Lopez-Alegria Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married. Born in Madrid, Spain. US Navy US Navy

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 14 - 1992. Active Entered space service: 31 March 1992. Number of Flights: 4.00. Total Time: 257.95 days. Number of EVAs: 10. Total EVA Time: 2.82 days.

NAME: Michael E. Lopez-Alegria (Commander, USN)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born May 30, 1958, in Madrid, Spain. Considers both Madrid, Spain, and Mission Viejo, California, to be his hometowns. Married to the former Daria Robinson of Geneva, Switzerland. He enjoys sports, traveling, cooking. His mother, Louise Lopez-Alegria, resides in Mission Viejo, California. His father, Eladio Lopez-Alegria, resides in Madrid, Spain. Her parents, Professor Stuart and Margareta Robinson, reside in Geneva Switzerland.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Mission Viejo High School, Mission Viejo, California, in 1976; received a bachelor of science degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1980; a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1988.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member, Society of Experimental Test Pilots; Association of Naval Aviation.

EXPERIENCE:

Following flight training, Lopez-Alegria was designated a Naval Aviator on September 4, 1981. He then served as a flight instructor in Pensacola, Florida, until March 1983. His next assignment was to a fleet electronic reconnaissance squadron in Rota, Spain. There he served as a pilot and mission commander aboard EP-3E aircraft, flying missions in the Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic, Baltic Sea and Central America. In 1986 he was assigned to a two year cooperative program between the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. His final tour before being assigned to NASA was at the Naval Air Test Center as an engineering test pilot and program manager. He has accumulated 4,000 pilot hours in over 30 different aircraft types.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in March 1992, Lopez-Alegria reported for training to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. Following one year of training and designation as an astronaut, he was assigned as the Astronaut Office technical point of contact to the Space Shuttle Orbiter, Main Engine, Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank projects. His next assignment was to the Kennedy Space Center where he provided crew representation on orbiter processing issues and provided direct crew support during launches and landings.

From October 20 to November 5, 1995, Lopez-Alegria served as a mission specialist and flight engineer aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-73, the second United States Microgravity Laboratory mission. The mission focused on materials science, biotechnology, combustion science, the physics of fluids, and numerous scientific experiments housed in the pressurized Spacelab module. Lopez-Alegria served as the flight engineer during the ascent and entry phases of flight, and was responsible for all operations of the "blue" shift on orbit. In completing his first space flight, Lopez-Alegria orbited the Earth 256 times, traveled over 6 million miles, and logged a total of 15 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes and 21 seconds in space.

Lopez-Alegria currently serves as NASA Director of Operations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia.

• 20 October 1995 Flight: STS-73. Flight Up: STS-73. Flight Back: STS-73. Flight Time: 15.91 days.

• 11 October 2000 Flight: STS-92. Flight Up: STS-92. Flight Back: STS-92. Flight Time: 12.90 days.

• 24 November 2002 Flight: STS-113. Flight Up: STS-113. Flight Back: STS-113. Flight Time: 13.78 days.

• 18 September 2006 Flight: ISS EO-14. Flight Up: Soyuz TMA-9. Flight Back: Soyuz TMA-9. Flight Time: 215.35 days.

5 December 1992 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 14 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Four pilots and 15 mission specialists, nine civilians and ten military. Chosen from 2054 applicants, 87 of which screened in December 1991/January 1992. Five additional international astronauts.

The RSRM-76 solid rocket boosters separated at 23:19 GMT and main engine cut-off (MECO) came at 23:25 GMT. External tank ET-104 separated into a 74 x 323 km x 51.6 deg orbit. At apogee at 00:01 GMT on Oct 12, Discovery's OMS engines fired to raise perigee to a 158 x 322 km x 51.6 deg orbit; ET-104 re-entered over the Pacific around 00:30 GMT. At Oct 12 on 03:01 GMT the NC1 burn raised the orbit to 180 x 349 km; NC3 on Oct 12 to 311 x 375 km; and the TI burn at 14:09 GMT on Oct 13 to 375 x 381 km x 51.6 deg. Discovery's rendezvous with the International Space Station came at 15:39 GMT on Oct 13, with docking at 17:45 GMT. The spaceship docked with PMA-2, the docking port on the +Y port of the Space Station's Unity module. Hatch was open to PMA-2 at 20:30 GMT the same day.

STS-92 Cargo Manifest

• Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System + 3 EMU spacesuits
• Bay 5 Port: Adapter Beam with DDCU-HP control unit
• Bay 5 Starboard: Adapter Beam with DDCU-HP control unit
• Bay 7-8: Spacelab Pallet MD003 with PMA-3
• Bay 10-12: ISS Z1 first segment of the space station truss
• Bay 13 Adapter Beam with IMAX Cargo Bay Camera
• Sill: Canadarm RMS 301

Total payload bay cargo: ca. 14,800 kg

The Z1 first segment of the space station truss was built by Boeing/Canoga Park and was 3.5 x 4.5 meters in size. It was attached to the +Z port on Unity. Z1 carried the control moment gyros, the S-band antenna, and the Ku-band antenna.

PMA-3, built by Boeing/Huntington Beach, was docked to the -Z port opposite Z1. PMA-3 was installed on a Spacelab pallet for launch.

On October 14 at 16:15 GMT the Z1 segment was unberthed from the payload bay and at around 18:20 GMT it was docked to the zenith port on the Unity module.

On October 15 at 14:20 GMT the ODS airlock was depressurised, beginning a spacewalk by Bill McArthur and Leroy Chiao. Official NASA EVA duration (battery power to repress) was 6 hours 28 minutes.

The second spacewalk was on October 16, with Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria. The suits went to battery power at 14:15 GMT and Wisoff left the airlock at 14:21 GMT. Repressurisation began at 21:22 GMT for a duration of 7 hours 07minutes.

Leroy Chiao and Bill McArthur began the third STS-92 EVA at 15:30 GMT on October 17, completing their work at 22:18 GMT for a total time of 6 hours 48 minutes.

After the spacewalk, Discovery completed the second of the three station reboosts scheduled for STS-92. They fired reaction control system jets in a series of pulses of 1.4 seconds each, over a 30-minute period, gently raising the station's orbit by about 3.1 km.

The last of four successful spacewalks began on 18 October at 16:00 GMT and ended at 22:56 GMT, lasting 6 hours and 56 minutes. Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria each jetted slowly through space above Discovery's cargo bay.

After the space walk, Discovery completed the third and final reboost of the space station.

On 19 October the astronauts worked within the ISS. They completed connections for the newly installed Z1 external framework structure and transferred equipment and supplies for the Expedition One first resident crew of the Station. The crew also tested the four 290-kg gyroscopes in the truss, called Control Moment Gyros, which will be used to orient the ISS as it orbits the Earth. They will ultimately assume attitude control of the ISS following the arrival of the U.S. Laboratory Destiny. The tests and the transfer of supplies into the Russian Zarya Module took longer than expected. As a result, the crew's final departure from the Station's Unity module was delayed. Melroy and Wisoff took samples from surfaces in Zarya to study the module's environment. They then unclogged the solid waste disposal system in the Shuttle's toilet, which was restored to full operation after a brief interruption in service.

Discovery undocked from the ISS at 16:08 GMT on 20 October. The final separation burn was executed about 45 minutes after undocking. The crew had added 9 tonnes to the station's mass, bringing it to about 72 tonnes. The return to earth, planned for 22 October, was delayed repeatedly due to high winds at the Kennedy landing site. The landing was finally made at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 24, at 22:00 GMT.

Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Bill McArthur, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Lopez-Alegria and Koichi Wakata rocketed away from Launch Pad 39-A at 6:17 p.m. Central time, lighting up the central Florida skies as they began their pursuit of the international complex. At the time of launch, the ISS was orbiting at an altitude of about 230 statute miles over the Indian Ocean, east of India.

Less than nine minutes after liftoff, Discovery's astronauts went to work to prepare the Shuttle's systems for their planned 11-day mission. The first major task on the flight plan was to open Discovery's cargo bay doors prior to receiving a "go" for orbital operations from Ascent Flight Director Wayne Hale. The astronauts are expected to set up computers and flight deck gear before beginning an eight-hour sleep period at 11:17 p.m. Central time. The crew will be awakened at 7:17 a.m. Thursday morning to begin its first full day in space.

With this evening's successful launch behind them, Discovery's astronauts will turn their attention to their chase of the International Space Station, performing several firings of the ship's jet thrusters over the next two days to set up a docking with the outpost on Friday at 12:43 p.m. Central time. Over the ensuing week, the crew will install the so-called Z1 truss structure and a third Pressurized Mating Adapter to the Unity module and will perform four space walks to electrically connect the new components.

The Station itself continues to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes in good shape with the exception of two sets of batteries in the Zvezda Service Module which have been disconnected from the module's electrical system because of suspected problems with voltage converters. Battery component spares are expected to be launched on the next unmanned Progress resupply ship to the ISS in November for installation by the first resident crew. Meanwhile, Zvezda is operating normally on six healthy batteries with more than enough electrical power for ISS systems.

After an engine firing to circularize its orbit, Discovery will be flying at an altitude of about 190 statute miles in pursuit of the international station and its linkup Friday afternoon.

The STS-92 crew was awakened at 7:17 a.m. Central time with the song, "Incense And Peppermint" by the group, "Strawberry Alarm Clock". The tune is part of the "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" movie soundtrack and was played for the crew members, who are fans of the film.

Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Pam Melroy will fire Discovery's thrusters in a continuing series of burns today to refine the Shuttle's approach to the International Space Station, and will check out some of the tools their crewmates will use to provide them with navigation information during the final phases of the Shuttle's approach to the Station for docking. Discovery's linkup to the ISS is planned for 12:43 p.m. Central time Friday afternoon.

