Station Crew Rests; Busy February '09

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The crew aboard the International Space Station are spending a quiet day on orbit today following a busy and late-day spacewalk which saw several experiments deployed outside the Russian Zvezda module.

Right now, the crew is sleeping in on their day off after staying up late following the station's 19th spacewalk of 2008 last night. 

The crew of three will spend tomorrow recharging the Russian spacesuits batteries, stowing spacewalk tools, and performing normal experiment tasks, as they spend the Christmas holiday aboard the orbital outpost.

Taking a look ahead to February 2009, station operations will become busier as first, a Russian Progress supply ship will dock to the station on Feb. 12th; and two days later, on Feb. 14th, the space shuttle Discovery will dock following an on time launch on the 12th at 7:30 pm EST. 

Mission STS-119 will deliver the final set of solar arrays in support of the increased need for more power to support station operations.