SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Crew Holds Joint News Conference*

The Expedition 15 and STS-118 crews Image above: The Expedition 15 and STS-118 crews participate in a joint crew news conference. Image: NASA TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

The STS-118 and Expedition 15 crews fielded questions today from reporters in the United States and Canada during the traditional on-orbit news conference.

During the event, Kelly said the crew agreed with the Mission Management Team’s (MMT) decision not to have spacewalkers repair damage on Space Shuttle Endeavour’s heat shield. “We are absolutely behind the MMT,” he said. “We think they absolutely did the right decision.”

After several days of data collection and analysis, managers decided not to attempt a repair of the damaged tiles on the heat shield of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

In other activities today, the crew has been transferring cargo and preparing for Saturday’s spacewalk and troubleshooting a problem with an internal communications system.

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 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.