Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

A third external stowage platform (ESP) will be installed on the International Space Station today. This time it will be done by crew members using robotic arms of the shuttle Endeavour and the station.

Both ESPs now on the station, one on the U.S. laboratory Destiny and the other on the Quest airlock, were attached during spacewalks.

The Endeavour crew, Commander Scott Kelly, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, and Mission Specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan and Alvin Drew, and station crew members, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson, were awakened at 5:07 a.m. CDT by “Happy Birthday Tracy,” performed by Caldwell’s nieces and nephews, in recognition of the day’s significance.

The control moment gyroscope installed during the Monday spacewalk by Mastracchio and Williams was brought to the station on ESP3 in Endeavour’s cargo bay as a replacement. Now it’s ESP3’s turn.

Installation begins with Caldwell and Morgan using the shuttle arm to lift it from the cargo bay. They’ll hand it to the station arm, operated by Hobaugh and Anderson. They will maneuver it into position and install it.

Transfer activities continue today. Preparations for the mission’s third spacewalk, this one by Mastracchio and Anderson to prepare the P6 truss for relocation in October, include a procedure review by all crew members and the start of an overnight campout in the airlock by the spacewalkers.

Morgan and Caldwell will talk with representatives of five major news organizations at 1:01 p.m. Morgan, Williams, Drew and Anderson will speak with children at the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise at 4:09 p.m.

In addition to Caldwell’s birthday, today marks another milestone. A little after 10:15 a.m., Zarya, the first module of the International Space Station, will mark its 50,000th orbit. It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian Proton rocket in November 1998. The U.S-funded module was built in Russia. Zarya is Russian for “Sunrise.”

The next status report will be issued Tuesday evening or earlier if events warrant.

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