Preparations Underway For Saturday Spacewalk

The STS-118 and Expedition 15 crews fielded questions Friday from reporters in the United States and Canada, during the traditional on-orbit news conference, NASA tells ANN.

During the event, STS-118 Commander Scott Kelly said the crew agreed with the Mission Management Team's (MMT) decision Thursday night, 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."

As ANN reported, following several days of debate and analysis, managers decided not to attempt a repair of damaged tiles on the heat shield of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

In other activities, on Friday crew continued transferring cargo and preparing for Saturday's spacewalk. Crewmembers were also kept busy 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 1001 EDT Saturday.

The cargo transfers have been ongoing since shortly after Endeavour arrived August 10. STS-118 delivered supplies and equipment to the orbital outpost and will return unneeded station items and science experiments to Earth.

FMI: www.nasa.gov