It will be a day of preparations for Discovery's astronauts as Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Bill McArthur, Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria check out the space suits they will wear during four consecutive days of orbital construction space walks. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata will power up Discovery's 50-foot long robot arm to ensure it is operating properly and will use it to conduct a photographic survey of the payload bay and the new Space Station components housed inside. In the International Space Station control room in Mission Control, flight controllers continue to prepare the station for the arrival of Discovery's crew by warming up the Unity module and its attached docking port to maintain comfortable working conditions for the astronauts. Discovery's crew will enter the Unity module on Saturday to transfer logistical supplies and hardware associated with the installation of the first external truss structure for the complex.

Over the course of the next week, through the space walks and the use of the Shuttle's robot arm, the crew will install both the Z1 truss assembly and Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 to the Unity module of the Station. That adapter is a new docking port for the ISS. The Z1 truss provides a structural backbone for the Station, with four Control Moment Gyroscopes that will be used to maintain the Station's attitude or orientation in space. The truss also houses key communications gear. The truss assembly will support the large solar arrays that will be delivered during the next Shuttle mission, STS-97.

Discovery is orbiting at an altitude of about 200 statute miles with all of its systems operating in perfect shape.

The crew found everything in good shape aboard the Shuttle, although a failure in one of Discovery's communications systems may prevent Mission Control from visually following many of the crew's activities through live television. At about 9 a.m. Central today, flight controllers noted a failure in Discovery's Ku-Band communications system, a system used for high-rate communications - including television -- that includes a dish-shaped antenna in the Shuttle's cargo bay. The failure, still being analyzed by engineers, prevents the system from transmitting or receiving any usable communications. The Ku-Band system initially worked well when activated yesterday, only a few hours after launch. The Shuttle has other communications systems that are operating well. The loss of the Ku-Band system will not impact the crew's ability to successfully complete all of the flight's objectives. However, the failure of the Ku-Band system may drastically reduce the potential for live television to be transmitted to the ground for the remainder of the mission.

Discovery is trailing the International Space Station by about 1,680 statute miles, continuing to close in on the orbiting complex at a rate of 201 statute miles with each orbit. Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Pam Melroy fired the Shuttle's engines twice today to adjust the rate at which Discovery is closing on the station. The continuing series of rendezvous engine firings is planned to culminate in Duffy manually guiding Discovery to a docking with the outpost at 12:45 p.m. CDT Friday. The final phase of the rendezvous is planned to begin with a Terminal Intercept engine firing planned at 9:09 a.m. CDT Friday, when Discovery reaches a point about nine statute miles behind the station.

Also today, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata powered up Discovery's robotic arm, checking out its operation in a survey of the cargo bay and finding everything in order. While that activity was under way on the Shuttle's upper deck, astronauts Leroy Chiao, Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria worked in the lower deck, or middeck, to check out the spacesuits that will be worn during four planned spacewalks. All of the suits and equipment are in excellent shape. Astronaut Bill McArthur will join Chiao, Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria in conducting those spacewalks, planned to begin on Sunday, that will complete connections of the new station components.

The crew will begin a sleep period at 9:17 p.m. CDT and awaken at 4:17 a.m. CDT Friday for day three of the mission. Discovery is in an orbit with a high point of 235 statute miles and a low point of 188 statute miles.

Discovery latched onto the station at 12:45 p.m. CDT, completing a perfect rendezvous that had been under way since Discovery's launch on Wednesday. Later, Astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria opened the outermost hatch to the station at about 3:30 p.m. CDT. Soon thereafter, at about 4:15 p.m., Lopez-Alegria opened the hatch into the station's Unity module, and Duffy entered the orbiting outpost, followed closely by Lopez-Alegria and fellow crew members Leroy Chiao and Pilot Pam Melroy. The crew then began transferring equipment and supplies from Discovery to the station, continuing to set up the complex for the arrival of the first resident crew, a mission called Expedition 1 that is planned to launch at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, at the aft controls in Discovery's cockpit, Astronaut Bill McArthur and Japanese Astronaut Koichi Wakata again powered up the Shuttle's mechanical arm. Wakata and McArthur, the backup arm operator for the mission, maneuvered the robotic arm for a camera survey of the station and the Shuttle's payload bay. Tomorrow, Wakata will use the arm to attach the first of two major components Discovery has brought to the complex - an exterior framework that houses gyroscopes and communications equipment called the Z-1 truss.

Flight controllers have decided to attempt no further troubleshooting of Discovery's Ku-Band communications system which failed yesterday. The failure will reduce the amount of television that can be transmitted to the ground during the mission, however the crew did send television of the docking and entry into the station to the ground today through alternate communications systems. A few such opportunities for television will be available each day during the remainder of the flight, although they will usually be only a few minutes in length. Flight controllers also use a sequential still video system, a still image updated every few seconds, to follow activities aboard the Shuttle.

The crew will begin a sleep period at 9:17 p.m. CDT and awaken at 5:17 a.m. CDT Saturday for day four of the mission.

Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Bill McArthur, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Lopez-Alegria and Koichi Wakata began their day shortly after 5 a.m. Central time, preparing shuttle systems for their linkup to the new station at about 12:46 p.m. Central time.

As of about 6:45 this morning, the shuttle trailed the station by about 650 statute miles and was closing in by about 300 miles with each orbit of the Earth. The rate of closure will slow dramatically, however, as Duffy and Melroy conduct a series of jet firings to place the shuttle directly below the station late this morning for the final phase of its approach for docking. The final major maneuver, called the Terminal Initiation burn, will occur when Discovery reaches a point about eight nautical miles directly behind the station.

As Discovery moves within about a half-mile of the station, Duffy will take over manual control of the shuttle's approach, flying the shuttle from controls in the aft cockpit. Discovery will arrive at a point about 600 feet directly below the station about 10:38 a.m. Central, and then will begin a half-circle of the orbiting outpost. Discovery will pass about 350 feet in front of the station and then move to a point about 250 feet directly above it about 11:05 a.m. Central.

Duffy will then begin to descend toward the station and, about 11:15 a.m. Central, hold position at a point about 170 feet away. Duffy will maintain that distance for almost one hour to allow the station to move within range of Russian ground communications stations to monitor the shuttle's approach and docking. At 12:34 p.m., Duffy will hold position again briefly at a point about 30 feet from the station to verify the shuttle and station docking mechanisms are precisely aligned. Docking is expected about 12 minutes later with the shuttle contacting the station at a slow rate of about a tenth of a foot per second. At the time of docking, the ISS and Discovery will be flying over the Ukraine.

The shuttle's KU band communications system remains inoperative as engineers continue to review data regarding its sudden loss yesterday. Although there is no conventional television available from Discovery, the loss of the KU system has no impact to mission objectives.

Discovery is currently orbiting at an altitude of about 190 statute miles, circling the Earth every 90 minutes.

Japanese Astronaut Koichi Wakata, at controls in the shuttle cockpit, deftly maneuvered Discovery's robotic arm to lift the framework, called the Z1 truss, out of the shuttle's payload bay and berth it to a port on the station's Unity connecting module. The berthing was the first time the U.S.-developed attachment system has been used in orbit, and the equipment worked flawlessly. Over the course of the station's future assembly, similar attachment systems will be used over 100 times. Astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria, looking out of the berthing port's hatch window in Unity, provided Wakata with visual cues as to the framework's alignment.

The berthing occurred about two hours behind schedule due to a short-circuit aboard the shuttle early in the crew's day that cut off power to some equipment Wakata would need. The short cut power to three pieces of equipment: an Orbiter Interface Unit that provides data and commanding from the shuttle to station systems; an Orbiter Space Vision System that provides a computerized alignment aid for operating the robotic arm; and a television camera located at the bottom, or keel, of the payload bay that faces upward to provide a supplementary visual cue for maneuvering the truss structure. Flight controllers and the crew quickly developed a plan to use backup equipment and alternate power to regain all functions except the keel camera, and Wakata began lifting the truss from the shuttle bay about 2 hours and 15 minutes later than originally planned.

The backup arrangement worked perfectly. The electrical bus that experienced the short will remain powered off and will have no impact on the rest of the mission's activities. Wakata latched the truss to the station at 1:20 p.m. as the complex flew 240 statute miles above southern Russia.

Because activities were behind schedule following the morning workaround, flight controllers opted to defer the transfer of some gear from the station's Unity module to the Zarya module until the crew next enters the station, planned for day nine of the mission. In Unity, Pilot Pam Melroy and crewmate Jeff Wisoff opened the hatch where the new truss was attached and, inside a pressurized dome, installed grounding connections between the framework and the station. Afterward, the crew exited the station, and, at 5:57 p.m. CDT, Lopez-Alegria and Commander Brian Duffy sealed the station's outermost hatch.

Duffy and Melroy then lowered Discovery's cabin pressure in preparation for a space walk by astronauts Leroy Chiao and Bill McArthur planned to begin at 9:32 a.m. Sunday. Reducing the cabin pressure from a sea-level pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) to a pressure of about 10.2 psi is part of a protocol that purges nitrogen from the space walker's body to prevent decompression sickness. Chiao and McArthur spent the last couple of hours of their day preparing equipment in the shuttle's lower deck and airlock for tomorrow's venture outside the cabin. During the space walking construction work, the first of four space walks planned during Discovery's mission, the two will connect electrical and computer data cables between the newly attached truss and Unity and deploy two communications antennas from the truss.

The crew begins a sleep period at 9:17 p.m. today and will awaken at 5:17 a.m. Sunday to begin preparations for the six and a half-hour space walk.

