SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Spacewalk Preparations, Cargo Transfers on Tap Today* 31 October 2007

Image Above: Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli and STS-120 Commander Pam Melroy speak to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano from inside the Harmony node. Image credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGES GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Today, the STS-120 and Expedition 16 crews will continue cargo transfers and prepare for Thursday’s spacewalk. The two crews will also hold the traditional joint crew news conference.

The spacewalk preparations include preparing equipment and reviewing procedures. Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock will conduct the excursion, which is slated to kick off at 4:58 a.m. EDT Thursday.

The news conference will take place at 7:48 a.m. The crew members will field questions from reporters on the ground.

*Teams Evaluate Array Damage*

Image Above: A view of a damaged P6 4B solar array wing on the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA TV

Engineering teams continue to look at the damage to the P6 4B solar array spotted by the crew during deployment Tuesday. NASA halted the deployment of the solar array wing to evaluate the damage. Deployment was about 80 percent complete.

The crew photographed the area on the solar array wing and downlinked the images to the ground.

Meanwhile during post-spacewalk activities, Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock reported to the ground that he had seen a small hole in one of his gloves. The crew sent photos of the glove to the ground for further review.

*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