SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
*Crews Enter Harmony, Prepare for Second Spacewalk
27 October 2007*
STS-120 and Expedition 15 crew members talk to press Image Above: STS-120 and Expedition 16 crew members gather in the new Harmony module to talk to the press. Image credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO :http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
The hatch of Harmony was opened at 8:24 a.m. EDT Saturday. Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli – who is from Italy, where the module was built – were the first to enter, and took advantage of the opportunity to remark on the appropriateness of its name.
“We think Harmony is a very good name for this module,” Whitson said, “because it represents the culmination of a lot of international partner work and will allow international partner modules to be added on.”
Crew members spent part of Saturday hooking Harmony systems up for use. After the module’s ventilation system was up and running, some crew members were able to take time out from their work for interviews with a few television stations. They answered questions on subjects ranging from the challenges of the missions to the historic significance of having Whitson, the first female commander of the station, in space at the same time as Pam Melroy, the second female commander for the shuttle.
The other major tasks for the day centered around preparations for the mission’s second spacewalk on Sunday. Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski and the station’s newly arrived flight engineer, Daniel Tani, are scheduled to leave the station at 5:58 a.m.
*Mission Information* + STS-120 Mission Overview http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts120/index.html + Harmony Node 2 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/harmony_payload.html
+ Space Shuttle Discovery http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/discovery-info.html