[sarex] Crews Enter Harmony, Prepare for Second Spacewalk

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Crews Enter Harmony, Prepare for Second Spacewalk

27 October 2007*

STS-120 and Expedition 15 crew members talk to press Image Above: 
STS-120 and Expedition 16 crew members gather in the new Harmony module 
to talk to the press. Image credit: NASA TV
TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO 
:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

The hatch of Harmony was opened at 8:24 a.m. EDT Saturday. Station 
Commander Peggy Whitson and Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli – who is 
from Italy, where the module was built – were the first to enter, and 
took advantage of the opportunity to remark on the appropriateness of 
its name.

“We think Harmony is a very good name for this module,” Whitson said, 
“because it represents the culmination of a lot of international partner 
work and will allow international partner modules to be added on.”

Crew members spent part of Saturday hooking Harmony systems up for use. 
After the module’s ventilation system was up and running, some crew 
members were able to take time out from their work for interviews with a 
few television stations. They answered questions on subjects ranging 
from the challenges of the missions to the historic significance of 
having Whitson, the first female commander of the station, in space at 
the same time as Pam Melroy, the second female commander for the shuttle.

The other major tasks for the day centered around preparations for the 
mission’s second spacewalk on Sunday. Mission Specialist Scott 
Parazynski and the station’s newly arrived flight engineer, Daniel Tani, 
are scheduled to leave the station at 5:58 a.m.

*Mission Information*
+ STS-120 Mission Overview 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts120/index.html>
+ Harmony Node 2 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/harmony_payload.html> 

+ Space Shuttle Discovery 
<http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/discovery-info.html>