Working at the International Space Station’s cupola robotic workstation, Atlantis Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus are using Canadarm2 to grapple the 12.5-ton, 21 foot long, 15 foot wide Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module, which is nestled in the shuttle cargo bay. They will lift Raffaello out and attach it to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony node.
Raffaello is packed with more than 8,000 pounds of spare parts, spare equipment, food and other supplies that will sustain space station operations through 2012. Raffaello carries eight Resupply Stowage Platforms (RSPs), two Intermediate Stowage Platforms (ISPs), six Resupply Stowage Racks (RSRs) and one Zero Stowage Rack.
Mission Control has verified that the track of a piece of orbital debris will not be a threat to the International Space Station and space shuttle Atlantis. No adjustments to the docked spacecraft’s orbit will be necessary to avoid the debris, which is part of satellite COSMOS 375 and one of more than 500,000 pieces of debris tracked in Earth’s orbit.