And Oh Yeah... There Was That One Phone Call...

NASA reports the crews of space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station took a "break" Thursday, in and around transfer work ahead of Wednesday's farewell and undocking of the shuttle. The 10 spacefarers also talked with President Barack Obama joined by school children at the White House.

Crew members gathered in the station's Harmony module Tuesday morning, and spoke to the President, members of Congress and students. The president was joined in the White House's Roosevelt Room by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Bill Nelson, along with Representatives Gabrielle Giffords, Bart Gordon, Parker Griffith, Suzanne Kosmas and Alan Mollohan.

The schoolchildren were from the Boys and Girls Club of Washington, DC, Southeast Elementary Academy of Washington, the Louise Archer Elementary School and Thoreau Middle School in Virginia, and the Parkland Magnet Middle School for Aerospace Engineering in Maryland.

Students asked the spacefarers a variety of questions, including whether they had time to play video games in orbit (ah, not so much.) But it was the President who asked the question everyone really wanted to know.

"You guys still drink Tang up there?" Obama asked. He was quickly informed by Senator Nelson -- who flew on a shuttle mission in early 1986 -- that the iconic drink has been off the NASA menu for some time, according to The Associated Press.

After the phone call, the crew turned its attention to transfer checklists as the time nears to say goodbye leaving the station larger and more powerful than it was before Discovery arrived. The formal farewell and hatch closing is scheduled just before noon Wednesday followed by leak checks ahead of departure.

Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station at 2:53 pm EDT Wednesday after the crew bids farewell to its temporary home and the Expedition 18 crew, leaving behind Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and bringing home Sandy Magnus -- whose zero-g-unfriendly long hair (above) was also the subject of good-natured ribbing from Obama -- after four months aboard the station.

The shuttle is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday.

FMI: www.nasa.gov