Astronauts aboard the international space station and the newly arrived shuttle Endeavour yesterday started unpacking a new toilet and a contraption that purifies urine and sweat into drinkable water at the orbiting outpost.
The main business of the day was unloading a cargo container nicknamed "Leonardo" from space shuttle Endeavour's belly and attaching it to the international space station. Inside the 6.4-m-long container is almost 6,800 kg of equipment that will allow the space station to expand from three to six crew members next year.
Space Shuttle Endeavour Commander Chris Ferguson (center) greets International Space Station Commander Mike Fincke (right) as ISS flight engineer Yury Lonchakov looks on after the opening of the hatches between the two spacecraft in this view from NASA TV on Sunday. (China Daily/Reuters)"Things are going exceedingly well," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.
Besides the extra bathroom and urine processor, Endeavour delivered an exercise machine, kitchenette and two sleeping compartments. Endeavour docked with the space station on Sunday afternoon almost two days after it launched from Florida.
The shuttle's crew will spend almost two weeks orbiting 354 km above Earth at the outpost, setting up the new equipment and going on four spacewalks to clean and lubricate a solar wing-rotating joint that broke down more than a year ago.
Once the hatch opened between the space station and shuttle, it looked like a family reunion. The shuttle's seven astronauts exchanged a cacophony of greetings with the station's three crew members, wrapping one another in bear hugs and shaking hands. In a long-standing tradition, a bell was rung at the station's entrance.
"Sandy, welcome to your new home," space station commander Mike Fincke told astronaut Sandra Magnus, who traded places with astronaut Gregory Chamitoff as a space station crew member. After living for six months at the station, Chamitoff will return to Earth with Endeavour.
Source:China Daily/Agencies
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