Earlier this morning, space station flight controllers in Houston successfully activated and checked out controllers and power sources for Unity's common berthing mechanism, preparing it for the Z1 installation. Discovery's robot arm will be powered up at 7:37 a.m. by NASDA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Mission Specialist Mike Lopez-Alegria. Wakata will maneuver the arm to the Z1 truss in Discovery's payload bay, grappling the box-like frame about 8:20 a.m.

A series of capture latches that secures the truss in place will be commanded open and Wakata will gently raise the Z1 out of the payload bay. With the truss firmly in its grip, the arm will be maneuvered to a position called low hover and will remain during a final inspection to ensure that all seals and petals on the common berthing mechanism are properly aligned for the final installation. Commander Brian Duffy will maneuver Discovery into the proper orientation for installation as the Z1 is moved to its capture position. A series of four "ready to latch" indicators are the signal for Discovery's crew to issue the final capture command, and the Z1 truss should be attached to the Space Station shortly after 10 a.m. today.

Using a laptop computer, Pilot Pam Melroy will command 16 bolts to tighten in a four-stage process to secure the Z1 truss to the Unity module, as Wakata releases the Shuttle's robot arm and moves it back to its cradled position alongside the payload bay. Final connections and outfitting work for the Z1 truss will be accomplished by space-walking astronauts Bill McArthur, Leroy Chiao, Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria. Sunday, during the first of four scheduled spacewalks for this flight, McArthur and Chiao will connect a series of power cables, an S-band communications assembly, install a Space to Ground Antenna and boom assembly and install an EVA tool stowage box on the port side of the structure.

With the Z1 installation complete, the astronauts will enter the Zarya module to transfer equipment and supplies for the first resident crew expected to arrive later this month. McArthur and Chiao will configure Discovery's middeck in preparation for Sunday's spacewalk, staging some of the tools, tether and hardware they will use during their planned 6½-hour EVA.

In a 6-hour, 28-minute space walk, McArthur and Chiao connected 10 electrical umbilicals to provide power to heaters and conduits located on the Z1 truss, relocated and deployed two communication antenna assemblies and installed a toolbox for use during future on-orbit construction. The EVA began at 9:27 a.m. CDT and ended at 3:55 p.m. This was the seventh Space Station assembly space walk, the 51st EVA in the Space Shuttle program and the 90th by Americans in the history of the U.S. space program.

Astronaut Koichi Wakata was again at the controls of the Shuttle's robotic arm, using it to move the two astronauts around Discovery's payload bay and the Space Station. McArthur spent most of the time on the end of the mechanical arm working through the long list of cable connections and other tasks. Chiao worked from the end of the arm late in the space walk as he manually unfolded the large ISS Ku-band antenna to its deployed position. That system will be activated next February.

Both astronauts spent the first hour of the EVA deploying tools and EVA aids including foot restraints and tethers. Following the setup, the astronauts worked to connect the first six umbilical cables between Unity and the truss structure. With the first set of cables attached, McArthur and Chiao removed the S-band Antenna Subassembly (SASA) from its launch position on the Z1 truss and placed it in a temporary location where it will remain until it is moved and activated during the STS-97 mission in late November. The SASA was launched in the position where two power converter units will be installed during the third space walk on Tuesday. A second set of four cables was connected before McArthur and Chiao installed the Space to Ground Antenna (SGANT), deploying its antenna dish. The antenna dish was removed from its launch location on the Z1 truss with Chiao standing on the robotic arm as McArthur unbolted the dish assembly. The two space walkers also relocated a tool stowage box, located on the support structure for PMA-3 in Discovery's payload bay, for use during future on-orbit construction.

In tomorrow's EVA, the second team of space walkers on this flight, Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria, will perform chores in helping to install the Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 (PMA3) to which Space Shuttle Endeavour will dock in early December. The two also will release latches at the top of the Z1 Truss which will be used to hold the large solar arrays that will be brought up on that flight.

The astronauts are due to start their sleep period at 9:17 p.m. CDT and be awakened at 5:17 a.m. Monday.

Mission Specialists Bill McArthur and Leroy Chiao will connect two sets of cables to provide power to heaters and conduits located on the Z1 truss, relocate two communication antenna assemblies and install a toolbox for use during future on-orbit construction. The space walk is scheduled to begin about 9:45 this morning. Japanese Astronaut Koichi Wakata will once again be at the controls of the shuttle's robotic arm, using it to move the two astronauts around Discovery's payload bay and the space station.

Chiao, designated EV1 and recognizable by the red bands on the legs of his spacesuit, and McArthur, designated EV2 in a solid white suit, will devote the first hour of their space walk to set-up activities in Discovery's payload bay, deploying tools and EVA aids including foot restraints and tethers. With that complete, the first task will be to connect the first six umbilical cables between Unity and the truss structure. To ensure that the connectors the astronauts will be working with are not "hot," International Space Station controllers in Houston and Moscow will alternately power down two Russian-to-American Conversion Units, called RACUs. They provide power to some of the systems in the Unity module including the early communication system and some cabin fans. RACU 5 will be powered down to support the first cable installation and reactivated before the power down of RACU 6, ensuring that the Unity module will not be without power during the space walk activities.

A second set of four umbilical power cables will be connected later in the space walk once RACU 5 has been repowered, and RACU 6 deactivated.

Following the first cable installation task, McArthur and Chiao will remove the S-band Antenna Subassembly (SASA) from its launch position on the Z1 truss and place it in a temporary location until it is moved and activated during the STS-97 mission in late November. The SASA is launched in the position where two power conditioning systems - called DDCU-HPs - will be installed during their space walk on Tuesday. McArthur and Chiao will then turn their attention to installing the Space to Ground Antenna (SGANT) deploying its antenna dish. The antenna dish will be removed from its launch location on the Z1 truss with Chiao standing on the robotic arm as McArthur unbolts the dish assembly. Because of thermal limitations, the antenna dish needs to be attached to the boom assembly within an hour after being removed from its launch location.

McArthur and Chiao also will relocate a tool stowage box, located on the support structure for PMA-3 in Discovery's payload bay, for use during future on-orbit construction activities before concluding their space walk and climbing back into Discovery's airlock.

Throughout the EVA, the second team of space walkers on this flight, Jeff Wisoff and Mike Lopez-Alegria, will act as in-cabin choreographers providing guidance and assistance to McArthur and Chiao and back-up support to robot arm operator Wakata.

Following the conclusion of the space walk, McArthur, Chiao, Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria will resize the spacesuits, recharging batteries and preparing them for the second of four consecutive days of EVAs to expand the International Space Station.

The two astronauts are scheduled to begin a planned 6½-hour space walk about 9:30 CDT this morning to install an additional docking port - Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 - and ready the Z1 Truss for installation of the large solar arrays that will be delivered by the next shuttle crew in late November. The first task for Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria will be to release the latches that hold the PMA-3 in place and to provide Koichi Wakata with visual cues as he uses the robotic arm to gently raise PMA-3 from its support platform in Discovery's payload bay.

As Wakata maneuvers PMA-3 to its new location on the Unity module, Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria will release latches at the top of the Z1 Truss and prepare the work surface of the attach point for the large solar arrays that will be delivered during the STS-97 mission in November. They will then work their way back to Unity to act as an extra set of eyes providing Wakata with guidance as he attaches the PMA-3. Once the crew sees a series of "ready to latch" indicators, Pilot Pam Melroy will use a laptop computer to command latches and bolts to secure the PMA to its new home on the Unity module, much as she did during the installation of the Z1 truss on Saturday. However, today she will command only the first of four stages of the bolting process to allow seals on both the PMA and the common berthing mechanism on Unity to reach thermal equilibrium. The final commanding will be done by the flight crew Tuesday morning, after flight controllers in Houston confirm that the temperature variances between the two seals are within acceptable limits.

In the ISS flight control room this morning, the Power, Heating, Articulation, Lighting and Control Officer - PHALCON - successfully completed work with the two Plasma Contactor Units (PCUs) mounted on the Z1 truss. The PCUs, which are designed to discharge electrical current on the station and in its immediate environment, were launched with their valves open to allow a continual discharge of xenon gas to prevent contamination of the units. This morning, the PHALCON powered on and purged the units, closed the valves and deactivated the PCUs. The units will be powered on during the STS-97 mission once the solar arrays are deployed and begin generating current.

Today's scheduled space walk will be the eighth space station assembly space walk, the 52nd EVA in the space shuttle program and the 91st by Americans in the history of the U.S. space program.

Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria began their spacewalk at 9:15 a.m. CDT, about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Their first job was to release the latches that held the docking port, Pressurized Mating Adapter 3, securely in Discovery's cargo bay. They helped Koichi Wakata, operating the robotic arm, providing eyes for him as he slowly raised the docking port from its support platform.

While Wakata maneuvered PMA-3 to its new location on the Unity module, opposite the Z1 truss installed Saturday, Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria released latches atop the Z1 truss and prepared an attach point for the large solar arrays that will be delivered during the STS-97 mission scheduled for launch next month. Next they worked their way back to Unity, again to act as an extra set of eyes for Wakata as he attached the docking port.

After Discovery astronauts saw a series of "ready to latch" indicators, Pilot Pam Melroy used a laptop computer to command latches and bolts to begin to secure the mating adapter to its new home on the station. She commanded only the first of four stages of the bolting process. The flight crew will do the final commanding Tuesday morning, after flight controllers in Houston confirm that the temperatures of seals on the docking port and Unity's Common Berthing Mechanism have become more nearly equal.

Monday's 7 hour, 7 minute spacewalk, which ended at 4:22 p.m., was the 52nd EVA in the Space Shuttle program and the 91st by Americans in the history of the U.S. space program. It brought to eight the total of ISS assembly spacewalks, with a total time of 55 hours, 50 minutes. With the addition of the 18,000-pound Z1 Truss on Saturday and the 3,000-pound mating adapter, the station has gained about 21,000 pounds during STS-92. It now weighs about 80 tons.

