Shuttle astronauts prepare for spacewalk

HOUSTON, July 11 (UPI) -- The shuttle Discovery astronauts, along with the crew of the International Space Station, Tuesday transferred more items from the shuttle into the ISS.

The shuttle delivered more than 7,400 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station and is to return to Earth Friday with its payload bay packed with more than 4,300 pounds of science experiment results, garbage and trash from the ISS.

The crews Tuesday also prepared for the third spacewalk to be conducted during Discovery's visit to the station. Mission specialists Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum were to demonstrate in-orbit shuttle heat shield repair techniques during the Wednesday morning excursion, NASA said.

Before retiring Tuesday, NASA said Sellers and Fossum would be joined by flight commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Mark Kelly and mission specialists Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson for a review of spacewalk procedures.