Mission

The Kibo ELM-ES (left) and the Kibo EF (right) after payload transfers (Image Credit: NASA)

For a flight day 9 (FD 9) activity, the payloads carried on the Kibo Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section (ELM-ES) were transferred to their designated locations on the Kibo Exposed Facility (EF).

The Kibo's remote manipulator system (JEM RMS) grappled the payloads one by one, and the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI), the Inter-orbit Communication System-Exposed Facility subsystem (ICS-EF), and the Space Environment Data Acquisition equipment - Attached Payload (SEDA-AP) were transferred successfully. The transfer of the MAXI, the ICS-EF and SEDA-AP were completed today at 0:24 a.m., 3:53 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. respectively. This was the first handling operation for the JEM RMS, and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata operated the JEM RMS installing MAXI.

After the transfer, the ICS-EF was activated and its antenna was successfully deployed at 6:59 a.m. today. This antenna will be used for uplinking and downlinking data, images and voice between Kibo and the Mission Control Center at Tsukuba Space Center, via a JAXA's relay satellite, the Data Relay Test Satellite (DRTS).

Meanwhile, the General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator (GLACIER), which contains samples from JAXA's life science experiment "Dome Gene", was transferred from the ISS to the space shuttle's middeck.

Other activities for the FD 9 included NASA's public events and reviewing the procedures and camp out of the EVA crew in preparations for EVA#4 scheduled for FD10.

Activities for FD10 include:

• EVA#4
• reloading the ICC-VLD to the shuttle payload bay

*All times are Japan Standard Time (JST)