SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

Jan. 23, 2007

Allard Beutel Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4769

James Hartsfield Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

NASA SETS BRIEFING TO PREVIEW SERIES OF SPACE STATION SPACEWALKS

HOUSTON - NASA will preview an unprecedented series of four spacewalks to be conducted from the International Space Station during the next month in a media briefing scheduled for Friday, Jan. 26. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and streamed on the Internet at http://www.nasa.gov.

The 1 p.m. CST briefing will originate from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, and will include questions from media representatives at participating NASA locations. Reporters are asked to call their preferred field center before the briefing and spacewalks to confirm its availability.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams will begin the series of spacewalks with a six and a half hour excursion on Jan. 31 and subsequent spacewalks scheduled on Feb. 4 and Feb. 8. Those three spacewalks will be conducted using U.S. spacesuits and will each start from the station's Quest airlock. The fourth spacewalk, scheduled for later in February, will be conducted by Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin using Russian spacesuits from the station's Pirs airlock.

Participants in the Friday, Jan. 26, press briefing will include:

-- Kirk Shireman, deputy International Space Station program manager -- Derek Hassmann, International Space Station spacewalk flight director -- Glenda Laws, lead spacewalk officer for Expedition 14 -- Julie Robinson, International Space Station acting program scientist

The U.S. spacewalks will bring on line new portions of the station's cooling system, expanded with components that were activated during a space shuttle mission in December. Lopez-Alegria and Williams also will assist in the retraction of heat-rejecting radiators on the station's P6 truss, install some external devices to stow cargo and install cabling for a new power transfer system for future shuttle flights, among other tasks. On the fourth spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will remove a stuck antenna from the Russian ISS Progress 23 cargo spacecraft docked to the aft end of the station. Removing the antenna will ensure it can safely undock in early April.

Coverage of the Jan. 31 spacewalk on NASA TV will begin at 8 a.m. Coverage of the Feb. 4 and 8 spacewalks will begin at 6:30 a.m. Media briefings will follow the conclusion of each spacewalk and also will air on NASA TV and the agency's homepage.

For NASA TV downlink, schedules and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv For more about the crew's activities and station sighting opportunities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

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