In yet another deft handoff maneuver, the space shuttle robotic arm grabbed the Japanese Exposed Section cargo carrier from the space station robotic arm. Endeavour Commander Mark Polansky and Mission Specialist Julie Payette then used the shuttle arm to place the cargo carrier back into the shuttle payload bay.

The Exposed Section was launched with two science experiments and a communication system that were transferred to the Kibo Exposed Facility earlier in the mission.

Crews Focus on Robotics, Spacewalk Preparations

Sunday morning, the space shuttle robotic arm grabbed the Japanese Exposed Section cargo carrier from the International Space Station's robotic arm and carefully placed the cargo carrier back into Endeavour’s payload bay bringing to close this mission’s robotics work on the space station’s new porch.

The 13 crew members aboard the space station and space shuttle transitioned back to work by tucking the Exposed Section away, hosting a joint crew news conference and studying the new procedures for Monday’s fifth and final spacewalk.

Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn prepared their spacesuits and tools and reviewed procedures. Monday's spacewalk is expected to run about six and a half hours.

The Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA), which along with a similar Russian system removes carbon dioxide from the station’s atmosphere, is continuing to operate in manual mode. The primary heater tripped a circuit breaker Saturday afternoon, and since then the ground team has been manually operating the backup heater.

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STS-127 Additional Resources
› Mission Press Kit (6.9 Mb PDF)
› Mission Summary (429 Kb PDF)
› Meet the STS-127 Crew