As the spacewalk was ending, Discovery Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Pam Melroy completed the first of three station reboosts scheduled for STS-92. They fired reaction control system jets in 18 pulses of 1.4 seconds each, over a 30-minute period, gently raising the station's orbit by about 1.7 statute miles.

Today's spacewalk began at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 4:18 p.m., almost exactly as planned. Total time of Tuesday's EVA was 6 hours, 48 minutes. That brings to 20 hours, 23 minutes the total time of the three spacewalks performed thus far in Discovery's mission, and the total time of space station construction spacewalks to 62 hours, 38 minutes. A fourth spacewalk is scheduled for Wednesday. It too will prepare the Z1 Truss for attachment of the solar arrays.

Chaio and McArthur were helped by the robot arm in moving around the station. Koichi Wakata and Mike Lopez-Alegria split the arm-operation duties on Tuesday, with Lopez-Alegria taking the first half.

The spacewalkers also completed power cable connections on both the Z1 truss and newly installed docking port, PMA-3. They connected and reconfigured cables to route power from Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 to PMA-3 for the arrival of Endeavour and the STS-97 crew next month. They also attached a second tool storage box on the Z1 truss, providing a place to hold the tools and spacewalking aids for future assembly flights. McArthur stocked the boxes with tools and hardware that had been attached to the Unity module. STS-96 Astronauts Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry had left the tools on the outside of Unity during a May 1999 spacewalk.

After today's spacewalk, Discovery Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Pam Melroy completed the second of the three station reboosts scheduled for STS-92. They fired reaction control system jets in a series of pulses of 1.4 seconds each, over a 30-minute period, gently raising the station's orbit by about 1.7 statute miles.

On Wednesday astronauts Jeff Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria are scheduled to perform the fourth and final spacewalk of the STS-92 flight. Among activities will be deployment of the Z1 utility tray, and opening and closing of the Z1 Manual Berthing Mechanism latches. Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria also will test the SAFER, or "simplified aid for EVA rescue," a backpack that could enable an astronaut drifting away from the shuttle or the station to get back to the spacecraft. Finally, they will test methods for rescuing an incapacitated astronaut.

Each astronaut performed one gentle 50-foot flight with the nitrogen powered SAFER (for Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue). Each remained attached to the shuttle with a long tether during the test, and was accompanied by the other astronaut, moving with him on the end of Discovery's robotic arm.

This was the last of four successful spacewalks over four days that prepared the International Space Station for the arrival of its first crew next month. It also paved the way for future station expansion. The Wednesday spacewalk began at 10 a.m. CDT and ended at 4:56 p.m., lasting 6 hours and 56 minutes. It brings the total spacewalk time for the STS-92 mission to 27 hours and 19 minutes, and for all 10 space station assembly spacewalks on five shuttle missions to 69 hours and 34 minutes.

Lopez-Alegria and Wisoff, with Koichi Wakata operating the arm, completed a series of wrap-up tasks during the EVA. They removed a grapple fixture from the Z1 truss, opened and closed a latch assembly that will hold the solar array truss when it arrives in December, deployed a tray that will be used to provide power to the U.S. Laboratory Destiny, scheduled to be attached to the station early next year, and tested the manual berthing mechanism latches that will support Destiny.

Wisoff opened and closed the latches on the capture assembly for the P6 solar arrays using a pistol grip tool. With it he made more than 125 turns to open the latches, then closed and reopened them. He left the capture latch, called "the claw," ready to receive the solar arrays, to be installed by the STS-97 crew in December.

An exercise to test techniques for returning an incapacitated astronaut to the air lock was cancelled because of time constraints.

After the space walk, Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Pam Melroy completed their third and final reboost of the space station, firing Discovery's reaction control system jets in a series of 18 pulses over a 30-minute period to gently raise the station's orbit to prepare it for the arrival of the first resident crew in early November. This reboost added another 1.7 statute miles to the station's average altitude, making the total for the mission just over 5 miles.

In what have been termed "clear the deck" tasks by lead EVA Officer Darryl Schuck, Lopez-Alegria and Wisoff, with an assist from robot arm operator, Koichi Wakata, will remove a grapple fixture from the Z1 Truss, verify the operation of the latch assembly that will capture the solar array truss when it arrives in December, deploy a tray that will be used to provide power to the U.S. Laboratory "Destiny" when it arrives early next year, and test the performance of the manual berthing mechanism latches that will support Destiny.

If time permits, the space walkers will also evaluate two safety protocols - testing a small nitrogen-powered back pack that could allow astronauts to navigate back to the station or shuttle in the event their safety tethers became disconnected, and demonstrating techniques for assisting an incapacitated astronaut during a space walk.

Lopez-Alegria, Wisoff and Wakata will team up to deploy the Z1 tray, as Lopez-Alegria on the robot arm holds the tray in place while Wisoff removes a total of four pins and then raises the tray from its position on the truss. Lopez-Alegria will guide the tray into its fully deployed position and will hold it in place to allow Wisoff to install the pins and latches that will hold it in place.

Wisoff will cycle the latches on the capture assembly for the solar arrays by using a pistol grip tool and making more than 125 turns to open the latches. He will then close and reopen the latches to ensure they are working properly and will leave the RTAS capture latch - known as "the claw" - ready to support the installation of the P6 solar arrays by the STS-97 crew in December. He also will verify the operation of the manual berthing mechanism capture system on the truss that will be used during installation of the Destiny laboratory module early next year.

Following today's space walk, Commander Brian Duffy and Pilot Pam Melroy will once again pulse Discovery's reaction control system jets in a series of small firings to gently raise the station's orbit to prepare it for the arrival of the first resident crew in early November.

Discovery has two landing opportunities Monday at KSC, where the weather is expected to be questionable, and three at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The second KSC and first Edwards opportunities are on the same orbit, six minutes apart. Edwards will be activated for a possible Monday landing, but weather there is expected to be marginal. Weather conditions at KSC are not expected to improve over the next two days, while improvement in California is forecast.

For the first Monday landing opportunity - to KSC - Discovery would fire its orbital maneuvering system engines at 12:43 p.m. CDT to begin its descent from orbit, with landing to follow at 1:51 p.m. The second Florida opportunity is one orbit later with a 2:21 p.m. deorbit burn resulting in a landing at 3:28 p.m.

The first opportunity to Edwards would see a deorbit burn at 2:15 p.m. CDT with landing at 3:23 p.m. The second would have Discovery's deorbit burn take place at 3:51 p.m. with landing at 4:58 p.m. and the final opportunity one orbit later with an engine firing at 5:29 p.m. and landing at 6:35 p.m.

Flight controllers in Houston will work through Monday morning to develop a landing plan based on conditions at the two sites.

After "deorbit backout" -- undoing their preparation to come home on Sunday -- the crew spent much of the afternoon relaxing and communicating with their families via computer. STS-92 Mission Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Bill McArthur, Mike Lopez-Alegria, Jeff Wisoff and Koichi Wakata, are scheduled to go to bed tonight shortly after 9 p.m. and be awakened at 5:17 a.m. Monday.

The International Space Station, from which Discovery undocked Friday, continued to function well. The station flight control room in the Mission Control Center continued to monitor systems on board. They watched and commanded heaters on the huge gyroscopes on the newly installed Z1 truss. The gyros will provide attitude control for the ISS, and the heaters are designed to protect them from damage by the cold of space.

The station trails Discovery by 248 statute miles. The distance is increasing by 5.4 miles each 90-minute orbit of the Earth.

Discovery is targeting a landing later today, after poor weather conditions in Florida and California kept the crew in space two days longer than originally planned. Duffy and his crew mates - Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Bill McArthur, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Lopez-Alegria and NASDA Astronaut Koichi Wakata - will begin their preparations for a return trip to Earth about 8:30 this morning, in anticipation of a landing at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base later today.

With continuing strong winds, cloud cover and rain at the Florida landing site, a landing there today remains unlikely. However, there is one opportunity for the crew to land in Florida if weather conditions improve significantly. That opportunity would see a deorbit burn at 1:21 p.m. with landing to follow at 2:28 p.m. An opportunity to return to KSC one orbit earlier, on Orbit 200, has already been ruled out due to the crew's activity timeline

On the west coast, improving weather conditions at Edwards Air Force Base hold promise for Discovery's return. Entry Flight Director LeRoy Cain and his team will watch over the weather this morning and likely will adjust the crew's deorbit timeline to focus on the Edwards opportunities today.

On the first of two opportunities to land at Edwards today, Discovery's orbital maneuvering system engines would fire in a deorbit burn at 2:52 p.m. as it passes over the Indian Ocean, just north of Madagascar and east of Kenya, and land at 3:59 p.m. Discovery would encounter the first traces of the atmosphere while flying over the South Pacific, just south of the Tropic of Capricorn and east of Australia and continue its flight over the Pacific, passing well South of the Hawaiian Islands before arriving on the west coast of the United States. As it heads into Edwards Air Force Base, Discovery will pass just south of the Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands before crossing the California coastline over Los Angeles.

There is a second opportunity to Edwards with a deorbit burn starting the descent at 4:29 p.m. and landing at 5:35 p.m. A landing today brings to a close the 100th mission in Shuttle program history on a mission that paved the way for the first residents of the orbiting International Space Station.

Discovery touched down at 4 p.m. CDT and rolled to a stop on Edward's concrete runway at 4:0l, for a mission elapsed time of 12 days, 21 hours and 43 minutes.

The astronauts fired Discovery's orbital maneuvering system engines for the deobrit burn at 2:52 p.m. as the spacecraft was over the Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar and east of Kenya. Discovery felt the first traces of the atmosphere about 78 statute miles over the South Pacific, just south of the Tropic of Capricorn and east of Australia. The spacecraft passed south of Hawaii and crossed the California coast over Los Angeles. By the time it landed at Edwards, Discovery had traveled more than 5.3 million statute miles.

Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, Bill McArthur, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Lopez-Alegria and NASDA Astronaut Koichi Wakata spent 6 days, 21 hours and 23 minutes docked to the ISS. They left a larger and more complete station that they had helped prepare for the early November arrival of the first station crew. They added two major components, increasing the mass of the ISS by about 10 tons to a total of about 80 tons.

In addition to the total of 27 hours, 19 minutes spent outside the station on the four spacewalks, -- two each by Chiao, McArthur, Wisoff and Lopez-Alegria, the astronauts spent 27 hours and 4 minutes inside, completing connections with the new elements and transferring equipment and supplies for the Expedition 1 crew.

Discovery's crew is scheduled to spend Tuesday night at Edwards. They are to return to Houston on Wednesday, where the crew return ceremony will be held at Ellington Field's Hangar 990 at about 1:30 p.m.

Next week, the taxi crew will bring a new Soyuz to the station and remain on board the ISS for eight days. The Soyuz is scheduled to launch at 9:11 p.m. CST Oct. 29 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Docking to the station is scheduled for 11 p.m. CST Oct. 31. The taxi crew will undock the Soyuz now at the station and land Nov. 9. The crew, which consists of Russian Commander Sergei Zalyotin, European Space Agency Flight Engineer Frank DeWinne from Belgium and Russian Flight Engineer Yuri Lonchakov, will perform science experiments during their stay on board.

Endeavour is planned to launch from the Kennedy Space Center Nov. 10 between midnight and 4 a.m. EST. Endeavour's STS-113 flight will deliver the next segment of the station's backbone, the (P1) Truss, and the three members of the station's Expedition 6 station crew.

The Expedition 5 crewmembers - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - have already begun packing for their return to Earth aboard Endeavour.

On Thursday, from the robotic workstation in the Destiny lab, Whitson and Korzun successfully "flew" the space station robotic arm through a dry run of the procedure to install the P1 truss. Working in the station's Quest airlock, Whitson prepared the batteries and air regeneration system for the spacesuits that STS-113 spacewalkers Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington will wear when they conduct three spacewalks to help install and activate the P1 truss to the station.

Whitson's own science investigation on board the space station was completed this week with a final data collection. The experiment tests a drug that may prevent the formation of kidney stones during long duration space flights.

Flight controllers at Houston's Mission Control Center Houston sent new files to the three systems computers in the Destiny lab module this week. The computers run life support, thermal control and power systems in the lab. The new files upgraded the operating system in Destiny for the first time since it was mated to the station in February 2001.

The week started out with Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev making sure station systems are ready to support installation of the next piece of the orbiting outpost's truss structure. They performed a final checkout of the Mobile Transporter, Canadarm2, the Quest airlock, and the spacewalk tools and equipment that already are on board. After those activities were complete, they began pre-packing items that will come home with them aboard Endeavour, which is set to launch with a replacement crew between 11 p.m. Sunday and 3 a.m. Monday CST.

Once the Port One (P1)1 truss is installed, the Expedition 5 crew will hand over control of the station to Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineers Nikolai Budarin and Don Pettit and return home with Endeavour's crew - Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart and Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington.

The visiting taxi crew - Commander Sergei Zalyotin, European Space Agency Flight Engineer Frank DeWinne from Belgium and Russian Flight Engineer Yuri Lonchakov - will undock from the station at 2:41 p.m. CST on Saturday. Zalyotin will fire the Soyuz deorbit engines at 5:10 p.m., bringing his crew in for a landing on the Kazakh steppes at 6:04 p.m.

The taxi crew, which rode into orbit aboard an upgraded Soyuz TMA capsule with more legroom and more modern cockpit controls, displays and computers, will ride home in the older Soyuz TM-34 return vehicle that has been at the station since April. A fresh Soyuz is delivered to the ISS every six months to provide an assured return capability for station residents in the unlikely event they would need to come home early.

During their eight-day stay on the station, the taxi crew conducted a host of medical, protein crystal growth and materials processing experiments. With DeWinne leading the investigations, the crew looked at human physiology in microgravity and how crystals grow and alloys form inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox in the Destiny Laboratory module.

Flight controllers in Houston are troubleshooting with the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly in the Destiny lab. CDRA is a system of absorption beds, tubing and valves that remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere after it is expelled during breathing and vents it overboard. Two of six valves appear to be malfunctioning, causing the system to shut down several hours after it is started. The system supplements the station's Russian Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system when more than three crewmembers are on board.

Troubleshooters have confirmed that a recent lab systems software update is not the cause of the problems, and they are refining their activation procedures to try to support the upcoming shuttle and Expedition 6 crews with CDRA using additional ground commanding. Lithium hydroxide canisters, which absorb carbon dioxide through a chemical process, may also be used to supplement the primary system; one canister was used during some of the CDRA troubleshooting activities.

The Elektron unit that generates oxygen by separating the oxygen and hydrogen atoms from water molecules also is not working properly. Korzun and Treschev conducted troubleshooting activities this week and are scheduled to replace the unit's liquid electrolysis module on Sunday. Additional oxygen is available in the Progress vehicle docked to the aft end of Zvezda. Oxygen and nitrogen also are available in tanks attached to the Quest airlock. Oxygen also is available from Russian oxygen generating "candles."

Saturday's departure of the taxi crew will set the stage for the launch of the shuttle Endeavour. The crew arrived at the Kennedy Space Center last night, and the launch countdown began today. Endeavour will take the 1 truss structure and additional resupply items, as well as two replacement valves for the station's CDRA system to the ISS. The three-pound aluminum replacement valves are about 5 by 9 by 6 inches, and look like valves in a home air conditioning system.

On board the International Space Station, the current residents - Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - were told of Endeavour's on-time liftoff by spacecraft communicator Stan Love in the space station control center.

"Thanks so much for the play-by-play Stan. That was great," Whitson said in response to the news that the Expedition Six crew - Commander Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineers Nikolai Budarin and Don Pettit - were en route.

Once on orbit, Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart and Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, along with Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit will begin setting up equipment on board and preparing to open the shuttle's payload bay doors to begin orbital operations.

Endeavour is scheduled to dock to the station about 3:30 p.m. central time Monday, setting the stage for Tuesday's installation of the Port One (P1) truss to the International Space Station. As was the case during Atlantis' flight last month to deliver the Starboard One truss segment, three spacewalks will be conducted by Lopez-Alegria and Herrington to help activate the new truss' systems. P1 is the third truss segment to be launched this year. It is one of 11 truss segments that will form the structural backbone for the station and provide the cooling and support for new solar arrays to be delivered to the station next year.

Endeavour's crew will go to sleep just before 1 a.m. Sunday and will be awakened just before 9 a.m. to begin its first full day in orbit. The crew will begin check-outs of the Shuttle's robot arm, the spacesuits to be worn by Lopez-Alegria and Herrington during their spacewalks and the tools and mechanisms involved in Monday's rendezvous with the ISS.

Onboard the station, the Expedition Five crew, Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev, awakened at 7:45 a.m. to continue preparations for the arrival of Endeavour, and their replacement crew.

In preparation for Monday's docking, Endeavour's crew - Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, and the Expedition Six crew Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS science officer Don Pettit and flight engineer Nikolai Budarin - will verify operation of the equipment used during docking. The centerline camera will be installed in the docking system, the orbiter docking system ring will be extended and a variety of handheld cameras and distance-measuring devices will be checked out. In addition, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington will inspect and checkout the spacesuits they will wear during three scheduled spacewalks to install and outfit the P1 truss segment.

Monday's docking to the International Space Station is scheduled to occur about 3:26 p.m. central time and sets the stage for those three spacewalks to be conducted over a period of five days. The P1 truss is the third such segment to be launched this year, one of 11 truss segments that will form the structural backbone of the station. The trusses will also provide cooling and support for new solar arrays, which will be delivered to the station next year.

At 6:55 p.m., Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit will talk with reporters from USA Today and AP Radio News. The trio will become the sixth resident crew to live and work in space aboard the International Space Station, replacing the current Expedition Five residents who are beginning their 173rd day in space today.

In preparation for Monday's docking, Endeavour's crew - Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, and the Expedition Six crew Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and flight engineer Nikolai Budarin - verified operation of the equipment used to support a smooth rendezvous and soft docking. A camera was installed to give Wetherbee a view of the station's docking port through the shuttle's docking system, a shock-absorbing ring that will make the first contact was extended and a variety of handheld cameras and distance-measuring devices were checked out. In addition, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington inspected and checked out the spacesuits being delivered to the station for use on three spacewalks to install and outfit the P1 truss segment.

Checkout of the shuttle's Remote Manipulator System went smoothly today, but the robotic arm camera survey of Endeavour's payload bay ran a little longer than expected. The robotic arm's wrist roll joint was commanded in extra maneuvers to help work in lubrication that was applied during the arm's preflight servicing. The robotic arm is ready to support operations to remove Endeavour's primary cargo, the P1 or port truss, from the payload bay on Tuesday.

Also today, Bowersox, Budarin and Pettit spoke with reporters from USA Today and AP Radio News. The trio will become the sixth resident crew to live and work in space aboard the International Space Station, replacing the current Expedition Five residents.

Onboard the station, the Expedition Five crew, Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev, continued preparations for the arrival of Endeavour, and their replacement crew.

Endeavour's crew is scheduled to go to sleep about 11:20 p.m. Central time and awaken about 7:20 a.m. Monday.

The rendezvous and docking of Endeavour with shuttle Commander Jim Wetherbee at the controls went smoothly. Docking occurred about 248 statute miles above the South Pacific off the southeastern coast of Australia.

