affected. Engineers have determined the most likely cause of the message was a software error, which will be corrected. Meanwhile, a procedural change will allow the Progress thrusters to be used. Vinogradov and Williams continued to unpack supplies from that cargo vehicle.

Last week, engineers detected a small reduction of nitrogen pressure in the liquids unit of the oxygen-generating Elektron. To isolate the source of the leak, Russian flight controllers asked Vinogradov to turn off the machine. They have identified the small leak and plan to operate the Elektron as needed. A spare liquids unit is onboard.

The Elektron will remain deactivated until after a June 1 spacewalk. Engineers originally had planned to turn it off next week to reconfigure ventilation lines and to install a new hydrogen vent before the extravehicular activity. Meanwhile, oxygen from tanks in the ISS Progress 20 cargo vehicle is being added to the station's cabin.

On Thursday, Williams practiced using the station's robotic arm. He and Vinogradov spoke Wednesday with reporters from the StarDate syndicated Radio Network and WISN-TV of Milwaukee.

During the spacewalk, the crew will repair and retrieve U.S. and Russian hardware.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Flight Engineer and Science Officer Jeff Williams gathered equipment for the spacewalk, charged batteries for the Russian Orlan suits they will wear and checked out systems in the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock. The spacewalk will be staged from Pirs.

This will be the 65th spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance and the 18th conducted from this airlock. This will be the sixth spacewalk in Vinogradov's career and the second for Williams.

The crew members will climb into their spacesuits next Tuesday to test their mobility and to handle tools they will use while conducting their work outside. Vinogradov and Williams shifted their wake and sleep cycles this week to match the hours they will work on June 1. They will enjoy some off-duty time this weekend before resuming spacewalk preparations on Monday, with final communications and systems checks on their suits.

During the spacewalk the crew will install a new hydrogen vent valve on the hull of the Zvezda Service Module to bypass a similar valve that is clogged. The vent valve is part of the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system that separates oxygen and hydrogen from water in the device's plumbing unit. The oxygen is then circulated into the cabin atmosphere while hydrogen is released overboard.

The spacewalkers will also recover a thruster residue collection device from Zvezda, retrieve a contamination monitoring device and a package of biology experiments and reposition a cable for a navigation antenna on the aft end of Zvezda to be used next year for the unpiloted rendezvous and docking of the new European Automated Transfer Vehicle.

Williams will also replace a camera on the station's Mobile Base System railcar that moves up and down the truss of the complex.

On the maintenance front, Vinogradov finished replacing a gas analyzer device for the Russian carbon dioxide removal system, known as Vozdukh. It had been operating at a slightly decreased rate in cleansing carbon dioxide from the cabin atmosphere. Russian specialists reactivated the system following the installation of the new gas analyzer. Vozdukh is now operating normally.

As part of the Crew Earth Observations experiment, Williams snapped the first shots of the Cleveland volcano erupting on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. From their perspective in orbit, astronauts have been the first to spot and confirm the volcanic eruptions on several occasions. This is the first early sighting of a new eruption in recent years.

On Tuesday, Williams discussed the progress of his mission with The Associated Press Television Network and conducted an amateur radio discussion with students at a school in Venice, Italy.

Williams began runs of an experiment, designated the Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions. The fluid physics experiment, last operated during Expedition 7, studies the behavior of fluids that change their properties when in a magnetic field. It obtains basic data on a new class of smart materials that can be used to improve or develop new brake systems, seat suspensions robotics, clutches, airplane landing gear and vibration damper systems.

Williams also continued checking the camera for the ground-commanded Binary Colloidal Alloy Test, or BCAT-3 activity. The EarthKAM camera and equipment is taking time-lapse photography once every hour of BCAT sample 3. BCAT-3 uses small particles called colloids to study fundamental physics. It gathers data that may provide insight into a wide range of applications, from the development of new pharmaceuticals to new rocket engines. NASA's payload operations team at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on the station.

During the spacewalk, the crew will repair and retrieve U.S. and Russian hardware.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Flight Engineer and Science Officer Jeff Williams gathered equipment for the spacewalk, charged batteries for the Russian Orlan suits they will wear and checked out systems in the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock. The spacewalk will be staged from Pirs.

This will be the 65th spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance and the 18th conducted from this airlock. This will be the sixth spacewalk in Vinogradov's career and the second for Williams.

The crew members will climb into their spacesuits next Tuesday to test their mobility and to handle tools they will use while conducting their work outside. Vinogradov and Williams shifted their wake and sleep cycles this week to match the hours they will work on June 1. They will enjoy some off-duty time this weekend before resuming spacewalk preparations on Monday, with final communications and systems checks on their suits.

During the spacewalk the crew will install a new hydrogen vent valve on the hull of the Zvezda Service Module to bypass a similar valve that is clogged. The vent valve is part of the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system that separates oxygen and hydrogen from water in the device's plumbing unit. The oxygen is then circulated into the cabin atmosphere while hydrogen is released overboard.

The spacewalkers will also recover a thruster residue collection device from Zvezda, retrieve a contamination monitoring device and a package of biology experiments and reposition a cable for a navigation antenna on the aft end of Zvezda to be used next year for the unpiloted rendezvous and docking of the new European Automated Transfer Vehicle.

Williams will also replace a camera on the station's Mobile Base System railcar that moves up and down the truss of the complex.

On the maintenance front, Vinogradov this week finished replacing a gas analyzer device for the Russian carbon dioxide removal system, known as Vozdukh. It had been operating at a slightly decreased rate in cleansing carbon dioxide from the cabin atmosphere. Russian specialists reactivated the system following the installation of the new gas analyzer. Vozdukh is now operating normally.

As part of the Crew Earth Observations experiment, Williams snapped the first shots of the Cleveland volcano erupting on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. From their perspective in orbit, astronauts have been the first to spot and confirm the volcanic eruptions on several occasions. This is the first early sighting of a new eruption in recent years.

On Tuesday, Williams discussed the progress of his mission with the Associated Press Television Network and conducted an amateur radio discussion with students at a school in Venice, Italy.

Williams began runs of an experiment, designated the Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions, or InSPACE. The fluid physics experiment, last operated during Expedition 7, studies the behavior of fluids that change their properties when in a magnetic field. InSPACE obtains basic data on a new class of smart materials that can be used to improve or develop new brake systems, seat suspensions robotics, clutches, airplane landing gear and vibration damper systems.

Williams also continued checking the camera for the ground-commanded Binary Colloidal Alloy Test, or BCAT-3 activity. The EarthKAM camera and equipment is taking time-lapse photography once every hour of BCAT sample 3. BCAT-3 uses small particles called colloids to study fundamental physics. It gathers data that may provide insight into a wide range of applications, from the development of new pharmaceuticals to new rocket engines. NASA's payload operations team at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on the station.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams had a busy weekend with closeout tasks and station configurations after the spacewalk last week. They finished the cleanup and stowage of the Orlan spacesuits and related tools.

The crew members enjoyed light duty days on Monday and Tuesday, resting up after the extended spacewalk and its follow up activities. They resumed a normal work and sleep schedule Wednesday. Another off-duty day for the crew is scheduled for Monday.

The crew attempted to reactivate the Russian Elektron oxygen-generating system this week following the replacement of its external hydrogen vent valve during the June 1 spacewalk. After several attempts, the Elektron began operating but failed about seven hours later. Vinogradov checked the vent lines associated with the refurbishment effort during the spacewalk and they appeared to be clear and operating normally.

