Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:00:29 PM CDT

A test fueling of space shuttle Endeavour's external tank revealed no gaseous hydrogen leaks, verifying recent repairs were successful, NASA managers confirmed during a Wednesday afternoon news conference at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The tanking test began at 6:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday. During the next three hours, teams in the Launch Control Center watched closely for signs of a leak as liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen poured into the massive orange tank. Previous attempts to launch Endeavour on the STS-127 mission were scrubbed by a leak in the area of the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, which attaches a gaseous hydrogen vent line to the external tank. Crews worked tirelessly to investigate and repair the problem.

The Expedition 20 crew aboard the orbiting International Space Station bid farewell, for now, to an unpiloted Progress cargo craft Tuesday.

The ISS Progress 33 undocked from the Pirs docking compartment at 2:30 p.m. EDT. Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko monitored the undocking and photographed the departing cargo craft to assess the condition of its docking assembly.

The Progress will continue to move away from the station until Friday, when the vehicle will perform a retrograde burn to place the spacecraft into a parking orbit. Another burn on July 11 sets up the Progress for its final rendezvous with the station on July 12. The cargo ship will approach to within 10 to 15 meters of the Zvezda service module to test new automated rendezvous equipment mounted on Zvezda during a pair of spacewalks earlier this month. This equipment will be used to guide the new Mini-Research Module-2 (MRM2) to an unpiloted docking to the zenith port of Zvezda later this year. MRM2 will serve as a new docking port for Russian spacecraft and an additional airlock for spacewalks conducted out of the Russian segment.