[sarex] Crews Holds Joint News Conference

[Arthur Rowe]

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
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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.