Another attempt to restart Elektron earlier today proved unsuccessful, leading Russian specialists to believe that the problem is due to a failed power unit. A spare unit was located by Vinogradov and will be installed on Sunday. The crew members have at least a week of oxygen available in the cabin atmosphere before they would need to use supplies out of the ISS Progress 21 cargo ship tanks. The Elektron problem has had no impact on station operations and ample alternate supplies of oxygen are available.

This afternoon, the ISS Progress 21 thrusters were used to boost the station by a little less than one mile, placing the complex at the correct altitude for the launch and docking of the next cargo vehicle, ISS Progress 22.

That supply spacecraft is scheduled to launch June 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and will dock to the station on June 26 at the Pirs docking compartment port, which currently houses the older ISS Progress 20. It will be jettisoned on June 19 to make way for the new cargo vehicle.

Other work this week included some final spacewalk tool stowage tasks and the reconfiguration of the station's systems, including the communications system in the Russian Zvezda Service Module and the Pirs airlock.

The crew conducted a successful communications test with NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., and White Sands Test Facility, N.M., ground sites and performed routine emergency fire drill training. They also inspected portable breathing apparatus and fire extinguishers.

Williams participated in two amateur radio sessions, the first with the Salt Brook Elementary School in New Providence, N.J., and a second with the Scarlett Middle School, a 2004 NASA Explorer School in Ann Arbor, Mich. Both crew members participated in an in-flight interview with the Web site team associated with the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Williams, who also serves as the NASA's station science officer, ran a session of two colloid experiments: Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions or InSpace and Binary Colloidal Alloy Test or BCAT. Vinogradov worked with two Russian life science experiments -- URAGAN, which is a ground and space based system for predicting natural and manmade disasters, and DIATOMEA, an ocean observations program.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams had a busy weekend with closeout tasks and station configurations after the spacewalk last week. They finished the cleanup and stowage of the Orlan spacesuits and related tools.

The crewmembers enjoyed light duty days on Monday and Tuesday to rest after the extended spacewalk and its follow up activities, but resumed a normal work and sleep schedule Wednesday. Another off-duty day for the crew is scheduled Monday.

The crew attempted to reactivate the Russian Elektron oxygen-generating system this week following the replacement of its external hydrogen vent valve during the June 1 spacewalk. After several attempts, the Elektron began operating but failed about seven hours later. Vinogradov checked the vent lines associated with the refurbishment effort during the spacewalk and they appeared to be clear and operating normally.

But another attempt to restart Elektron earlier today proved unsuccessful, leading Russian specialists to believe that the problem is due to a failed power unit. A spare was located by Vinogradov and will be installed on Sunday for another attempt to bring the system back on line. The crew has at least a week of oxygen available in the cabin atmosphere before it would need to use supplies out of the Progress 21 cargo ship tanks. The Elektron problem has had no impact on station operations and ample alternate supplies of oxygen are available.

This afternoon, the ISS Progress 21 thrusters were used to reboost the station by a little less than one mile, placing the complex at the correct altitude for the launch and docking of the new ISS Progress 22 cargo vehicle. Progress 22 is scheduled to launch June 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and will dock to the station on June 26 at the Pirs Docking Compartment port.

That docking port currently houses the older Progress 20 resupply ship, which will be jettisoned on June 19 to make way for the new cargo vehicle.

Other work this week included some final spacewalk tool stowage tasks and the reconfiguration of the station’s systems, including the communications system in the Russian Zvezda Service Module and the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock.

The crew conducted a successful communications test with the Dryden Flight Research Center and White Sands Test Facility ground sites and performed routine emergency fire drill training. They also inspected portable breathing apparatus and fire extinguishers.

Williams participated in two amateur radio sessions, the first with the Salt Brook Elementary School in New Providence, N.J., and a second with the Scarlett Middle School, a 2004 NASA Explorer School in Ann Arbor, Mich. Both crewmembers participated in an in-flight interview with the website team associated with the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Williams who serves as the station’s science officer, ran a session of two colloid experiments – InSpace (Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions) and BCAT (Binary Colloidal Alloy Test). Vinogradov worked with two Russian life science experiments - URAGAN, which is a ground and space based system for predicting natural and manmade disasters, and DIATOMEA, an ocean observations program.

The crew also continued to prepare for the arrival of the Space Shuttle Discovery, which is set for launch July 1.

On Monday, Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams watched as the ISS Progress 20 cargo vehicle automatically backed away from the station's Pirs docking port, making room for the next one's arrival. The new Progress is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:08 a.m. EDT June 24 and dock to the station at about 12:30 p.m. EDT June 26. It will bring about 2.5 tons of equipment and supplies to the orbiting outpost.

Vinogradov took a refresher course on the Toru manual docking system Monday. Vinogradov would use the system to guide the cargo craft in the event its primary automated docking system did not function properly.

Throughout the week the station crew also prepared for Discovery's anticipated arrival. On Tuesday, Vinogradov and Williams reviewed the timeline of activities for the shuttle mission and held a conference with mission experts on the ground. On Friday, the crew continued to prepare U.S. spacesuits that will be used during the shuttle visit.

They also continued to pack equipment that will be returned to Earth on Discovery. On Wednesday, Williams installed the centerline berthing camera system in a window of the station's Unity connecting module. The camera view will assist with the attachment of a pressurized logistics module named Leonardo, which will be carried aboard Discovery to that module's port. The Leonardo module will be attached to Unity for unloading and reloading during the mission. It will be loaded in Discovery's cargo bay for the trip home.

Also on Wednesday, Vinogradov worked with the Russian experiment that studies self-propagating combustion materials. The investigation looks at mechanisms for forming high-porosity, heat-resistant, thermal insulating materials for spacecraft.

Williams spent more than three hours Thursday on station robotic arm activities, first training with a simulation program on a laptop computer and then exercising the arm itself. Supported by flight controllers on the ground, he moved the Canadarm2 in much the same way he will during Discovery's visit. He left it parked in position for Discovery's arrival.

While Williams worked with the robotic arm, flight controllers noted elevated spin motor command currents and vibrations on one of the station's four control moment gyroscopes, "CMG 3." The indications returned to normal several hours later, and the gyroscope has continued to perform normally.

Filled with 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station's Expedition 13 crew, the ISS Progress 22 automatically docked at 12:25 p.m. EDT as the spacecraft and the station sailed 220 miles above northern Africa. The 22nd Progress to visit the station was launched Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will open the hatch to the supply ship once leak checks are completed later Monday. The crew will begin unloading items Tuesday.

The supplies include oxygen and air, clothing, experiment hardware and spare parts, as well as personal items from the crew's families. The new Progress joins an older Progress supply ship that arrived at the station's Zvezda Service Module in April. Progress 21 will remain docked until mid-September. It will be used to stow trash, and its supply of oxygen will help replenish the station's atmosphere when required.

ISS Progress 22 holds 1,918 pounds of propellant for the Russian thrusters, 108 pounds of oxygen and air as a backup supply for the oxygen generated by the Russian Elektron system and 264 pounds of water to augment onboard supplies. The new cargo also includes 2,800 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and life support components.

The experiment hardware includes items that will be used by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter once he arrives via the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission. This flight will return the station to three crew members for the first time since 2003.

The new resupply ship, the 22nd Progress to visit the station, lifted off at 10:08 a.m. CDT (9:08 p.m. Baikonur time). Less than 10 minutes later, the cargo ship reached orbit, and its solar arrays and navigational antennas were deployed for the two-day trip to the orbital outpost.

