ISS crew prepares for arrival of visitors
The International Space Station crew was busy Wednesday preparing for the arrival this week of space shuttle Endeavour and its STS-118 crew.
The shuttle was scheduled to be launched Wednesday at 6:36 p.m. EDT and arrive at the space station Friday.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration controllers in Houston said station Cmdr. Fyodor Yurchikhin, cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and astronaut Clay Anderson shifted their sleep schedule to align their operations with the arriving shuttle crew.
The space station crew, among other tasks, was packing items that will be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour, as well as unpacking items from the newly arrived Progress 26 cargo spacecraft. P26 arrived last Sunday, delivering more than 5,000 pounds of food, fuel, air and miscellaneous equipment.
Planning conferences were also being conducted with controllers and the STS-118 crew members, NASA said.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
