CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronauts aboard the linked shuttle and station are moving a giant chest of drawers from one spacecraft to the other.
The Italian-built chest — nicknamed Leonardo, as in Leonardo da Vinci — flew up on Discovery. It's filled with tons of equipment and experiments for the space station. The astronauts were using a robotic arm Monday afternoon to hoist Leonardo onto the orbiting outpost.
NASA's top mission manager, LeRoy Cain, said Monday that Discovery's thermal shielding looks to be in good shape and should soon be cleared for re-entry. Flight controllers, meanwhile, are looking at fuel-efficient ways to move the shuttle-station complex over the next week. The shuttle's tiny steering jets are unusable because of a leak.