Two pre-programmed firings of the Progress’ main engine are scheduled Saturday to fine-tune the ship’s path to the space station. Additional rendezvous maneuvers are planned Sunday and Monday.

When the Progress launched, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams were flying 220 miles over the Earth off the west coast of Chile. Saturday was their 106th day in space and their 104th day on the station.

Carrying 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel, oxygen, air, spare parts and other supplies, the Progress is scheduled to automatically dock to the Pirs Docking Compartment at 11:27 a.m. CDT Monday.

The ISS Progress 20 supply ship that arrived at the station just before Christmas was undocked and deorbited last Monday and burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere. The ISS Progress 21 craft, which arrived in April, remains docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. That Progress will be used to stow trash and supply oxygen to replenish the station's atmosphere when required. The spacecraft won’t be discarded until mid-September.

Filled with 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station's Expedition 13 crew, the ISS Progress 22 automatically docked to the Pirs airlock at 11:25 a.m. CDT as the spacecraft and the station sailed 220 miles above northern Africa. The 22nd Progress to visit the station was launched Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will open the hatch to the supply ship once leak checks are completed later Monday. The crew will begin unloading items Tuesday.

The supplies include food, fuel, oxygen and air, clothing, experiment hardware and spare parts, as well as personal items from the crew's families. The new Progress joins an older Progress supply ship that arrived at the station’s Zvezda Service Module in April. Progress 21 will remain docked until mid-September. It will be used to stow trash, and its supply of oxygen will help replenish the station’s atmosphere when required.

ISS Progress 22 holds 1,918 pounds of propellant for the Russian thrusters, 108 pounds of oxygen and air as a backup supply for the oxygen generated by the Russian Elektron system and 264 pounds of water to augment onboard supplies. The new cargo also includes 2,800 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and life support components.

The experiment hardware includes items that will be used by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter once he arrives via the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission. This flight will return the station to three crew members for the first time since 2003.

Discovery’s launch is scheduled for 3:49 p.m. EDT Saturday. Discovery's STS-121 mission will return the station to three crew members for the first time since 2003, when European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter joins crew members Jeff Williams, flight engineer and Pavel Vinogradov, commander. To get ready for upcoming STS-121 spacewalks, the crew flushed cooling loops in the Quest airlock and U.S. spacesuits, configured airlock systems and tools, and reviewed robotic arm procedures. They checked out a ship-to-ship communications system that will be used for conversations with Discovery's crew during rendezvous and disconnected the station’s Common Cabin Air Assembly heat exchanger. That device will be returned to Earth aboard Discovery along with other equipment in the Italian-built Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module. Discovery will bring about 5,000 pounds of supplies to the station carried aboard the logistics module.

The crew also completed a mid-mission session of the renal stone experiment by collecting urine samples and logging all of the food and drinks consumed over a three-day period. Each crewmember is taking either potassium citrate, a drug found to be useful in preventing kidney stone formation on Earth, or a placebo. Crews in space are at risk for kidney stones linked to their loss of bone density.

ISS Progress 22, the unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft, brought 2.5 tons of fresh produce, other foodstuffs, food, fuel and supplies to the station June 26. After the cargo ship was fully connected with station systems, flight controllers in Moscow completed a routine thruster test and Vinogradov removed its Kurs automated rendezvous hardware.

The first human spacecraft to launch on an Independence Day holiday, Discovery has begun a journey to resupply and service the International Space Station. Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut, lifted off at 1:38 p.m. CDT. The launch followed a flawless countdown.

During the next 12 days, Discovery’s crew will demonstrate techniques for inspecting and protecting the shuttle’s thermal protection system, restore the station to a three-person crew for the first time since May 2003, and replace critical hardware needed for future station assembly. The crew is planned to conduct two spacewalks during the mission. If supplies allow, managers may extend Discovery's flight by an additional day, a day that will be used by the crew to conduct a third spacewalk.

A system of new and upgraded ground-based cameras, radar and airborne cameras aboard high altitude aircraft documented Discovery's launch. That imagery, along with data to be gathered from in-flight inspections, will be used to ensure Discovery's heat shield is in good condition. The in-flight inspections will be performed by the crew using the shuttle's robotic arm, an extension boom and laser system as well as photography to be taken from the station of a back flip the shuttle will perform as it approaches for docking.

Moments after main engine cutoff, less than nine minutes after liftoff, Fossum and Wilson used handheld video and digital still cameras to document the external tank after it separated from the shuttle. That imagery, as well as imagery gathered by cameras in the shuttle’s umbilical well where the tank was connected, will be transmitted to the ground for review.

As Discovery lifted off, the International Space Station was 220 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean, south of Tasmania. Aboard the outpost, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams watched the launch via a television transmission from Mission Control. Discovery is set to dock to the complex at about 9:51 a.m. CDT July 6.

The shuttle crew will test Discovery’s robot arm tomorrow and then use it to grasp a 50-foot long boom extension, called the Orbiter Boom Sensor System. That boom holds the laser system and TV cameras they will use to inspect the shuttle’s wings and heat shield.

During the two spacewalks, Sellers and Fossum will test the capability of the boom extension to be used as a work platform from which repairs could be performed to the shuttle heat shield. They also will repair a cable system on the station’s rail car, a system that will be a base for the station's robotic arm for future assembly work. If the mission is extended by a day, the third spacewalk will be used to test techniques under development for repair of the reinforced carbon-carbon that makes up the heat shield on the shuttle wing edges.

Carried inside the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module in Discovery’s cargo bay and elsewhere on the shuttle, about 14 tons of hardware and supplies is on its way to the space station. Discovery's crew begins an eight-hour sleep period at 7:38 p.m. CDT. The astronauts will awaken at 3:38 a.m. CDT Wednesday to begin their first full day in orbit.

Today the crew will focus on thermal protection system inspections, preparing for docking to the International Space Station and getting spacesuits ready for two and perhaps three spacewalks.

Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter got their wakeup call at 4:08 a.m. CDT, allowing them an extra 30 minutes of sleep after their first day in space ran long. The wakeup song was “Lift Every Voice and Sing” performed by the New Galveston Chorale.

Four crewmembers will spend much of the day looking for damage to Discovery's thermal protection system. Lindsey, Kelly, Fossum and Nowak will use the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), a 50-foot boom on the end of the shuttle's robotic Canadarm, to look at the wings' leading edges and the nose cap.

The task involves about 6˝ hours of intense work for the crew members. Actual data takes will total about an hour, 20 minutes for each wing and the nose cap. The rest of that time is devoted to very careful movement of the Canadarm and the OBSS.

Later, after lunch, Nowak and Wilson will return the OBSS to its berth on the starboard sill of Discovery's cargo bay. Then they and Fossum will use cameras on the shuttle arm to photograph the outside of Discovery's cabin. That activity should take about an hour.

Wilson also will take digital hand-held camera photos of the orbital maneuvering system pods at the base of the shuttle's vertical tail fin.

Photos and sensor readings from the shuttle, as well as photos of launch and ascent from more than 100 ground-based and airborne cameras and radar and instrument data, will be reviewed by experts on the ground. The data, photos by the station crew and information from subsequent arm surveys at the station and after undocking, will be used to determine if Discovery sustained damage during launch and ascent or in space, to ensure that it is safe for the shuttle to re-enter the atmosphere to land.

In other activities today, Wilson and Reiter will get items on the middeck ready for transfer to the station. Spacewalkers Fossum and Sellers, helped by Kelly, the intravehicular officer who will coach the spacewalkers, will check out spacesuits.

