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Endeavour astronauts have grabbed hold of the Leonardo cargo van using the International Space Station's robotic arm.
They'll soon disconnect the module from the Earth-facing side of the station's Harmony node, and begin moving the 4.5-ton cargo carrier to Endeavour's payload bay. You can watch the move by clicking on the NASA TV still image above to launch a live viewer.
In other updates today, mission managers have determined that a ding discovered on one of the shuttle's outer window panel poses no risk for re-entry to Earth, no scheduled Sunday.
Endeavour is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center at 1:18 p.m., but will have enough supplies to fly two more days if landing conditions are not favorable. The shuttle will keep enough lithium hydroxide canisters to clean excess carbon dioxide from its air for that period of time, leaving others behind at the station as backup supplies.
Managers also expect that the unmanned Russian Progress cargo vehicle that launched today will be able to perform an automatic docking. An antenna initially did not release properly, but is working well now.
On board the station, Expedition 18 crew member Sandra Magnus worked to collect samples from the newly installed water recycling system that Endeavour shipped to the outpost.
Endeavour will return about seven liters of water samples to the ground for testing.
A final decision was made today not to return to the ground a component of the urine processor, which shut down several times during activation and required some modifications by the crew. That's a sign of confidence that the equipment is now functioning well.
Crews also worked to pack final items before the shuttle undocks Friday, including stowing tools used on four spacewalks that were stored in the station's Quest airlock.
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