After successful leak checks, the last hatch between the two spacecraft was opened at 5:31 p.m. The Expedition 5 crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - welcomed the new arrivals to the orbiting laboratory to begin a week of docked operations. After greetings, the first item on the agenda was a safety briefing by Korzun.

Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin later installed their custom seatliners in the Soyuz spacecraft that could serve as a return vehicle in the unlikely event it became necessary to leave the station unexpectedly. Their call saying they had completed the installation and pressure checks of the Russian SOKOL re-entry suits made them station crewmembers. It also officially ended the Expedition 5 increment, after 171 days, 3 hours and 33 minutes.

Expedition 5 was launched last June 5 and has been on the station since June 7. The trio will return to Earth with the Endeavour crew, Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington.

During the week together at the station, Expedition 5 crewmembers will conduct extensive briefings for their successors, familiarizing them with their new home and the location and function of its equipment and experiments. They also will brief the Expedition 6 crew on the inventory and location of supplies aboard the station.

On Tuesday the shuttle and station crews will lift the new P1 truss segment from Endeavour's cargo bay with the shuttle's robotic arm, operated by Wetherbee. He will hand the P1 off to the Canadarm2, the station's arm, which Bowersox and Whitson will use to position it for installation.

Once remotely operated bolts have secured P1 to the S0 truss center, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington will begin the first of three spacewalks to make electrical, fluid and data connections between it and the rest of the station and to outfit the new truss segment.

Subsequent spacewalks will be made Thursday and Saturday. Each of the three spacewalks will be about 61/2 hours long.

Onboard the space station, the Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - awakened at 7:50 a.m. to continue preparations for the arrival of their latest guests, including their replacement crew.

After hatch opening and a safety briefing conducted by Korzun, the two crews will begin transferring supplies and equipment that will be needed during the three upcoming spacewalks, as well as the Expedition Six seat liners and reentry suits for the Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz serves as a lifeboat for the station, enabling a crew to come home quickly in the event of an emergency. Each crewmember has their own custom-fitted seat liner to cushion the effects of a Soyuz landing. The official exchange of resident crews aboard the station will be complete once the Expedition Six crew has transferred its seatliners to the Soyuz spacecraft and the Expedition Five crew transfers its seatliners over to Endeavour for the return trip home.

Over the next seven days, the astronauts and cosmonauts will work together to attach another truss to the space station, the Port 1 (P1) truss, and complete the changeover between the Expedition Five and Six crews. The first of three spacewalks to install and outfit the truss is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, to be conducted by Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington.

Endeavour's crew - Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Lopez-Alegria and Herrington, and the Expedition Six crew Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin - will begin rendezvous operations around 10:35 a.m. The final approach phase of the docking is scheduled to begin about 1 p.m. with hatch opening between the two spacecraft scheduled to occur at 4:45 p.m.

Beginning around 9:20 a.m., Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee will use the shuttle's robotic arm to lift the P1 truss from the cargo bay, then hand it off to the station's robotic arm. Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox and Expedition Five NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson will fly the station's robotic arm. Bowersox and Whitson will position the P1 for installation around 1 p.m.

About 2:20 p.m., after remotely-operated bolts have secured the P1 truss to the station's central Starboard Zero (S0) truss segment. Mission Specialists Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington will exit the station's Quest airlock to begin the first of the mission's three spacewalks. Lopez-Alegria will start by making connections between the P1 and the S0 while Herrington releases launch restraints on the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid cart. Lopez-Alegria also will install Spool Positioning Devices onto the station. Both spacewalkers will then remove a drag link on the P1 that served as a launch restraint.

The final major task of the 61/2-hour spacewalk is the installation by both spacewalkers of a Wireless video system External Transceiver Assembly (WETA) onto the Unity module. The WETA will be used to support helmet camera communications from future spacewalkers.

Endeavour Pilot Paul Lockhart will coordinate the spacewalk from the flight deck of the shuttle. During the spacewalk, the Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - will continue handover discussions with the Expedition Six crew - Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin.

P1 was removed from Endeavour's payload bay at 9:22 a.m. CST by the shuttle's robotic arm, operated by Commander Jim Wetherbee. He handed it off to the station's Canadarm2, operated by Expedition 6 commander Ken Bowersox and Expedition 5 NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson, and released the shuttle arm's grip on P1 a little before 11 a.m. Whitson and Bowersox maneuvered the 14-ton, 45-foot truss segment to its installation position.

P1 is the third segment of the Integrated Truss Structure to be installed this year. A fourth segment, the P6 truss, supports the 240-foot-long solar arrays atop the station. It was installed there in December 2000 and will be moved later to the left end of the station's backbone. At completion, the integrated truss will consist of 11 segments stretching the length of a football field.

The spacewalk began at 1:49 p.m., about 30 minutes earlier than planned, after the four bolts securing the P1 to the S0 truss centerpiece had been driven home by remote commands. The spacewalk ended a little before 8:35 p.m. for a total time of 6 hours and 45 minutes.

Herrington and Lopez-Alegria hooked up electrical connections between P1 and the station, installed spool positioning devices designed to ensure that quick disconnect devices in fluid lines will function properly, and released launch locks securing the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart, a kind of hand car for the truss railway. The two spacewalkers also removed two drag links, large metal rods that had supported P1 during launch, and stowed them in the P1 framework. Finally, after Herrington had topped off his oxygen supply in the airlock, they installed Node Wireless video system External Transceiver Assembly (WETA) antennas allowing reception from spacewalkers' helmet cameras without a shuttle present.

Endeavour Pilot Paul Lockhart, with help from Bowersox and Expedition 6 Science Officer Don Pettit, served as intravehicular officer during the spacewalk, coaching Lopez-Alegria and Herrington through their tasks and keeping them on the timeline.

The spacewalk was the 22nd station-based spacewalk, and brought the total time for space station spacewalks to 292 hours, 10 minutes. There have been 25 shuttle-based assembly spacewalks.

Lopez-Alegria, wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, and Herrington, in the all-white spacesuit, will conduct two more spacewalks, each scheduled for 61/2 hours, on Thursday and Saturday. Both will focus on making additional connections between the new truss segment and the station, and outfitting the P1.

Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev conducted handover discussions with their Expedition 6 successors, Bowersox, Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin, during parts of the Tuesday spacewalk.

In the afternoon, Endeavour's crew - Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart and Mission Specialists Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington - will take time to prepare for the second spacewalk of the mission, scheduled for Thanksgiving Day. The second spacewalk will focus on making additional connections between the new Port 1 (P1) truss segment and the station and outfitting the P1 for future use.

The Expedition Five and Six crews also will continue handover discussions and training as Expedition Six - Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin - begins their stay. Expedition Five - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev -- is completing six months in orbit as they prepare to return home.

Wetherbee, Lockhart, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington will take a break from their moving duties at about 2:30 p.m. CST for interviews with KFOR-TV of Oklahoma City, OK; the Chickasaw Times newspaper; and the Cedena Ser radio network.

This morning, Mission Control radioed up birthday greetings to Wetherbee, who is celebrating his 50th birthday in orbit today.

The crew of Endeavour was awakened at 7:20 a.m. and the Expedition Six crew was awakened at 7:50 a.m. The shuttle and station remain in excellent condition.

The transfer of items between the two spacecraft is going smoothly, as are the handover briefings for Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit. Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, NASA Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev are familiarizing the new arrivals with station systems and procedure, and discussing the location of equipment and supplies on the ISS.

This afternoon, Whitson and Bowersox replaced two valves and cleared debris from vent lines of the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) in the station's U.S. Destiny laboratory. The job was completed about 8 p.m. CST. Later Mission Control radioed them that the valve replacement had been successful, but that there was a leak in one of the CDRA vacuum lines. Whitson and Bowersox began efforts to find and fix that leak late today. CDRA had not been working well for the past several weeks. A Russian system cleanses the station atmosphere of the carbon dioxide exhaled by the normal three-person crew, but CDRA is needed to handle the load of larger crews.

NBC's Jay Leno wished Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee a happy 50th birthday. The good wishes were videotaped during Leno's show and transmitted to Endeavour via Houston's Mission Control Center.

This afternoon Wetherbee, Endeavour Pilot Paul Lockhart, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington talked with reporters from KFOR-TV of Oklahoma City, Okla., the Chickasaw Times newspaper; and the Cadena Ser radio network of Spain. The radio network spoke with Lopez-Alegria in Spanish.

Endeavour performed the first of three scheduled reboosts of the station a little after 11 a.m., increasing the altitude of the orbiting laboratory by about 2.8 statute miles. That left the average altitude of the station and Endeavour at almost 244 statute miles. Subsequent reboosts are scheduled for Friday and Sunday.

Thursday's second of three STS-113 spacewalks will see Lopez-Alegria and Herrington make more electrical, data and fluid line connections for the new Port One (P1) truss segment, install a second wireless video antenna system and move a Crew Equipment Translation Aid railway handcar from the P1 to the S1 truss. P1 was installed just before the Tuesday spacewalk. Thursday's and Saturday's spacewalks each will last about 61/2 hours.

Thanksgiving travel is being taken to new heights by Endeavour and ISS crewmembers. They will log about 1.68 million miles during the four-day weekend, with no weather or traffic delays, no airport security problems and certainly no crowds. Their vehicles' mileage over just those four days is excellent -- almost unlimited. Lopez-Alegria and Herrington are scheduled to travel about 227,500 Thanksgiving weekend miles outside the ISS-Endeavour complex during their two spacewalks.

The Thanksgiving Day spacewalk started at 12:36 p.m. CST, almost 45 minutes ahead of schedule, and ended officially at 6:46 p.m.

Lopez-Alegria and Herrington were helped by intravehicular officer Paul Lockhart, Endeavour's pilot, who coached them through their activities from the shuttle's aft flight deck. Expedition 5 NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson, with help from her Expedition 6 successor Don Pettit, operated the station's Canadarm 2. Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee did photo and TV documentation.

