[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/160328main_iss020e031126.jpg[/img] Image above: Expedition 20 flight engineers Frank De Winne (left), Tim Kopra (foreground) and Michael Barratt work in the Unity node of the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA As the Expedition 20 crew members continue making preparations for a visit by space shuttle Discovery next week, they tackled a variety of science experiments aboard the International Space Station Wednesday. Discovery, targeted to launch Aug. 25 on the STS-128 mission, is carrying more than seven tons of supplies, science racks and equipment including the COLBERT treadmill, an exercise device named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

Three future residents of the International Space Station will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. CDT Thursday, Sept. 17, from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The news conference will air live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions will be taken from reporters at participating NASA sites.

NASA astronaut Timothy J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to launch on a Soyuz spacecraft Dec. 7 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will dock with the space station two days later and join Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev as members of the resident crew.

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:04:08 PM CDT

The STS-128 crew arrived Wednesday evening at Kennedy Space Center for their final prelaunch preparation. Pausing for a brief moment to talk with media, Commander Sturckow said, "It's great to be here for the launch. We've been studying and training hard, and we're ready to go accomplish this mission."

Earlier in the day, the Flight Readiness Review for space shuttle Discovery's STS-128 mission concluded, setting the launch date for Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 1:36 a.m. EDT.

"I can't say enough about the quality of the review we had over the past day and a half," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations, during a post-FRR news conference Wednesday morning. "It was a very effective review; I think we're ready to go fly. It's a real tribute to be here with the team that's done a great job with engineering, the (Kennedy) team that's gotten us this far in processing."