With the third and final spacewalk completed Monday, the Expedition 18 and STS-119 crews are heading into the home stretch of their joint mission.
They will enjoy some off-duty time and also will check out the tools and equipment needed for undocking activities.
All the crew members aboard space shuttle Discovery and the station gathered in the station's Harmony module Tuesday morning and spoke to U.S. President Barack Obama, members of Congress and students.
The shuttle and station crews are scheduled to take a break from their activities at 1:06 p.m. EDT for the traditional joint crew news conference.
At 12:53 p.m. Wednesday, the two crews will bid farewell to one another and close the hatches between Discovery and the station.
Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station at 3:53 p.m. Wednesday and begin its journey back to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., landing Saturday at 1:44 p.m.
Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke also provided a status to Mission Control on the spiders and butterflies that were delivered to the station on the STS-126 mission. Those experiment habitats were transferred to Discovery Monday, and will return to Earth when the shuttle lands Saturday.
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