Spaceflight Now





BY JUSTIN RAY

Follow space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission to finish assembly of the International Space Station's Japanese segment. Reload this page for the latest updates.

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SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2009
The space shuttle Endeavour and space station's Expedition 20 crews have wrapped up a quiet Saturday. They'll be awakened at 4:03 a.m. EDT Sunday for a day highlighted by removing the now-empty experiment delivery pallet from the Japanese Exposed Facility, putting that carrier back into the shuttle's payload bay and completing preparations for the fifth and final spacewalk of the mission that's planned for Monday.

Repairs to restore the U.S. carbon dioxide removal system aboard the station that went down Saturday could be ordered on Sunday as well. Ground controllers are troubleshooting the situation and trying to get the system working properly again.

Down at the Kennedy Space Center, meanwhile, NASA managers have given approval to bring Discovery from its hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Sunday after completing extensive checks of the foam insulation on the next space shuttle external tank. Follow Discovery's mission here.

1830 GMT (2:30 p.m. EDT)
Space station engineers are looking into a circuit breaker trip that took the U.S. carbon dioxide removal assembly, or CDRA, off line this afternoon. There is no immediate impact, officials say, while engineers try to determine what caused the breaker to pop and return the CDRA to normal operation.

Read our full story.

1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT)
The combined 13-member crew of the shuttle-station complex enjoyed a day off Saturday, taking a break after a grueling week and a half of work that included four spacewalks, internal and external equipment transfers and the precisely coordinated use of three robotic arms.

Read our full story.

0949 GMT (5:49 a.m. EDT)
"In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel was just played from Mission Control to awaken the astronauts for Flight Day 11. The crew got more than an extra hour of sleep this morning to start their off duty day. Little work is planned today as the astronauts get to look out the windows and take a breather after a very hectic mission thus far.

Read our earlier status center coverage.

STS-127 patch
The official embroidered patch for shuttle Endeavour's flight to finish building Japanese section of the space station.
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Hubble crew
The official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase.

PATCH
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Expedition 20
The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 20 crew is now available from our stores.
 U.S. STORE
 WORLDWIDE STORE

STS-128 patch
The official embroidered patch for shuttle Discovery's flight to deliver equipment and research gear to the space station.
 U.S. STORE
 WORLDWIDE STORE