Nowak and Sellers will extend the shuttle docking ring which will help secure Discovery to the station. Just before the shuttle crew goes to bed, Kelly and Sellers will check out and prepare docking tools, including laptop computers.

At 3:30 a.m., Discovery was trailing the station by 9,573 statute miles and closing at a rate of 870 statute miles per orbit. Docking is scheduled for 9:52 a.m. Thursday.

Today the space station crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, will continue to prepare the orbiting laboratory for Discovery's arrival. They will ready the digital cameras with 400mm and 800mm lenses they will use during Discovery’s approach to take high-resolution photos of the shuttle's heat shield. They also will pressurize the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at the end of the U.S. laboratory Destiny, where Discovery is scheduled to dock.

The several hours of inspection began just after 6:00 a.m. when Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson verified proper operation of the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm, then maneuvered it to lift the 50-foot-long OBSS from the starboard sill of the payload bay.

Assisted by Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Mike Fossum, Nowak and Wilson began a slow and steady examination of the reinforced carbon-carbon panels along the leading edge of Discovery’s starboard wing just before 8:30 a.m., looking for any evidence of damage.

The inspection using the Laser Dynamic Range Imager, Laser Camera System, and Intensified Television Camera on the end of the boom continued across the shuttle’s nose cap and port wing. After returning the OBSS to its berth, Nowak, Wilson and Fossum spent an hour using the cameras on the shuttle robot arm to scan the outside of the crew cabin.

While the survey proceeded, Mission Specialist Piers Sellers completed the setup of on board computers and cameras and Mission Specialist Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency prepared Discovery’s middeck for the planned transfer of supplies onto the International Space Station. The first item to be transferred after docking, scheduled for 9:52 a.m. Thursday, is Reiter’s customized seat liner for the Soyuz vehicle; that will make him an official member of the station’s Expedition 13 crew, and the first ISS crewmember who is neither an American nor a Russian.

Sellers and Fossum, who also installed the centerline camera in Discovery’s docking mechanism, completed a checkout of the spacesuits they will wear during scheduled spacewalks on Flight Days 5 and 7. The EVAs will evaluate the combination of ISS robot arm and OBSS as a work platform for astronauts repairing a damaged shuttle orbiter and restore the station’s Mobile Transporter to full operation to support continued station assembly.

On board ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams prepared the digital cameras with 400mm and 800mm lenses they will use to take high-resolution photos of the shuttle's heat shield when it flies a nose over tail somersault at a range of 600 feet below the station. They also prepared Pressurized Mating Adapter 2, at the forward end of the U.S. laboratory Destiny, where Discovery will dock tomorrow morning.

The astronauts on Discovery were scheduled to be awakened at 2:38 a.m. CDT Thursday to being final preparations for the docking with the ISS.

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany was delivered as the newest member of ISS Expedition 13 just hours after Space Shuttle Discovery docked at the station’s Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 at 9:52 a.m. CDT, as the two ships flew above the south Pacific Ocean south of Pitcairn Island.

Commander Steve Lindsey piloted Discovery’s approach to ISS, halting 600 feet directly below the station to perform the rendezvous pitch maneuver: the shuttle was commanded to do a nose-over-tail somersault so ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams could photograph the thermal protection system tiles on the orbiter’s underside. Imagery experts on the ground will study the high-resolution still pictures for evidence of any damage to the insulating tiles.

Lindsey and his crew—Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Reiter—greeted the station crewmembers when the hatches between the vehicles were opened at 11:30 a.m. CDT.

After Vinogradov’s safety briefing for the shuttle crew, he helped Reiter install his customized Soyuz seat liner into the Russian rescue vehicle and check his pressurized Sokol suit, finalizing Reiter’s transfer from Discovery to ISS. Other first-day transfers from Discovery included the spacesuits that Sellers and Fossum will wear on their spacewalks out of the Quest airlock on Flight Days 5 and 7.

In preparation for the first EVA, Nowak, Wilson and Williams lifted the Orbiter Boom Sensor System with the station’s robotic arm and handed it over to the shuttle’s robotic arm. During the first spacewalk Sellers and Fossum will simulate orbiter repair tasks while attached to the OBSS/shuttle arm combination to test that 100-foot-long construction crane as a work platform.

On the second spacewalk the astronauts will deliver a spare Pump Module to an external stowage platform before replacing a damaged power and data cable reel assembly in the station’s truss. The repair will allow the Mobile Transporter to move along the truss during installation of new truss segments on future shuttle assembly missions.

It will mark the first time since May 2003 that more than two long-duration crew members have called the orbiting laboratory home.

Discovery, with Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and Thomas Reiter aboard, is scheduled to dock with the station at 9:52 a.m. CDT.

Shortly after the welcome by station Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and a mandatory safety briefing, Reiter will transfer his seat liner to the Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station, making him an official station crewmember. Reiter is a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany, flying under a contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency.

During Discovery’s approach to the station, Lindsey will pilot the shuttle on what amounts to a back flip, called the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. At about 600 feet below the station, the flip will give Vinogradov and Williams a chance to photograph the thermal protection tiles on the bottom of Discovery. Using digital cameras with 400mm and 800mm lenses, they will take a carefully planned series of photos of the shuttle's underside.

The images will be downlinked for study by experts on the ground, starting with the more detailed images from the 800mm lens. More 800mm photos will be taken than during Discovery's approach during STS-114. One increased photo emphasis will be looking for protruding gap fillers, like those removed by STS-114 spacewalker Steve Robinson last year.

These photos and other data, including images from more than 100 cameras on the ground, in aircraft and on the shuttle, as well as data from the shuttle arm and the Orbital Boom Sensor System (OBSS) attached to it, will be used, along with data from subsequent surveys, to make sure that Discovery sustained no major damage on launch, ascent and in orbit.

About three hours after docking, both crews get to work with more robotic operations to prepare for additional surveys. Nowak, Wilson and Williams will operate the space station robotic arm, Canadarm2, from inside the Destiny Lab.

They will use the arm to lift the OBSS from Discovery's payload bay sill and hand it over to the shuttle arm, operated by Lindsey and Fossum. Clearance restraints around the shuttle’s docking mechanism do not allow the shuttle arm to grapple the boom on its own.

Transfer of cargo from the shuttle's middeck including spacesuits will begin shortly after docking. At least two spacewalks are scheduled, one on Saturday and another on Monday. A third may be done if the mission is extended a day.

Discovery’s crew was awakened at 2:38 a.m. Thursday by "Daniel," performed by Elton John and dedicated to Reiter. The station crew was awakened at the same time by its standard wakeup tone.

The first task of the day will be the relocation of the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) from the shuttle payload bay onto the station’s Unity Module. Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will use the station robotic arm, Canadarm2, to maneuver the module, with help from pilot Mark Kelly.

Once successfully mated to its temporary position on the station, shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and new Expedition 13 Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter will conduct leak checks and enter the pressurized cargo container. Wilson will lead the transfer activities, which are scheduled to continue until next Thursday.

Later, using the shuttle robotic arm and boom system, Kelly, Nowak and Wilson will conduct additional inspections of the orbiter’s thermal protection system. They will target a few specific areas on the shuttle’s nose cap that were missed on the initial scans, as well as two gap fillers that appear to be protruding from Discovery’s underside. They also intend to get a closer look at a piece of fabric near the shuttle nose.

Fossum and Sellers will make preparations for Saturday’s planned spacewalk. They will configure tools and the U.S. airlock Quest for the spacewalk. They will repair the station's mobile transporter and test the capability of the robotic arm boom extension to carry spacewalkers. The results of that test will help engineers understand the feasibility of using the arm for thermal system inspections and repairs if needed on later flights.

