Station and Shuttle Crews Focus on Cargo Transfers

The Expedition 28 and STS-135 crew members spent much of Wednesday moving equipment and supplies from the multipurpose logistics module Raffaello to the International Space Station.

The work to unload the more than 9,400 pounds of supplies and equipment brought up by Raffaello and then repack it with 5,700 pounds of equipment, supplies and trash to return home will continue for much of space shuttle Atlantis’ stay at the station.

Crew members opened Pressurized Mating Adaptor 3 attached to the Tranquility node, and stored some of the material from Raffaello there.

The transfer activity can be strenuous. While the cargo bags are weightless, they do have mass. They require effort to be put in motion, effort to change their direction and effort to stop their motion.

Expedition 28 Flight Engineers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan completed a six-hour, 31-minute spacewalk Tuesday, retrieving a failed pump module for return to Earth, installing two experiments and repairing a new base for the station’s robotic arm.