SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 18 October 2007

*Crews Prepare for Arrivals and Departures*

Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko with SAFERImage above: Commander Peggy Whitson (foreground) and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko work with a Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) unit Wednesday in the Quest airlock of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

As the Expedition 15 crew prepares for departure on Sunday, the Expedition 16 crew is getting ready for the arrival of space shuttle Discovery next week.

The Expedition 15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, conducted Soyuz descent training Wednesday. Joining them was Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who arrived on the station Friday, Oct. 12, with the Expedition 16 crew, Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko.

Yurchikhin, Kotov and Shukor will depart aboard their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft Sunday. Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, who joined Expedition 15 in June, will remain onboard as a member of Expedition 16, until his replacement, astronaut Dan Tani, arrives on the STS-120 shuttle mission later this month.

The two crews will participate in a change of command ceremony on Friday, as Expedition 15 formally hands over command of the station to Expedition 16.

Throughout the week, Whitson and her crewmates have been preparing the spacesuits and hardware for use during U.S. spacewalks scheduled for the STS-120 mission and afterwards. On Wednesday, Whitson and Malenchenko checked out the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) hardware. Essentially a “life jacket” for spacewalks, SAFER is a self-contained maneuvering unit worn by astronauts like a backpack.

+ Read more about the docking http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition16/exp16_adv.html + View crew daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html + Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + Read more about Expedition 16 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition16/index.html