SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

The Expedition 14 crew continued with preparations for a Feb. 22 spacewalk this week. The spacewalkers have conducted leak checks and have installed lights and additional equipment on their Russian Orlan space suits.

The crew conducted its Orlan dry run Tuesday morning. Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin began preparing their Russian suits around 5 a.m. EST and donning their suits for a communications and systems test.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will participate in their increment’s fifth spacewalk – a record for station crews. They will attempt to free a stuck antenna on the ISS Progress 23 docked to the aft end of the Zvezda service module. They will also check on navigation systems in preparation for the summer docking of a European cargo craft known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle.

+ Read more about the Feb. 22 spacewalk http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/exp14_eva17.html

+ Expedition 14 Mission Status Briefing Materials, Jan. 26, 2007 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/exp14_msb_012607.html + Read more about Expedition 14 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/index.html + Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + View crew's daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html