SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Spacewalkers Go to Work to Expand Station* 26 OCTOBER 2007

STS-120 Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock kicked off STS-120’s first spacewalk at 6:02 a.m. EDT to prepare Harmony for removal from Discovery’s payload bay. The excursion is scheduled to wrap up at about 12:32 p.m.

Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli is the spacewalk coordinator, assisting the spacewalkers with their tasks from inside the spacecraft. Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Clay Anderson and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani are at the controls of the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm.

The spacewalkers have removed and stowed the S-band Antenna Structural Assembly. They also secured a Payload and Data Grapple Fixture onto Harmony that could not be in place during launch, removed contamination covers and disconnected the power cables linking Harmony to Discovery.

The station robotic arm operators are removing Harmony from the payload bay and will move it toward its position on Unity. Meanwhile, the spacewalkers are preparing the P6 truss for its relocation.