Intro music.
The crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery got some recent hands-on experience with equipment they will soon take into space.
The Return to Flight astronauts were at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a Payload Crew Equipment Interface Test.
This test allows the astronauts to become familiar with equipment for the mission's three spacewalks.
Among the payloads the astronauts inspected inside the Space Station Processing Facility is the Control Moment Gyroscope
that they will swap for an inoperable one on the Station during a spacewalk.
They conducted a fit check on the Thermal Protection System repair sample box
that contains pieces of the Shuttle's heat-shielding tile.
These samples will enable the crew to test new repair techniques in space.
They also inspected the cargo containers installed in the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello.
At the nearby SPACEHAB facility, the crew checked out the External Stowage Platform-2 that will carry replacement parts to the Station.
They will deploy the platform and attach it to the Station's airlock as a permanent spare parts facility.
The launch window for Space Shuttle Discovery's Return to Flight mission is May 15 to June 3.