NASA Kennedy Space Center technicians will run leak checks on space shuttle Discovery’s two orbital maneuvering system pods today. The pods, known best by their acronym OMS, are mounted on the back of the shuttle above the three main engines and house the largest of the shuttle’s on-orbit thrusters. Those large thrusters are used to slow the spacecraft so it can enter Earth’s atmosphere at the end of a mission. The leak checks are part of the standard launch preparations for the shuttle as it is readied to be moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking with its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. The move is called "rollover" and it is scheduled for Sept. 8. Discovery’s liftoff is targeted for Nov. 1 on the STS-133 mission.
Discovery’s crew members are training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Today they are practicing spacewalk techniques in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, home to the huge pool that lets spacewalkers work in conditions similar to the microgravity in space.