STS-131 crew visits Marshall Space Flight Center

STS-131 crew visits Marshall Space Flight Center

HUNTSVILLE, AL. - With only two shuttle missions to the International Space Station remaining till the retirement of NASA's three current spacecrafts - Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery - Tuesday's visit to Marshall Space Flight Center to recap highlights from their April flight was bittersweet experience for the crew of STS-131.

"It felt like we were reaching the peak of its (NASA's space shuttle program) capability, but all good things come to an end," STS-131 Commander Alan Poindexter said during a question-and-answer session with high school students.

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"The other viewpoint is that we need to look back at what was done with the shuttle throughout the years, including what we have learned and these magnificent achievements from Hubble to the construction of ISS.

"We all will be sad to see it go, but we are looking forward to the next platform and keeping human beings flying in space," Poindexter said.

The purpose of the 13-day mission aboard space shuttle Discovery, which will have its final flight in September, was to transport 3,800-pounds of cargo from "Leonardo," a multi-purpose logistics module that's housed in Discovery's payload bay.

The crew also performed three challenging spacewalks - exchanging a gyroscope on the truss of the station, installing a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieving a Japanese experiment, Poindexter said.

Attending the briefing with Poindexter was pilot Jim Dutton and mission specialists Rick Mastracchio and Stephanie Wilson. Other members of the seven-person crew included mission specialists Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Clay Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, also a mission specialist.

Wilson said there's still work left to do aboard the station, but the final two missions will be devoted to those tasks.

"Leonardo will permanently be housed on ISS and the experiment racks will be repositioned," said Wilson, who is a veteran of two spaceflights. "Remaining mission details and spacewalks are still being worked out."