Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

HOUSTON - Spacefarers aboard Discovery and the International Space Station congratulated one another on a successful docked mission, shared hugs and farewells and closed the hatches 210 miles above the Pacific Northwest at 2:03 p.m. CST.

With Dan Tani now a member of the station's Expedition 16 crew and Clay Anderson now a member of the STS-120 crew, the two teams then began getting ready for Monday's 4:32 a.m. CST undocking.

Before closing the hatches, Commander Pam Melroy and her STS-120 crew - Pilot George Zamka, Mission Specialists Paolo Nespoli, Scott Parazynski, Doug Wheelock, Stephanie Wilson and Anderson - transferred final items to the shuttle. A total of 2,020 pounds of equipment and scientific samples is being returned to Earth. Included among the cargo are metal filings that may help engineers narrow down the cause of resistance in the starboard solar arrays rotary joint.

Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Tani made sure that all 33,834 pounds of items delivered by Discovery - including the 31,648-pound Harmony module and 2,186 pounds of supplies and equipment - were accounted for on the station.

The port solar array repaired by Parazynski and Wheelock during a Saturday spacewalk is generating electricity but flight controllers are continuing tests before they begin using power from the relocated, repaired and redeployed 4B array to the station's systems. The station already is using power from the other relocated and redeployed array, 2B.

Whitson and Malenchenko will have a day-and-a-half of rest wrapped around a day of preparations for their first of three spacewalks on Friday. That spacewalk will be devoted to preparing Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 for its move from the end of the Destiny module to the Harmony module. Whitson and Malenchenko were scheduled to do the work while Discovery was docked, but schedule adjustments due to the solar array repair spacewalk moved it later.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Monday morning or earlier if events warrant.

News from Commercial Space Watch