An unmanned freighter carrying tons of supplies is on its way to the International Space Station this morning, just as Endeavour's crew prepares to return a larger cargo module to the shuttle's payload bay. The Russian Progress vehicle launched this morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying more than two tons of fuel, oxygen, water and other supplies. Those supplies include holiday gifts for the Russian cosmonaut and two American astronauts who will remain on board after Endeavour departs Friday.
Russian mission controllers reported that one of two antennas that help automatically guide the vehicle in its final docking maneuver with the station did not deploy properly, and the problem is being investigated. A manual docking may be necessary on Sunday.
Endeavour's crew today is scheduled to close the hatch of the Italian-made Leonardo "moving van" and return it to the shuttle's payload bay by around 6:30 p.m.
You can watch the action unfold live here at The Flame Trench, by clicking on the NASA TV picture above to launch a viewer. Here's NASA TV's schedule for the day and the remainder of the 16-day mission.
The crew has a few final items to unload from Leonardo, which will bring to about 14,500 pounds the quantity of gear that will have been offloaded to the station when it's all said and done. Meanwhile, about 3,500 pounds of trash or other unneeded items were packed into Leonardo for the trip home. Endeavour astronauts Don Pettit and Shane Kimbrough will move the module from the station's Harmony node using the the station's crane-like robotic arm, as shown in the animation at left.
One important item not being packed is a component of the urine processor that NASA struggled to activate earlier in the week. After several modifications to hard-mount a centrifuge in a distillation unit, the processor has been performing well.
Astronauts have collected all the water samples needed from the urine processor for testing on the ground, and will not need to return the distilatoin unit to Earth for troubleshooting.
"We got what we need out of it," said Brian Smith, a space station flight director.
Station Expedition 18 crew members Mike Fincke and Sandra Magnus today will secure more samples from a related water processor, which treats sweat and other condensation.
The water recycling equipment is essential for the station to double permanent crews to six people next year, possibly in May.
Overall, the day before Thanksgiving is a relatively light one for Endeavour's crew. You can read a detailed schedule and messages sent to the crew by mission controllers in Houston in this Flight Day 13 Execute Package.
The crew was awakened this morning to Jethro Tull's "North Sea Oil," a song selected by mission specialist Steve Bowen's son.
The shuttle is scheduled to depart Friday, and land at Kennedy Space Center at 1:18 p.m. Sunday.
The Progress is scheduled to dock at the station earlier in the day, at 7:23 a.m., something Smith said station crews always look forward to.
"There will always be some type of fresh food on there for them, as well as some care packages," he said.
This delivery also includes Christmas presents.
The Progress is taking about two more days than usual to dock, to allow the shuttle time to get out of the way and also to test new navigation equipment.
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