KSC-2010-2446

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, members of space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 crew get a close look at the equipment in the pad's payload changout room. In front, from left, are Mission Specialist Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Commander Alan Poindexter, and Mission Specialist Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They are dressed in clean room attire, known as 'bunny suits.' Located on the pad's rotating service structure, the room is an enclosed, environmentally controlled area that supports payload delivery and servicing at the pad and mates to the shuttle's cargo bay for vertical payload installation. The crew also will switch out a gyroscope on the station’s truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior. STS-131 is the 33rd shuttle mission to the station and the 131st shuttle mission overall. Launch is set for 6:21 a.m. EDT on April 5. For information on the STS-131 mission and crew, visit http:__www.nasa.gov_mission_pages_shuttle_shuttlemissions_sts131_index.html. Photo credit: NASA_Jim Grossmann