The first task for Lopez-Alegria, wearing the spacesuit with red stripes, and Herrington, in the all-white spacesuit, was connection of two fluid jumpers between P1 and the Starboard Zero (S0) truss centerpiece. The jumpers link plumbing for ammonia in the station's cooling system. Next the spacewalkers removed the starboard keel pin, a launch support, and using the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid - one of two handcar-like devices on the truss railway - moved it to the proper location and stowed it in the P1 truss structure.

Lopez-Alegria and Herrington installed a second Wireless video system External Transceiver Assembly (WETA), this one on the P1 truss. They had installed the first WETA on the station's Unity Node during their Tuesday spacewalk. After removal and stowage of the port keel pin, they did the first of the additional jobs, releasing launch locks on the P1's radiator beams. Then they turned their attention to relocation of the CETA cart.

Herrington, in a foot restraint on Canadarm2, lifted the cart from its tracks and held it while Whitson swung him and his cargo around the front of the station, past Endeavour's cargo bay and to the Starboard One (S1), where he attached the cart to tracks and secured it to its sister CETA, launched with the S1 truss on Atlantis' STS-112 flight in October. The relocation was done to clear the P1 tracks for the Canadarm2 to move along them on its Mobile Transporter and Mobile Base System.

The CETA move accomplished, the two spacewalkers moved on to the second additional task, reconnection of one of the cables on the WETA installed Tuesday. Both extra jobs took about 20 minutes.

The oxygen prebreathe protocol before today's spacewak to purge nitrogen from spacewalkers' bloodstreams, was done on the shuttle's cycle ergometer. Whitson and Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox checked out the station's cycle ergometer with a newly uplinked procedure to use it in manual mode.

Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev continued their handover briefings for Bowersox, cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and Pettit. Transfer of equipment and supplies between the station and shuttle also continued.

The Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) is functioning well. Whitson and Bowersox replaced two valves and cleaned airlines on the device on Wednesday, and later that evening they repaired a leak in a CDRA vacuum line.

Endeavour Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington will exit the station's Quest airlock for a second time during this mission to begin a 61/2-hour spacewalk. Scheduled to begin about 1:20 p.m. central time, the work outside the station today will see Lopez-Alegria and Herrington connect fluid lines from the new Port One (P1) truss segment to the Starboard Zero (S0) truss; install a second wireless video antenna system to the P1; relocate stanchions that were used to hold the P1 in place during launch; and move a Crew Equipment Translation Aid railway handcar from the P1 to the Starboard One (S1) truss.

Endeavour Pilot Paul Lockhart will coordinate the spacewalk from the orbiter's flight deck and Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee will provide photo and TV support. From the ISS, Expedition Five NASA Science Officer Peggy Whitson will provide robotic arm support using the station's Canadarm2, and will be assisted by Expedition Six NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit.

Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun, Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev will also continue their handover and training briefings for Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and Pettit.

Whitson and Bowersox will take some time today to test the station's bicycle ergometer, which experienced some trouble over the weekend. In addition to being used for exercise, it is used as part of a pre-spacewalk protocol to purge nitrogen from crewmembers' bodies. Testing of the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly in the station's Destiny laboratory continued overnight and showed that maintenance work performed by the crew on Wednesday had resolved a faulty valve problem with the system.

Among the items to be transferred today are various science experiments, two returning home aboard Endeavour and one moving to the station. This morning, Mission Specialist Mike Lopez-Alegria and Expedition Five NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson will transfer the Protein Crystal Growth Single Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES) - Unit 7 to Endeavour, while Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox will transfer PCG-STES Unit 10 from the shuttle to the station. This afternoon, Lopez-Alegria and Expedition Six NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit will transfer the Plant Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (PGBA) to Endeavour. Plants grown while on orbit will be studied by researchers on the ground.

Whitson and Pettit will also spend some time today troubleshooting the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) on board the station. The MSG recently developed a problem with its power distribution and conversion box - the device that provides electrical power to the facility.

To date, NASA has conducted more than 90,000 hours of scientific research aboard the station and the Expedition Six crew is scheduled to conduct 18 new or continuing experiments.

About 11 a.m., Commander Jim Wetherbee will fire Endeavour's small thruster jets to gently raise the altitude of the station by slightly less than one mile. Late today, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialist John Herrington, Lopez-Alegria, Whitson, Bowersox and Pettit will take time to review plans for Saturday's third and final scheduled spacewalk of the mission.

A formal Change of Command ceremony between the Expedition Five and Six crews is scheduled for 2:20 p.m., but may occur earlier. The full crews also will gather for a joint crew news conference beginning at 3:49 p.m. central time.

Handover briefings of the Expedition 6 crew, Commander Ken Bowersox, cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit, by their Expedition 5 predecessors, Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut Sergei Treschev, continued. The briefings focus on procedures aboard the ISS, science and the location of equipment and supplies.

This afternoon Korzun ceremonially handed over the reigns of the station to Bowersox. Expedition 6 has been the official station crew since Monday when they installed their custom seat liners in the Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station. Later in the afternoon the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts held their crew news conference, fielding questions from reporters at Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center.

Endeavour commander Jim Wetherbee initiated a series of shuttle thruster firings which boosted the altitude of the International Space Station by about eight-tenths of a mile this morning. The reboost left the station at an average altitude of more than 244 statute miles. It was the second of three reboosts during Endeavour's mission to the station. The first, on Wednesday, increased the station's altitude by about 2.8 miles. A third reboost is scheduled for Sunday.

Whitson and Pettit did troubleshooting on the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) on board the station. They checked electrical circuits upstream and downstream of the MSG's power distribution and conversion box - the device that provides electrical power to the facility - in hopes of identifying what caused the component to fail Nov. 20.

Endeavour astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington reviewed procedures for their third and final spacewalk of the STS-113 mission on Saturday. Participating were pilot and spacewalk intravehicular officer Paul Lockhart, Bowersox and Canadarm2 operators Whitson and Pettit. Much of the spacewalk will be devoted to installation of 33 spool positioning devices, to ensure that quick disconnect devices in station ammonia coolant lines will release as designed. Other tasks include connecting Ammonia Tank Assembly umbilicals and reconfiguring a circuit breaker on the Main Bus Switching Unit. If time allows, they also will reconfigure the Squib Firing Unit, designed to release Port One truss radiator panels for deployment.

Today's spacewalk began at 1:25 p.m., with Herrington being asked to look for possible obstructions that might have stalled the station's railcar, or Mobile Transporter (MT) that had stopped unexpectedly about 10 feet short of its intended destination. At 10:21 a.m. today, the MT was commanded to move from its position at Worksite 4 near the S-Zero (S0) truss to Worksite 7 where the station's robotic arm would have "walked off" from its mooring on the Destiny Laboratory to the MT and been used to maneuver Herrington through some of his tasks.

Herrington spotted a stowed UHF communications antenna that had snagged a trailing umbilical mechanism on the MT, halting its motion. Herrington then deployed the antenna, freeing the MT to continue its travel toward Worksite 7. At 4:11 p.m., the railcar was in place and just before 6 p.m., was securely latched into place.

Flight controllers evaluated the performance of the railcar and possible impacts to the spacewalk schedule as a result of troubleshooting activities, ultimately deciding to reprioritize some of today's tasks to ensure the high priority items were completed. After Herrington informed flight controllers he could complete all his assigned tasks without using the station's robotic arm, flight controllers elected not to perform the "walk off" of the station arm to the MT.

Herrington and Lopez-Alegria successfully completed all of their assigned tasks during today's spacewalk, including the installation of 33 spool positioning devices on various locations around the outside of the station. From onboard Endeavour, Pilot Paul Lockhart coordinated the two spacewalkers' efforts, providing them with visual cues as they moved around the station.

Aboard the station, handover activities continued between Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev and Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin.

Pilot Paul Lockhart will coordinate the spacewalk from the aft flight deck of Endeavour. The station's robotic arm, the Canadarm2, will be operated at varying times by Expedition Five Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson, Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox and Expedition Six NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit. Commander Jim Wetherbee will provide TV and photo support.

The spacewalkers will begin by installing 33 spool positioning devices on various locations around the outside of the station. The clamp-like devices ensure that the quick disconnect fittings in the station's ammonia coolant lines release as designed.

Other spacewalk tasks include connecting the Ammonia Tank Assembly umbilicals and reconfiguring a circuit breaker on the Main Bus Switching Unit. If time allows, the two also will reconfigure the Squib Firing Unit, a pyrotechnic device designed to release the Port One truss radiator panels when they are deployed next year.

Before the spacewalk begins, Whitson and Bowersox will command the Canadarm2 to walk off its current location on the Destiny Laboratory to its mobile base on the P1 truss. Whitson will operate the robotic arm with Pettit assisting during some of the spacewalk activities. When Herrington is finished, Whitson and Bowersox will command the Canadarm2 to return to a Power and Data Grapple Fixture on the Destiny Laboratory.

During the spacewalk, Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev will continue handover activities with Bowersox and Expedition Six Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin. Korzun and Treschev also will complete their final sessions in the Lower Body Negative Pressure suit, a Russian device to help the cosmonauts prepare for their return to Earth's gravity.

This morning Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee initiated a series of firings of Endeavour's thrusters to raise the station's altitude by about 2.8 statute miles. This was the third reboost of the flight and left the ISS almost 61/2 miles higher than it was when the shuttle docked on Nov. 25. The station's average altitude is now about 247 miles.

Shuttle crewmembers, Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, and Expedition 5's NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson, her Expedition 6 successor Don Pettit and Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, spoke with representatives of Indian Country Today and Native America Calling radio network.

