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*Spacewalk Preparations, Cargo Transfers on Tap Today*

Image above: Mission Specialist Dave Williams floats near torso portions of two extravehicular mobility unit spacesuits in the Quest Airlock of the International Space Station. Image: NASA TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.ht

Today, the STS-118 and Expedition 15 crews will continue cargo transfers and prepare for Saturday’s spacewalk. The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts will also hold the traditional joint crew news conference.

The Mission Management Team decided Thursday that Saturday’s spacewalk will not include repair of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s heat shield. After hours of reviewing data and imagery collected during the inspections by the STS-118 crew , the managers decided the damage did not pose a safety risk to the crew or Endeavour.

The spacewalk preparations include preparing equipment and reviewing procedures. Mission Specialist Dave Williams and space station Flight Engineer Clay Anderson will conduct the excursion, which is slated to kick off at 10:01 a.m. EDT(1404 UTC) Saturday.

The cargo transfers have been ongoing since shortly after Endeavour arrived Aug. 10. STS-118 delivered supplies and equipment to the orbital outpost and will return unneeded station items and science experiments to Earth.

The joint news conference will take place at 1:34 p.m.(1734 UTC) The crew members will field questions from reporters on the ground.