The crew has time set aside at the end of the day for a review of the spacewalk procedures.

The newly augmented space station crew, including Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and Commander Pavel Vinogradov, will work closely with the shuttle crew, assisting with transfer activities and robotic arm operations.

Some crewmembers will talk with journalists. Lindsey and Kelly will chat in the morning with radio reporters from CBS, Fox, ABC and National Public Radio. Toward the end of the day, the Expedition crew will speak with CNN, CBS News and the Associated Press.

The space shuttle crew awoke at 2:14 a.m. CDT by the Beatles’ "Good Day Sunshine" dedicated to first time spaceflyer Lisa Nowak. The Expedition 13 crew awoke 30 minutes later with their standard wake up tone.

Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum turned their spacesuits to battery power to officially start the spacewalk at 8:17 a.m. CDT. After they configured their tools and safety tethers, they moved to the S0 Truss and installed a blade blocker in the zenith Interface Umbilical Assembly to protect the undamaged power, data and video cable. Then they rerouted that cable through the IUA so the Mobile Transporter rail car could be moved into position on the truss for replacement of the Trailing Umbilical System containing the severed power and data cable during a spacewalk Monday.

The remainder of today’s spacewalk was devoted to testing the combination of space shuttle robotic arm and Orbiter Boom Sensor System as a platform for spacewalking astronauts to make repairs to a damaged orbiter. Sellers got into a foot restraint on the OBSS, almost 100 feet from where the shuttle arm is attached to the payload bay sill, and performed a set of motions designed to see how the arm/OBSS handled the forces generated by those movements; Fossum stood nearby and reported his observations of the arm/OBSS’ movements.

Then Fossum joined Sellers on the end of the OBSS for another round of demonstrations, with measurements again taken by a load cell mounted under the foot restraint. For the last measurement the arm maneuvered Fossum into position so he could push against the end of the P1 Truss.

Sellers, wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, and Fossum, wearing the white spacesuit, re-entered the station and started pressurizing the airlock at 3:48 p.m., concluding the first of three spacewalks planned for the mission. Today’s EVA was the fourth of Sellers’ career, and the first for Fossum.

Pilot Mark Kelly served as intravehicular crewmember, keeping the spacewalkers on time and relaying information from Mission Control in Houston, while Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson and Expedition 13 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams operated the shuttle robot arm and Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey monitored their activities while transferring water onto ISS.

During the EVA ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter unloaded cargo from the Multipurpose Logistics Module. Today’s transfers included a new oxygen generator, to be installed in the Destiny laboratory in the coming months, and a Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS, which will provide low temperature storage for lab supplies and for experiment samples awaiting return to Earth.

Delivery of cargo from the MPLM onto ISS will be the centerpiece of activity on orbit Sunday, and the second of two spacewalks will take place Monday morning at 7:13 a.m. CDT.

Also Saturday, Mission Managers reported clearing for entry all but one area of the orbiter’s thermal protection system that engineers had been looking at closely. The remaining area, a protruding gap filler near the external tank umbilical doors, needs further analysis, according to Steve Poulos, Orbiter Project Office Manager. The outlook was favorable for clearing that area, as well, Poulos said, but image analysts will be working through the night Saturday to finish looking at it.

Overall, the spacecraft thermal protection system had relatively few “dings” and Chairman of the Mission Management Team John Shannon said that Discovery was by far the "cleanest" in terms of damage to the heat shield.

Spacewalkers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum have two major tasks. First they will work to ensure that the second power and data cable linking the mobile transporter to the rest of the station is spared the fate of the mobile transporter's other trailing umbilical system cable. It was inadvertently severed by its safety cutter last December. The second activity is to test the capability of the shuttle's robotic arm and its 50-foot extension to act as a platform for spacewalkers making repairs.

Expedition 12 crewmembers tried to install a safety bolt to protect the remaining cable. They were unable to insert the bolt, so they removed the cable from the emergency cutter.

Sellers and Fossum will install a device to block the cutter blade. If that doesn't work, they'll install a new unit, called an interface umbilical assembly, this one without a blade. Once they reinstall the cable, the mobile transporter will again be able to move the station's robotic arm along the rails on the station's main truss. The arm is scheduled to be moved during the Monday spacewalk.

For the test of the arm as a repair platform, Sellers will work on the end of the 50- foot extension, called the orbital boom sensor system. Then both spacewalkers will simulate working motions at the end of the extension. That will be done in at least three arm positions.

Sellers will be the lead spacewalker and wear the spacesuit with red stripes. He did three spacewalks in October 2002 during the STS-112 mission of Atlantis to the station. On that mission he helped install the station's starboard one (S1) truss.

Fossum will wear the all-white spacesuit. He is making his first spaceflight. Discovery Pilot Mark Kelly will serve as the intravehicular officer, coaching and helping the spacewalkers from inside the station-shuttle complex.

Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson will operate the robotic arms during all three of the mission's spacewalks. They will maneuver the shuttle's Canadarm with its extension during the first, scheduled to begin at 8:13 a.m. CDT Saturday. They will use the station's Canadarm2 during the second spacewalk on Monday and the third on Wednesday.

Expedition 13 Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey also will help out during the spacewalk.

Meanwhile Thomas Reiter, the European Space Agency astronaut from Germany who became part of the Expedition 13 crew shortly after docking, will work with station commander Pavel Vinogradov to transfer cargo and equipment from the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module.

In staggered wake ups, the shuttle crew arose at 2:08 a.m. CDT to the sound of "God of Wonders" by Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong. The music was selected for Fossum by his family. The station crew was awakened about 30 minutes later.

The astronauts also made preparations for the second spacewalk during joint docked operations, scheduled for Monday morning.

Leonardo, the Multipurpose Logistics Module that rode to orbit in the shuttle payload bay, launched with more than 7,400 pounds of new space station equipment and crew supplies. Today’s operations included transfer of a new heat exchanger for the Common Cabin Air Assembly, a component of the ISS environmental control system which collects condensate out of the air, and a spare U.S. spacewalk suit and emergency jet pack.

As they deliver the module’s contents onto the station, the astronauts are also refilling Leonardo with almost 4,400 pounds of material no longer needed on the station. That includes experiment samples, trash, and broken equipment.

For several hours today Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum refreshed the systems of their spacesuits and prepared tools and equipment for tomorrow’s EVA. During that planned six and a half hour excursion, scheduled to begin at 7:13 a.m. CDT, they will deliver a spare cooling system Pump Module to a stowage platform and replace the Trailing Umbilical System on the nadir side of the S0 Truss. That replacement will give the station’s Mobile Transporter rail car a redundant pair of power, data and video cables so it can translate along the truss in support of future station assembly tasks.

Earlier today, Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Fossum and Sellers joined Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter to answer questions about their missions from reporters at NASA centers and at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany.

Late today John Shannon, the deputy shuttle program manager and chairman of the STS-121 Mission Management Team, reported that mission managers cleared Discovery for its return to Earth, declaring that the shuttle’s heat shield was free from any damage. The crew will conduct another inspection later in the mission looking for any other evidence of damage done by orbital debris prior to landing.

Discovery’s crew began its sleep period just after 5 p.m. CDT and will be awakened at 1:08 a.m. CDT Monday to begin the seventh day of the flight.

