Discovery crew starts pack up for return

The crew finished loading an Italian-built cargo unit with more than three tonnes of trash and unneeded equipment from the station for the return to Earth and stowed gear that included space suits used on three spacewalks by astronauts Steve Robinson and Soichi Noguchi.

Late on Friday, the Discovery crew was to say goodbye to station crewmembers Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips, close the hatch and get ready to undock early today.

The shuttle was scheduled to land in Florida on Monday.

Because of safety measures put in place after Columbia fell from the sky over Texas, Discovery has been videotaped, photographed, laser-inspected and, in a shuttle program first, repaired by the spacewalking Robinson.