Drawers hoisted aboard space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronauts hitched a giant chest of drawers to the international space station Monday that contained a brand new freezer, sleeping compartment and treadmill bearing a TV comedian’s name.

The Italian-built chest — nicknamed Leonardo, as in Leonardo da Vinci — was moved from space shuttle Discovery via a hefty robot arm and hoisted onto the space station.

It’s loaded with nearly 8 tons of equipment and science experiments for the orbiting outpost and its six residents. Much of the gear is stored in portable racks; the bedroom is the size of a phone booth.

Leonardo will remain secured to the space station for the next week. The astronauts will remove the cylindrical vessel — 21 feet long and 15 feet in diameter — and place it back on space shuttle Discovery for return to Earth.