SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Crews Continue Spacewalk Preparations* 2 November 2007

Image Above: The mobile transporter (lower center) moves towards the center of the station's truss structure. Image credit: NASA TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

The STS-120 and Expedition 16 crews will continue to work today on the tools and procedures for Saturday’s spacewalk to repair a torn solar array. Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock will conduct the excursion, which is slated to kick off at 6:28 a.m. EDT Saturday.

Parazynski will make the repair while suspended from a boom attached to the space station’s robotic arm, and Wheelock will assist from the station’s truss. Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Dan Tani will be operating the station’s robotic arm from the robotic work station inside the Destiny laboratory. Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli will be the spacewalk coordinator.

The Mobile Transporter has moved near the center of the truss structure to let Canadarm2 grapple the shuttle’s arm extension, the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, before handing it back to the shuttle’s robotic arm for the night. Canadarm2 will use the extension to provide support for Parazynski on the Saturday spacewalk.

+ View images from Nov. 1 Mission Status Briefing http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts120/news/msb_sts120_fd10.html

In the midst of all the activity on Thursday, the two crews were able to take a few minutes out of their work to talk with former President George H.W. Bush as he and his wife Barbara visited the Johnson Space Center and Mission Control.

“We're so very proud of what you're doing,” he told the astronauts.

*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