STS-114 Report #18 Wednesday, Aug 3, 2005 – 11 p m CDT Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

After an eventful day supporting the third spacewalk of the mission, a light duty day of transfer activities, special events and time off lies ahead for the Space Shuttle Discovery crew as they begin their tenth day in space

The seven-member Shuttle crew awoke to the well-known country song “Amarillo by Morning,” performed by George Strait, at 10:09 p m CDT Their Station counterparts, the Expedition 11 crew of Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips, woke up 30 minutes later

The morning includes an in-flight media interview for Commander Eileen Collins, and Mission Specialists Steve Robinson and Charlie Camarda Elsewhere on the complex, Pilot Jim Kelly and Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence will be performing a few robotic arm operations, as they release the StationÂ’s Canadarm2 from the Mobile Base System and attach it to the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) That task is being done in preparation for return of the MPLM to DiscoveryÂ’s payload bay

Midway through the crew day, at about 4:19 a m CDT, Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency Astronaut Soichi Noguchi and Collins will participate in a special video conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi; and Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Nariaki Nakayama JAXA Astronaut Dr Mamoru Mohri and several Japanese students and citizens will also participate in the call

Later, Robinson, Camarda and Noguchi will continue stowage of equipment and supplies in the MPLM on the Shuttle and Space Station Phillips and Krikalev will help with that activity as well before all of the crewmembers stop to share a special evening meal together

About an hour later, at 7:04 a m CDT, the joint crews have planned a commemorative in-flight event paying tribute to the STS-107 Columbia crew That event will air on NASA TV The remainder of the day will be off-duty time for the Shuttle crew as they prepare for the final days of their mission

Phillips and Krikalev will spend about two hours configuring the Common Berthing Mechanism for the MPLM removal before ending their workday with routine daily planning conference with ground controllers

The next STS-114 mission status report will be issued Thursday morning, or earlier, if events warrant