The third and final STS-131 spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 3:11 a.m. EDT Tuesday and last 6.5 hours. Activities include finishing the complicated change out of the large ammonia tank assembly, retrieving micrometeoroid shields from outside the airlock and retrieving a light-weight adapter plate assembly.

Crew Prepares for Final Spacewalk, Transfers Cargo
After a morning off, Discovery astronauts got back to work moving equipment and supplies to and from the International Space Station and preparing for Tuesday's spacewalk, the third and last planned for their mission.

Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson configured their tools in the Quest airlock. After a review of spacewalk procedures with other crew members, they will again spend the night in the airlock, its pressure reduced to 10.2 psi. That campout is aimed at reducing the nitrogen in their blood to avoid decompression sickness.

The spacewalk, replanned after difficulties bolting down an ammonia coolant tank on Sunday caused some rescheduling, is to begin at 3:11 a.m. EDT Tuesday and last 6 and half hours. Activities include finishing the complicated change out of the large ammonia tank assembly, retrieving micrometeoroid shields from outside the airlock and retrieving a light-weight adapter plate assembly.

After their free time, Discovery astronauts joined their station counterparts in transfer of equipment and supplies, much of it moving from the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo to the station. That work was going well and was ahead of schedule.

STS-131 MCC Status Report #15
After a morning off, Discovery astronauts got back to work moving equipment and supplies to and from the International Space Station and preparing for Tuesday's spacewalk, the third and last planned for their mission.

Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson configured their tools in the Quest airlock. After a review of spacewalk procedures with other crew members, they will again spend the night in the airlock, its pressure reduced to 10.2 psi. That campout is aimed at reducing the nitrogen in their blood to avoid decompression sickness.

The spacewalk, replanned after difficulties bolting down an ammonia coolant tank on Sunday caused some rescheduling, is to begin at 2:11 a.m. CDT Tuesday and last 6 and half hours. Activities include finishing the complicated change out of the large ammonia tank assembly, retrieving micrometeoroid shields from outside the airlock and retrieving a light-weight adapter plate assembly.

After their free time, Discovery astronauts joined their station counterparts in transfer of equipment and supplies, much of it moving from the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo to the station. That work was going well and was ahead of schedule.

Shuttle and station crew members of both spacecraft took time out from work to field calls from the Earth below. First, at 2:45 a.m., Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke with the station crew, which includes Russian commander Oleg Kotov and two other cosmonauts, on his country's Cosmonautics Day.

Japanese astronauts, the shuttle's Naoko Yamazaki and the station's Soichi Noguchi, chatted at 5:41 a.m. with Japanese students, fellow astronaut Mamoru Mohri and Japanese dignitaries, including the minister of space policy, who had gathered in Tokyo. And at 10:36 a.m., shortly before their bed time, Discovery Commander Alan Poindexter, Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. and Mission Specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and Stephanie Wilson will talk with ABC World News' Diane Sawyer, MSNBC's Contessa Brewer, Fox News Channel's Jon Scott and KUSA-TV in Denver.

The next status report will be issued after crew wakeup at 9:21 p.m., or earlier if events warrant.

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