Just after 7 a.m. EST, space shuttle Atlantis Commander Charles Hobaugh and Mission Specialist Leland Melvin used the shuttle robotic arm to grasp the Express Logistics Carrier (ELC) 2, located in Atlantis’ payload bay. The task originally had been planned for this afternoon but the crew opted to do it early. The nearly 14,000-pound ELC will be lifted away from Atlantis on Saturday, handed off to the space station robotic arm, and installed on the station’s Starboard 3 truss upper outboard Payload Attach System. The carrier contains spare parts that will help sustain space station operations into the future.
