[sarex] Spacewalkers Go to Work to Expand Station

[Arthur Rowe]

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.