[sarex] STS-121 MCC Status Report #21

[Arthur Rowe <azrowe80@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

5 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 14
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

07.14.06
STATUS REPORT: STS-121-21

STS-121 MCC Status Report #21

Emptied of its cargo and refilled with returns, the Multipurpose 
Logistics Module Leonardo is back in the payload bay of Space Shuttle 
Discovery with just hours left before the orbiter undocks from the 
International Space Station and heads home.

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.

The next STS-121 mission status report will be issued early Saturday 
morning.
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