SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*STS-120 Crew Closes Hatches to Station; Discovery to Undock Monday*

Image Above: The STS-120 and Expedition 16 crew members bid farewell to each other. Image credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

The STS-120 crew bid farewell to the Expedition 16 crew before the hatches closed at 3:03 p.m. EST Sunday between Discovery and the station. Attention now turns to Discovery’s undocking from the station a little after 5:30 a.m. Monday.

STS-120 arrived at the station Oct. 25, delivering the Harmony Node 2 module to the station. The crew installed Harmony Oct. 26 and conducted four spacewalks during its stay at the station. During the third spacewalk, the crew installed the P6 truss and solar array pair in its permanent location outboard of the port truss. The fourth spacewalk was changed during the mission so that the crew could repair a torn solar array on the P6 truss. Following the successful repair work, the crew was able to fully deploy the solar array.

Discovery also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Daniel Tani. He replaced astronaut Clayton Anderson. Anderson arrived at the station in June with STS-117.

Before Discovery begins the journey home, Pilot George Zamka will perform a fly-around to allow crew members to collect video and imagery of the station in its new configuration.

Discovery is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., a little after 1:00 p.m. Wednesday.