Spacewalkers Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum exited the Quest module’s airlock at 7:14 a.m. and climbed down into the shuttle payload bay, where they lifted the Pump Module from its stowage platform so Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson could grapple it with the station’s 58-foot-long robotic arm. While the arm moved the module to its destination, Sellers and Fossum moved to the S0 Truss segment to begin work on the primary task of the EVA, replacement of the nadir-side Trailing Umbilical System (TUS).

A TUS contains a power, data and video cable that serves the Mobile Transporter as it moves along the station’s truss; the nadir TUS cable was inadvertently severed late last year and required replacement. As the first step in that process Sellers replaced the Interface Umbilical Assembly - the component containing the cutter - with a new IUA, one without a blade.

By that time, Canadarm2 reached External Stowage Platform 2 on the forward side of Quest with the Pump Module; Sellers and Fossum moved to the platform to receive the module from the arm, secured it to the storage platform, and returned to the TUS work site.

The spacewalkers removed the damaged TUS from within the S0 Truss, and Fossum carried it to the payload bay while riding the station arm. When he arrived, Sellers removed the new TUS from the payload bay platform, and the two swapped cable reels. Sellers stowed the old TUS on the cross-bay carrier while the arm moved Fossum back to the truss work site, where Sellers rejoined his crewmate to complete installation of the TUS and properly route its power, data and video cable through the IUA.

At two points during the spacewalk Fossum paused to take care of a loose connection of the emergency jet thruster backpack on Sellers’ spacesuit, securing it the first time with a safety tether.

The spacewalkers closed the hatch and began to repressurize Quest to end the spacewalk at 2:01 p.m. to conclude a six-hour, 47-minute excursion; the combined time spent spacewalking on two EVAs on this mission so far is 14 hours, 18 minutes. A third spacewalk, devoted to testing potential repair techniques and materials, is scheduled for Wednesday.

During the spacewalk Pilot Mark Kelly oversaw the timeline for the spacewalkers while Commander Steve Lindsey managed the cameras and transferred two containers of water onto ISS. Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter continued to work on delivery and stowage of equipment and supplies from the Multipurpose Logistics Module.

The shuttle crew was awakened at 1:08 a.m. CDT by "Clocks," performed by Coldplay. It was requested by Sellers' family for the day of the second spacewalk.

The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 7:13 a.m. and expected to last nearly seven hours. First, Fossum and Sellers will make their way to the shuttle’s payload bay to a spare pump module for the station’s thermal control system. Once there, they will attach it to the fixed grapple bar which will allow Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson, inside at the controls of the robotic arm, to maneuver the pump to the external stowage platform.

While the module is being moved, Fossum and Sellers will stay in the payload bay and get ready for their next task, replacement of a trailing umbilical system (TUS) reel assembly, this one on the nadir side of the mobile transporter.

After they reconfigure the payload bay for the activity, they’ll then translate to the starboard zero truss segment, to get it ready for retrieval. Fossum will disconnect electrical cables while Sellers changes out the assembly. Once it is ready, they will leave that site to go to the stowage platform and assist with the detaching and installation of the pump into its permanent storage location. That pump is onboard as a spare should it be needed in the future.

The two spacewalkers will then return to the truss and remove the TUS reel assembly. Fossum, on the end of the robotic arm, will take the reel assembly to the payload bay. Sellers will move there on his own, and set up for the swap of that assembly with a new one. After the swap is complete, the two will go back to the worksite to install the new reel assembly, reroute the power and data cable and thus restoring the desired redundancy to the mobile transporter and enabling it again to be used for continued station assembly tasks.

Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Mark Kelly will support the spacewalk with Lindsey monitoring the vehicle systems and video/television set ups and Kelly overseeing activities and coaching the spacewalkers.

The Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter, will be working steadily throughout the day transferring trash and unneeded equipment and supplies for return to Earth in the multipurpose logistics module Leonardo. More than 4,300 pounds of cargo will be packed for the return to Earth.

More than 4,300 pounds of experiment results, unneeded hardware and trash is scheduled to be loaded onto the pressurized cargo module for return to Earth in Discovery's cargo bay next week. Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson serves as the loadmaster for the extensive transfer activity.

All nine shuttle and station crew members will help gather and stow the return cargo in Leonardo. It brought more than 7,000 pounds of clothing, food and other supplies for the station.

Throughout the day, Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will also have spacewalk preparation tasks. They’ll recharge the spacesuits, gather and organize needed tools, and configure the airlock.

Before the day’s end, they’ll be joined by Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, and fellow Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson for a review of the spacewalk procedures.

Kelly, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson and Sellers will talk with representatives from the Associated Press and USA Today. That 20-minute chat is scheduled to begin at 7:18 a.m. CDT.

The shuttle crew was awakened at 1:08 a.m. by "All Star," performed by Smashmouth. It was for Nowak, requested by her family.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter were awakened 30 minutes later, at 1:38 a.m.

Additional time was set aside today for procedural review for the third spacewalk planned to begin at 6:13 a.m. CDT Wednesday.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov along with Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter spent most of the day loading items no longer needed on the station into the Multipurpose Logistics Module docked to the station’s Unity module. Before being returned to Discovery’s payload bay on Friday, the Italian-built Leonardo will be filled with almost 4,400 pounds of experiment samples, unneeded hardware and trash.

Included in the more than 7,400 pounds of supplies delivered to the station was a new window and window seals for the Microgravity Science Glovebox, a European Space Agency-developed enclosed workspace for science experiments involving fluids, flames, particles or fumes. Reiter, the ESA astronaut who joined the station crew last week, installed the new window and window seals today. Additional work will be needed after the shuttle departs before the MSG can resume operation.

Discovery Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum, who already have spent 14 hours and 18 minutes outside the Discovery/ISS complex on two spacewalks, devoted much of the day to preparing their spacesuits and tools for the mission’s third Extravehicular Activity. The planned 6-˝ hour spacewalk is devoted to testing a non-oxide adhesive as a repair material for the reinforced carbon carbon panels that line a shuttle’s leading edge, and the use of an infrared camera to detect unseen damage to RCC.

At 7:18 this morning the spacewalkers joined Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson to talk about the progress of their flight in interviews with the Associated Press and USA Today.

Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers will test techniques to inspect and repair damage to an orbiter's heat shield. The 6.5-hour spacewalk from the Quest airlock is scheduled to start at 6:13 a.m. CDT.

Sellers and Fossum will set up tools and a foot restraint on the station robotic arm. Sellers will position himself on the arm, operated by Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson. He will use an infrared camera to record about 20 seconds of imagery as the arm, and Sellers, move along the shuttle’s wing leading edge.

Sellers, designated EV1 and wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, will meet EV2 Fossum, in the all-white suit, in Discovery’s payload bay. There they will set up the worksite for the repair tasks. A pallet with 12 reinforced carbon-carbon panels is pre-positioned in the payload bay. Eight are pre-damaged and will be the subject of the repair test. Two are blank, to be used as a work palette, and the last two are for further imaging by the infrared camera.

Sellers and Fossum will use a variety of tools and methods for the repair work demonstration including a space-certified caulk gun and a variety of spatulas to manipulate the test materials.

They hope to finish demonstrations on at least two of those samples. Then they’ll do a 60-second recording using the IR camera of two other damaged tiles. The camera is designed to capture temperature gradients that will indicate invisible damage.

If they have time, they may take additional photos of some shuttle panels and move the fixed grapple bar in the shuttle payload bay.

The spacewalkers will clean up the worksite and inspect their spacesuits. Then Fossum will ride the robotic arm back to the airlock, again taking video of the wing leading edge as he passes it. Sellers will make his own way back.

