With their transfer activities nearing completion, the astronauts and cosmonauts on board the Endeavour/Mir complex are preparing for their final full day of docked operations.

Resupply and experiment equipment transfers continued for the astronauts and cosmonauts today, with more hardware, logistical supplies and experiments transferred between the two vehicles. Currently the crew is slightly ahead of its planned transfer work schedule.

Shortly before noon today, crew members talked with the Cable News Network and Russian media to discuss the progress of the mission and activities that lie ahead for Mir crew member Andy Thomas.

The STS-89 crew will begin an 8-hour sleep period this evening at 8:48 p.m. CST and will receive a wake-up call from Mission Control at 4:48 a.m. on Thursday to begin their seventh day in space.

The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts will conduct a joint crew news conference on Wednesday beginning just after 1:30 p.m. CST, during which they will answer questions from reporters at NASA centers in the U.S. as well as from news media in Moscow.

Following the press conference, the two crews will conduct a farewell ceremony, after which the Mir’s crew will close the hatch on the Mir side of the docking module at 4:18 p.m. Central time. The orbiter hatch will remain open to allow Endeavour’s crew to leave any final transfer items in the vestibule to be retrieved by the cosmonauts following the Shuttle’s departure. Endeavour is scheduled to undock from Mir at 10:56 a.m. Central time on Thursday.

The next STS-89 status report will be issued at approximately 6 a.m. Wednesday.

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