SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Crew Moves Station Robotic Arm*

Space station robotic arm Image above: Canadarm2, the space station's robotic arm, is maneuvered into place by Flight Engineer Clay Anderson. Image credit: NASA TV

TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

The Expedition 15 crew aboard the International Space Station continued preparations Thursday for the arrival of a Progress cargo vehicle and space shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-118 in August.

Flight Engineer Clay Anderson conducted a "walk off" of the station's robotic arm, moving it into position in advance of Endeavour's arrival. During STS-118, the crew will use the robotic arm to install the newly delivered S5 truss to the S4 solar array truss.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov conducted a test of the TORU manual docking system. TORU serves as a backup for the Kurs automated docking system, which is the primary docking system for Progress cargo crafts.

The Progress 24 cargo craft will undock from the Pirs docking compartment on Aug. 1, burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere as it deorbits. Progress 26 is scheduled for launch on Aug. 2 and will reach the station on Aug. 5. Two days later on Aug. 7, space shuttle Endeavour is targeted for launch with a station rendezvous and docking planned for Aug. 9.

On Monday, Anderson and Yurchikhin conducted a 7-hour, 41 minute spacewalk. Anderson jettisoned a 1,400 pound, refrigerator-size ammonia reservoir known as the Early Ammonia Servicer by pushing it opposite of the station's direction of travel. Anderson and Yurchikhin also installed a television camera support or stanchion, reconfigured a power supply for an antenna assembly, and performed several get-ahead tasks.

+ Read more about the spacewalk http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/e15_eva_072307.html

+ Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + View crew daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html