Pilot Mark Kelly will again serve as the intravehicular activities officer. Commander Steve Lindsey will oversee the shuttle systems and spacewalk operations.

While the shuttle crew is helping with the spacewalk, repacking of the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo will continue. The Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter, will put experiment results, unneeded equipment and garbage into Leonardo.

The STS-121 crew woke this morning at 12:08 a.m. to "I Believe I Can Fly," played for Wilson. The Expedition 13 crew was awakened 30 minutes later.

Mission Specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum began the spacewalk at 6:20 a.m. CDT and prepared a foot restraint on the end of the International Space Station’s Canadarm2. Sellers rode the arm, commanded by Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson, to the starboard wing of Discovery where he used an infrared camera to shoot 20 seconds of video of selected reinforced carbon carbon panels on the wing’s leading edge. Infrared imagery may aid in identifying damage on the inside of those panels.

Fossum translated to the aft of Discovery’s payload bay to join Sellers and help prepare a box containing 12 RCC sample panels for the EVA’s primary task of testing a repair material known as NOAX. Non-oxide adhesive experimental is a pre-ceramic polymer sealant containing carbon-silicon carbide powder, and is being evaluated for repairing damage to RCC panels.

Data gathered from tests on mission STS-114 last year indicated NOAX is most effective when applied while the temperature of an RCC panel is falling between 120° F and 30° F, so today’s spacewalkers were directed to apply NOAX to the pre-damaged RCC panels based on the temperatures of the panels. Over the course of almost two and a half hours, Sellers and Fossum completed three gouge repairs and two crack repairs with NOAX, and provided Mission Control a running dialogue describing the repair activity and how the NOAX responded. They also imaged four of the samples with the infrared camera, which Fossum also used to gather video of an area of Discovery’s port wing while riding Canadarm2 back to the airlock.

Near the end of the EVA, Mission Control added a task to the spacewalk. Since the spacewalkers were on schedule and had plenty of supplies, Sellers carried a Pistol Grip Tool to the Integrated Cargo Carrier in Discovery’s payload bay and removed the fixed grapple bar used during delivery of the Pump Module during the second spacewalk. He carried it to the S1 Truss where Fossum helped him install it on an ammonia tank inside that truss so that the tank can be moved on a later shuttle assembly mission.

Repressurization of Quest began at 1:31 p.m., completing a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk, the 68th in support of ISS assembly and maintenance. The cumulative duration of the three spacewalks on this mission is 21 hours and 29 minutes. Sellers’ total spacewalking time of 41:10 on six EVAs ranks him 4th among U.S. spacewalkers and 9th in the world all-time.

ISS Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter concentrated on packing the Multipurpose Logistics Module today with returning experiment samples, unneeded hardware and trash. The Leonardo module is scheduled to be returned to Discovery’s payload bay on Friday.

The crew woke at 12:08 a.m. CDT to "Charlie's Angels Theme Song." It was for the entire crew, from their training team.

Moments later, Texas A&M University yell leaders performed briefly for Mission Specialist Mike Fossum from Mission Control. Fossum is the first A&M undergraduate alum to fly in space.

Fossum is scheduled to receive a call from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also an A&M graduate and former member of the Corps of Cadets, at 11:58 a.m. It will air on NASA Television.

Later in the day, Fossum and Mission Specialist Lisa Nowak will talk with representatives of MSNBC and FOX News Live. That interview, at 12:23 p.m., also will be seen on NASA-TV.

Fossum, Nowak and shuttle Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers then have off duty time with only a few isolated tasks and exercise planned.

International Space Station Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter will talk at 3:13 a.m. with European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque, a journalist, students and the operations manager at the Columbus Control Centre, in Cologne, Germany. At 8:09 a.m. the crew will talk with Russian journalists at Mission Control Moscow. Those events will air on NASA-TV and be replayed with interpretation at 9 a.m.

First thing this morning Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and ISS Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter deactivated the cargo module, closed the hatch, and prepared it for removal from the Unity node. Just after 8:32 a.m. CDT Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson used the station robotic arm to uninstall Leonardo from ISS; the MPLM was reberthed in the shuttle payload bay at 10:00 a.m. CDT.

More than 7,400 pounds of cargo was delivered to ISS in the cargo module, and approximately 4,600 pounds of material including experiment samples, broken equipment and trash are now packed inside for return to Earth.

After the MPLM was returned to Discovery, Nowak and Wilson used the shuttle robot arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to inspect the shuttle’s port wing. Similar to the pre-docking inspection on Flight Day 2, which was aimed at uncovering evidence of damage from debris at launch, this inspection looked for any signs of damage done by debris on orbit. None was found; inspection of the starboard wing and the shuttle’s nose cap will be done after undocking tomorrow, which is scheduled to occur at 5:08 a.m. CDT.

Early this morning, as Lindsey and Reiter worked at the MPLM, Nowak and Wilson joined Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers, Pilot Mark Kelly, and ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams to discuss the mission in interviews with CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS.

After a day off, the crew will spend much of today getting ready for their undocking from the International Space Station.

The crew woke at 12:19 a.m. CDT with the Aggie War Hymn performed by the Fighting Texas Aggie Band. It was for Mission Specialist Mike Fossum, a graduate of Texas A&M University.

The first activity of the day will be media interviews for most of the crew -- shuttle Pilot Mark Kelly, Mission Specialists Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers, and station Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams. Beginning at 3:03 a.m. they will talk with journalists from CNN, ABC News, NBC’s Today Show, and CBS News.

Meanwhile, shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey and station Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter will deactivate the multipurpose logistics module Leonardo and begin preparing for its move back to Discovery’s payload bay. Nowak and Wilson will use the station robotic arm to maneuver Leonardo, which has been packed with more than 4,000 pounds of experiment results, unneeded supplies and equipment from the station, to its place in the cargo bay.

The two, joined by Lindsey, will also use the arm with the boom extension to conduct a scheduled final inspection of the shuttle’s port wing to ensure it has not been damaged by orbital debris during the docked operations.

Throughout the day, the remainder of the crew will continue with final transfer of supplies and equipment from the shuttle’s middeck, organize the spacewalk tools and do other tasks to get ready for Discovery's undocking from the station on Saturday.

After almost nine days together, Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station today at 5:08 a.m. CDT.

Discovery crew members were awakened at 12:08 a.m. by "Beautiful Day," performed by U2. It was for Discovery Pilot Mark Kelly, on undocking day.

After a few final equipment transfers and system configurations, all nine crew members will gather for a televised farewell ceremony at 2:38 a.m. Hatch closure between the station and shuttle will immediately follow.

After undocking, Kelly will perform the two separation burns to take Discovery away from the station.

About three hours after undocking, Commander Steve Lindsey and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak and Mike Fossum will use the shuttle's robotic arm and the orbital boom sensor system to perform final inspections of the starboard wing. Then Kelly and Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson will do the same on the shuttle nose.

Discovery will remain about 45 miles behind the station until the mission management team reviews survey results and clears Discovery for landing, scheduled for Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

The Expedition 13 crew will resume normal station operations. Once their shuttle counterparts have departed, they will conduct some routine maintenance and exercise onboard. Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter will conduct emergency drills training and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams will depressurize the pressurized mating adapter.

The delivery of European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter to join Expedition 13 on the International Space Station was one of the major goals achieved on this second return to flight shuttle mission. Discovery is now aiming for an 8:14 a.m. CDT Monday landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The shuttle astronauts said goodbye to Reiter and his crewmates, Station Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams, and Commander Steve Lindsey and Pilot Mark Kelly reported the hatches between the two ships closed at 3:15 a.m. CDT. Astronauts Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson completed a leak check in the docking vestibule while Mike Fossum and Piers Sellers installed a centerline camera in the hatch window.

