Discovery crew moves tons of cargo to space station

HOUSTON, Sunday (Reuters)

Discovery astronauts on the first shuttle trip to the International Space Station since 2002 -- and perhaps the last one for some time -- worked on Sunday to unload tons of supplies and equipment brought from Earth for the station's two-man crew.

The shuttle astronauts originally had planned to give the station 15 tons of items stowed in an Italian-made cargo unit but were adding computers, office supplies, food, water and other items scrounged from Discovery in case there are no more shuttle flights for a while.

"We're looking forward to lots of nice goodies coming across (from the shuttle)," a space station controller at Johnson Space Center in Houston told the station astronauts.

NASA said on Saturday that Discovery's mission would be extended by a day to give the astronauts time to unload the extra cargo. Return to Earth now is set for Aug. 8.

With Wendy Lawrence in charge of the cargo operation, the shuttle crew worked with space station astronauts Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips to unload Raffaello, as the cargo unit is called.

As space opened in Raffaello, they were to fill it back up with 13 tons of space junk that has piled up on the station since it last linked up with a shuttle in November 2002.

Resupply of the space station took on added urgency on Wednesday when the U.S. space agency announced it would ground the shuttle fleet after videos showed insulating foam from Discovery's external fuel tank breaking loose as the shuttle launched from Florida.