Space Shuttle Docks on Space Station with COLBERT Treadmill

Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm, the shuttle crew awoke to Toby Mac's "Made to Love." This song selection was especially for Mission Specialist Nicole Stott. Stott will not be returning to Earth with Discovery after its 13 day mission. She is scheduled to stay on the space station till November.

Once up the crew begin preparations to rendezvous with the space station later Sunday afternoon. Rendezvous operations and maneuvers began at 3:29 pm. At 6:27 pm the shuttle was only eight miles from the space station. The Terminal Initiation burn lasted only eleven seconds, but that was enough to place Discovery into its final path for docking.

The Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver occurred at 8:03 pm. During this maneuver space shuttle Discovery did a back flip and for nine minutes it flew under the space station. This allowed space station crew members Gennady Padalka and Mike Barratt to photograph the shuttle's heat shields. Those images will be downloaded to Mission Control in Houston for further study to see if any damage has occurred to the heat shield.

Commander Rick "CJ" Sturckow steered Discovery with its reaction control system jets to what NASA called a soft docking with the space station at 8:54 pm. After the crews unlocked the hatches and greeted each other, Nicole Stott switched positions with Tim Kopra. Stott is now the Flight Engineer for the station and Kopra is now a Mission Specialist for Discovery.

As part of Discovery's cargo is a special piece of exercise equipment that will be installed on the space station once Discovery has departed. The Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill or as it is commonly called the COLBERT treadmill will be placed in operation for the station crew to use to maintain their health and especially the wellness of their bones while they are stationed on the space station.

Earlier in the year, NASA held an online contest to name a future node or room for the space station. Comedy Central’s host Steven Colbert asked his fans to write his name "Colbert" in on the contest ballot. His fans did just that and "Colbert" received over 230,000 votes. It received the most votes of any in the contest.

NASA elected not to name the node after Colbert, but instead decided to name a new treadmill for the space station. The node will be named "Tranquility" in honor of the 40th anniversary of the first Apollo landing on the moon in the Sea of Tranquility.

Known as T-2 for over two years before receiving its new name, the COLBERT treadmill will be the second treadmill on the space station. The treadmill that has been in use on the station is the Treadmill with Vibration Isolation System (TVIS). Both treadmills will continue to be used by the crew members on the space station.

Exercise is a crucial part of the station crew members' days. Each crew member must workout for two and a half hours each day with about an hour of that workout being on a treadmill. This is to maintain their fitness and to keep their bones from losing strength which can be weakened with long stays in space due to the lack of gravity.

The station crew members have plenty of exercise options to select from. There are currently six different exercise devices on the station for them to use.

Crew members are expected to burn around 250 to 500 calories with each workout on the COLBERT treadmill. The moisture from their sweat from the workouts will be captured by the stations systems and recycled into the station’s atmosphere.

NASA will also be able to capture information on each crew member during their workout on the COLBERT treadmill. From this information, NASA will be able to create individual exercise programs specifically for each crew member and adjust the program as needed. Due to the lack of gravity on the space station, crew members will wear a harness and use a bungee cord system to provide the load needed to generate the foot force necessary to give the crew members' bones and muscles the workout they need to stay fit.

Once the COLBERT treadmill is assembled on the space station it will weigh 2,200 lbs. This is much more than the usual 300 lbs a regular treadmill weighs. It is expected to be in use as long as the space station will continue being used.

The COLBERT treadmill will be transferred from space shuttle to the International Space Station on day five of shuttle Discovery's mission. While Steven Colbert did not get the new node named after him, his name will have a place in the Tranquility node once it is in place. The COLBERT treadmill will first be placed in the Harmony module and then be moved into the Tranquility node.