The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station today continued the expansion of the orbiting laboratory by installing the Mobile Remote Servicer Base System (MBS).

The MBS was attached to the Mobile Transporter on the Destiny Lab at 8:03 a.m. Central by Expedition Five Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson and Endeavour Astronaut Carl Walz. The two used the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to maneuver the MBS into position. Controllers on the ground then commanded latches on the transporter to close, securing the MBS in place. Eventually, Canadarm2 will “walk off” its current base location on the Destiny Lab onto the MBS. The MBS is an important part of the station’s future Mobile Servicing System, which will allow the station’s arm to travel the length of the station to perform future construction tasks.

The astronauts and cosmonauts on the Shuttle/Station complex, including STS-111 Commander Ken Cockrell, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Philippe Perrin and Franklin Chang-Díaz, as well Expedition Four crew Yury Onufrienko, Dan Bursch and Walz, and Expedition Five crewmembers Whitson, Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev, continued their transfer of equipment and supplies to the station from the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. As they began their Monday morning in space, the crewmembers already had transferred 73 percent of the equipment and supplies.

Though the Expedition Five crew has been in charge of station operations since Friday afternoon, an official change of command ceremony between the two Expedition crews took place this afternoon. The crew also reviewed procedures for tomorrow’s second spacewalk of the mission by Chang-Díaz and Perrin in which the two astronauts will hook up cables between the Mobile Base System and the Mobile Transporter and firmly bolt the two components together.

At 4:53 p.m. today, Endeavour completed a one-hour reboost maneuver to increase the station’s altitude by a little over a mile. This is the first of three such maneuvers that eventually will raise the station’s altitude by six miles. Systems on both Endeavour and the station continue to function normally as they orbit the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 240 statute miles.

The next STS-111 status report will be issued Tuesday morning, or earlier, if events warrant.

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