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Cargo Transfers, Crew News Conference on Tap Today

STS-116 and Expedition 14 crews Image above: STS-116 and Expedition 14 crewmembers share a meal in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA

After a hectic first six days of its STS-116 mission, Space Shuttle Discovery’s crew will enjoy a lighter schedule today. Cargo transfers, spacewalk preparations and the joint crew news conference are on the schedule today.

All 10 station and shuttle crew members will participate in the traditional joint news conference at 3:47 p.m. EST. They will field questions from media from the United States and Europe.

The crews will enjoy some off duty time before beginning preparations for Saturday’s spacewalk by STS-116 Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam and Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams. Crew members will review spacewalk procedures at 9:17 tonight. The spacewalkers will continue rewiring station power systems.

Discovery continues to maintain the orientation of both the station and shuttle using the shuttle steering jets, a function it began performing during preparations for the spacewalk on Thursday. Originally, control of the station's orientation was to be transferred back to the station's gyroscopes late Thursday after the spacewalk tasks were completed and station systems powered up. However, problems were experienced as that transfer was attempted. Flight controllers believe the problems were due to a higher than usual amount of atmospheric drag currently experienced by the station due to recent solar activity. They may attempt to transfer control of orientation back to the station again today, although the shuttle thrusters can be used if needed for that purpose through the rest of the mission. If necessary, the station has thrusters that can be used for orientation control as well.

Engineers investigating the difficulties with fully retracting the port-side solar array wing of the station's P6 Truss believe a guide wire may be snagged in a swiveling grommet on one of the array's panels. The snag could be keeping the panels from folding up completely. The array remains almost halfway retracted as it has been since Wednesday. Early this morning, station flight controllers commanded the array through a series of "wiggle" tests, swiveling the wing 10 degrees at a time repeatedly to see if that would help the situation. They are continuing to evaluate the results of those tests and to investigate options for further work with the array, including the potential to add a spacewalk to latter part of this mission. Options also may include some additional troubleshooting commanding that could be performed with the array during the crew's day today.

For the latest news and information on the International Space Station and the Expedition 14 crew, please visit the main station page. + Read more http://www.nasa.gov/station