Posted: Mon, Mar 12, 2001, 8:10 AM ET (1310 GMT)
The crew of the space shuttle Discovery attached the Leonardo cargo module to the International Space Station in the early morning hours Monday. Astronaut Andy Thomas used the shuttle's robot arm to maneuver the Italian-built module out of the shuttle's cargo bay, attaching it to the nadir (Earth-facing) docking port on the Unity module at 1:02 am EST (0602 GMT) Monday. The module carries five tons of equipment, including experiments for the station's new Destiny lab module and supplies for the station's crew. Hatches between the station and shuttle were opened for several hours overnight as well, allowing Expedition Two astronaut James Voss to officially transfer from the shuttle to the station, replacing Expedition One cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. The major event of the STS-102 mission will be Monday night, when Thomas and Paul Richards perform the second of two spacewalks scheduled for the mission, wrapping up unfinished work from the first spacewalk early Sunday and handing other work outside the station, including an external stowage platform and a replacement pump flow control system.