With Kelly at the controls, Discovery released its grip on the station at 5:08 a.m. CDT and springs pushed the two ships apart. Kelly guided the shuttle away to a distance of 400 feet and fired thrusters to separate the vicinity of the complex. A second engine firing, 50 minutes after undocking while above and behind the station, set Discovery on course that now has it about 46 miles behind the station and opening the distance slowly. No other shuttle engine firings are planned before it fires its engines to begin the descent to Earth Monday morning.

After Discovery left the station, the shuttle crew used the robotic arm and boom sensors to thoroughly inspect the starboard wing and nose cap heat shield, looking for damage from orbital debris. A similar survey of the port wing was conducted yesterday. After the nose cap survey, the boom was berthed along the starboard sill of the payload bay and the robot arm was powered down.

Mission managers reviewing the latest heat shield inspections of Discovery have found no concerns so far, and the analysis is continuing. Discovery is planned to fire its engines to deorbit at 7:07 a.m. CDT Monday. That is the first of two opportunities for landing on Monday at Kennedy. A second opportunity begins with a deorbit engine firing at 8:43 a.m. CDT leading to a landing at 9:50 am. CDT.

Their day began at 12:18 a.m. with “Just Like Heaven,” by The Cure for Mission Specialist Piers Sellers. It was requested by his family.

At 3 a.m., Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Entry Flight Engineer Lisa Nowak will do an hour-long flight control system checkout and fire the reaction control system jets. The checkout will let managers further assess the performance of one of the auxiliary power units. The APUs power flight control surfaces. Specialists had detected a small leak in the APU but have determined it is likely a nitrogen gas leak and should not affect re-entry.

Throughout the day, most of the crew members, including Mission Specialists Mike Fossum and Stephanie Wilson, will work on final clean up and stowage of the vehicle cabin area. All six crew members will participate in a deorbit briefing with the ground team as part of their final preparation for landing.

At 11:03 a.m. CDT, the STS-121 crew will participate in interviews with major television networks, including, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and NBC. That event will be televised on NASA television.

Mission managers continue to analyze images from the post-undocking inspection of Discovery's port wing and nose cone. Initial analysis indicated nothing amiss. A decision on whether to clear Discovery for landing is expected later today.

Discovery's deorbit burn is scheduled for 7:07 a.m. Monday, for an 8:14 a.m. CDT landing at Kennedy Space Center. A second opportunity would see a deorbit engine firing at 8:43 a.m. for a landing at 9:50 a.m.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter are enjoying an off-duty day after the intense activity during Discovery docked operations.

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter joined Expedition 13 following Space Shuttle Discovery's mission earlier this month.

Reiter, who serves as the expedition flight engineer, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams got down to business. Their tasks this week included activating a new high-tech freezer; installing additional sound suppression devices; performing a functional check of a new oxygen generation system, which will become active next year; and preparing for the next spacewalk, set for just before 10 a.m. EDT on Aug. 3.

Discovery left behind about three tons of supplies, hardware and experiments as well as 175 gallons (660 liters) of water and 74 pounds (33 kilograms) of nitrogen, leaving the station in excellent condition to support the crew of three.

One of the most anticipated experiment racks, the Minus Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS, was activated. The freezer will allow biological and human research experiment samples to be stored until they are returned to Earth for evaluation.

The recent Discovery mission brought the new oxygen generation system and the freezer to the station. Status checks were performed this week on the newly installed oxygen system to prevent its internal valves from sticking over long periods of dormancy. Once it is activated, the device will augment the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system in preparation for the further expansion of the station crew to six people.

The crew also began preparations for the next spacewalk. The spacewalk by Williams and Reiter will be conducted in U.S. spacesuits. The astronauts will deploy external experiments and prepare station truss components for future assembly work. Additional solar panels and electrical equipment will be delivered by the next two space shuttle missions, scheduled for late August and December. Spacewalk preparations included flushing cooling loops in the Quest airlock and the spacesuits and configuring airlock systems and tools. The astronauts also reviewed station robotic arm procedures.

They spent much of this week preparing themselves and their gear, and they activated a new laboratory super deep-freezer.

Astronauts Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter will leave the station's Quest airlock hatch at 9:55 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 3, for a spacewalk that is scheduled for six hours, 20 minutes. Station Commander Pavel Vinogradov will serve as the spacewalk choreographer from inside the complex.

Williams and Reiter are both experienced spacewalkers. They will install a device to measure the electrical field around the station's exterior; replace a rotary joint motor controller and a computer for a radiator on the station's truss; deploy two experiments that expose samples of various materials to space for extended periods; and install various other hardware on the station.

To get ready, the crew prepared spacesuits and tools, conducted a dry run of egress and ingress procedures, and moved the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm into position. The arm's cameras will provide television views of the spacewalk.

This week the crew also began operations of the new Minus Eighty-degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS. The equipment can reach temperatures as low as minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Provided by the European Space Agency, the freezer was delivered on shuttle mission STS-121 earlier this month and is installed in the Destiny laboratory. It has 300 liters (about 79 gallons) of freezing and storage capacity in four compartments for experiment samples to preserve them for return to Earth.

On Tuesday, Russian flight controllers fired thrusters on the Progress supply ship docked to the aft end of the station to boost the station's altitude. They raised the complex to an orbit of 219 by 203 statute miles. The adjustment optimizes conditions for a docking by the Space Shuttle Atlantis, targeted for a launch window that begins Aug. 27, and by the station's next crew, Expedition 14, set for launch in mid-September on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Mission Control assigned two more jobs, which the astronauts also completed.

Williams and Reiter wrapped up their productive 5-hour, 54-minute excursion and began repressurizing the Quest airlock at 3:58 p.m. EDT. The astronauts left the airlock in U.S. spacesuits at 9:04 a.m. EDT. Station Commander Pavel Vinogradov helped them with spacewalk preparations and getting into their suits. It was the first time in more than three years a third crewmember had been available for those tasks on the orbiting laboratory.

Williams, designated lead spacewalker, or EV1, wore the U.S. spacesuit with red stripes. Reiter, EV2, wore the all-white suit.

Astronaut Steve Bowen acted as spacewalk intravehicular officer and coached the astronauts from the International Space Station Flight Control Room in Houston's Mission Control Center. Williams and Reiter quickly got ahead of their timeline. First, they installed the Floating Potential Measurement Unit. The device measures the electrical potential of the station so procedures can be devised to minimize arcing hazards, or the jumping of current from a conductor to a ground, as the station grows.

Their second job was to install two containers for MISSE, the Materials on International Space Station Experiment. The suitcase-like containers are left open to evaluate the long-term effects of space exposure on a variety of materials. The idea is to identify optimal materials for use in future spacecraft. MISSE 3 went on one of the high-pressure tanks around the crew lock, while MISSE 4 was installed on Quest's outboard end.

The two astronauts then went on to separate jobs. Williams installed a controller for a thermal radiator rotary joint on the S1 truss, while Reiter replaced a computer on the truss.

Williams then began installing a starboard jumper and spool positioning device (SPD) on the S1 truss. Reiter inspected a radiator beam valve module SPD site where one device was already installed and installed an additional one. He then moved on to install a SPD on a port cooling line jumper. The jumpers are designed to improve the flow of ammonia through the radiators once that coolant is installed.

Williams began setup for the final major scheduled task, a test of an infrared