Transfer activities wound down, with the crew wrapping up movement of supplies, equipment and experiments between the two spacecraft. Endeavour brought more than 2,500 pounds of material to the station in the shuttle's crew compartment.

During the afternoon, Pettit and Whitson did additional troubleshooting on the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) in the station's U.S. laboratory Destiny. The glovebox allows experiments with fluids, flame, particles or fumes to be performed in an enclosed environment. The MSG's power distribution and conversion box failed Nov. 20. The box will be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour, leaving the MSG inactive.

Handover talks continued between the Expedition 5 crew, Commander Valery Korzun, Whitson and cosmonaut Sergei Treschev, and Expedition 6 crewmembers Bowersox, Cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and Pettit.

Hatches between the two spacecraft are to be closed about 11:15 a.m. CST Monday, with Endeavour undocking from the station about 2:05 p.m. near the west coast of Australia after a pass over the Indian Ocean. Landing is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at Kennedy Space Center.

Since Endeavour arrived at the station on November 25, the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts have successfully worked together to install the 14-ton P1 truss segment, outfit and activate it during three spacewalks, transfer equipment, experiments and supplies between the two spacecraft, and exchange resident crews aboard the station.

Today, spacewalkers Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, along with Pilot Paul Lockhart will clean up and stow away their spacesuits, following the conclusion of Saturday's final spacewalk of the mission. Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee will gently pulse the orbiter's thrusters this morning to raise the station's altitude by approximately 2.8 miles. The jet firings will last approximately 45 minutes, and combined with two previous reboost maneuvers earlier in the mission, should increase the station's total altitude by about 6 1/4 miles.

The crew will also take some time today to verify operation of the tools that will be used during Monday's undocking of Endeavour from the International Space Station and to complete the final transfer of equipment. Approximately 95 percent of transfer activities are complete.

About 2 p.m. central time, Wetherbee, Lockhart, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington, Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit, will talk with media representatives from CNN Espanol, Indian Country Today and the Native America Calling radio network.

Final handover briefings between the Expedition Five and Expedition Six crews will continue throughout the day, as the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts prepare to bid each other farewell tomorrow. Hatches between the two spacecraft are slated to be closed about 11:15 a.m. central time Monday, with Endeavour undocking from the station about 2:05 p.m.

After final farewells among the STS-113 and Expedition 5 and 6 crews, the hatches between the spacecraft were closed at 11:57 a.m. CST. Following a series of pressure and leak checks, Endeavour gently undocked from the station at 2:05 p.m. as the two spacecraft flew over northwestern Australia. Total docked time for the mission was six days, 22 hours and six minutes.

As Endeavour departed the station, Bowersox rang the ship's bell on board and wished the crew a safe landing. Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee wished the Expedition 6 crew "fair winds." After a one-quarter-lap fly-around of the station, Pilot Paul Lockhart fired a final separation burn of Endeavour's engines at 3:01 p.m. and began its final departure from the station.

All major mission objectives were accomplished during Endeavour's stay at the ISS. The 14-ton Port One truss segment, one of 11 such structures that will form the station's backbone, was delivered and installed over the course of three spacewalks by Mission Specialists Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, and the station crews were exchanged. With its latest addition, the station's mass stands at 197 tons, or about 400,000 pounds. Returning home after spending 178 days on the station is the Expedition 5 crew -- Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev.

At 4:05 p.m., Endeavour's crew released two miniature satellites as part of an experiment referred to as MEPSI. Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the two small satellites, which are tethered together, were released from Endeavour's payload bay to fly free for three days as a technology demonstration of the launcher assembly and use of micro- and nano-technologies in space systems.

The focus of activities aboard Endeavour on Tuesday will include a checkout of the systems that will be used during Wednesday's planned landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Endeavour is scheduled to land at 2:48 p.m., bringing Korzun, Whitson and Treschev home after 182 days in space. Weather for landing is forecasted to be questionable.

Endeavour will leave behind the Expedition Six Crew - Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin - who are scheduled to live and work aboard the station for the next four months.

Endeavour Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, and Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev are scheduled to begin those farewells at 11:15 a.m.

Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the space station at 2:05 p.m., after bringing the station a new resident crew, installing the Port One truss and transferring more than 2,500 pounds of supplies, equipment and experiments. As Endeavour gently undocks and backs slowly away from the station, the two vehicles should be flying high over Western Australia.

Shortly after undocking, the Endeavour crew will release two miniature satellites as part of an experiment referred to as MEPSI. Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the two small satellites, which are tethered together, will be released from Endeavour's payload bay to fly free for three days as a technology demonstration of the launcher assembly and use of micro-and nano-technolgoies in space systems.

As the Expedition Six crew settles into its first day alone aboard the station, Endeavour's crew will begin stowing away equipment and hardware in anticipation of Wednesday's scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Weather permitting, Endeavour is scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday at 2:48 p.m. central.

Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart and Flight Engineer John Herrington activated one of three hydraulic power units on Endeavour, tested all of its aerosurfaces, and then test-fired Endeavour's steering jets. The remaining crewmembers - Mike Lopez-Alegria, and Expedition 5 crewmembers Valery Korzun, Peggy Whitson and Sergei Treschev - continued packing up gear and hardware in anticipation of tomorrow's landing.

Endeavour has two opportunities to land at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The first begins with a deorbit burn of the Orbital Maneuvering System engines at 1:42 p.m. CST, followed by a landing at 2:48 p.m. In the event weather prevents a landing on that first opportunity, there is a second opportunity, beginning with a deorbit burn at 3:20 p.m. and resulting in a 4:26 p.m. landing. Preliminary weather forecasts call for the possibility of clouds and rain showers in the vicinity of the three-mile-long landing strip on Wednesday. The backup landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base was not activated for Wednesday. Endeavour has sufficient consumables to remain in orbit until Sunday.

The seven crewmembers took a few minutes this afternoon to talk with CBS' "Up to the Minute," TV-E Spain and the Tulsa World newspaper. The crew discussed its successful shuttle mission as well as the Expedition 5 crew's to date 181-day experience in space.

Meanwhile, aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition 6 crew -Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin - spent today settling into its new home and unpacking some of the equipment and hardware carried to the station by Endeavour. The crew also enjoyed some time off during its first full day alone on the station.

Endeavour's crew will begin a scheduled eight-hour sleep period at 9:50 p.m. today, waking at 5:50 a.m. Wednesday to prepare for a homecoming to the Kennedy Space Center.

The crew will spend its day stowing away equipment and hardware, and preparing their vehicle for its high-speed reentry. With a landing tomorrow, the returning Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev -will have spent 182 days in space. Approximately 2,203 pounds of equipment and experiments from the International Space Station will also return home aboard Endeavour.

Over the course of an 11-day mission, the STS-113 crew - Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart and Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington - Whitson, Korzun and Treschev, and the Expedition Six crew of Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin, combined to install the new P1 truss to the station, perform three spacewalks to outfit and activate the truss, and transfer supplies and equipment between the two spacecraft.

Preliminary weather forecasts for tomorrow's landing in Florida indicate the possibility of clouds and rain showers in the vicinity of the landing site. Flight controllers will continue to watch weather conditions and receive updated briefings throughout the day today.

About 2 p.m. today, Endeavour's crew will take time to discuss the successful mission with CBS "Up to the Minute," TV-E Spain and Tulsa World newspaper. Aboard the space station, Bowersox, Pettit and Budarin are spending their 10th day in space unpacking the 2,135 pounds of supplies and equipment brought to the station by Endeavour.

Flight controllers are now focusing on opportunities for landing on Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center. The next opportunity for a landing by Endeavour would begin with an engine firing at 12:49 p.m. CST Thursday leading to a touchdown in Florida at 1:54 p.m. CST. A second opportunity to land tomorrow also is available beginning with an engine firing at 2:26 p.m. CST leading to touchdown at 3:30 p.m. CST.

Flight controllers plan to monitor weather forecasts for Florida overnight before making a decision early tomorrow on whether to pursue Thursday's landing opportunities. The alternate shuttle landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California will not be considered on Thursday.

Endeavour has enough supplies to remain in orbit until at least Sunday if necessary. The current weather forecast for a Thursday landing calls for possible clouds and rain that could be unacceptable.

Aboard Endeavour are Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington and the returning International Space Station Expedition 5 crew of Commander Valery Korzun, Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev. Wetherbee, Lockhart, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington have been aloft since Nov. 23. Korzun, Whitson and Treschev have been in orbit since June 5.

Endeavour has two opportunities to land today. The first begins with a deorbit burn of the Orbital Maneuvering System engines at 1:42 p.m. CST, followed by a landing at 2:48 p.m. In the event weather prevents a landing on that first opportunity, there is a second opportunity, beginning with a deorbit burn at 3:20 p.m. and resulting in a 4:26 p.m. landing.

Preliminary weather forecasts call for the possibility of clouds and rain showers in the vicinity of the three-mile-long landing strip, with a 30 percent probability of weather prohibiting landing. The backup landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base has not been activated for today. Endeavour has sufficient consumables to remain in orbit until Sunday.

Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart and Missions Specialists Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington have been in space since Nov. 23. Returning to Earth from the International Space Station with STS-113 is the Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - which has been in space since June 5.

The new crew of the International Space Station - Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin - will spend its day, respectively, reconfiguring the station's computer network and loading new software onto the computers to support the crew's activities for the next four months; checking out the equipment in the Human Research Facility Rack and the station's defibrillator; and performing periodic maintenance on the station's Russian systems.

If Endeavour lands on time, crewmembers are tentatively scheduled to return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday afternoon.

There are two opportunities for Endeavour to return home to Florida on Friday. The first begins with an engine firing at 11:51 a.m. Central Time leading to a 12:57 p.m. touchdown in Florida. A second opportunity is available with a 1:27 p.m. deorbit burn leading to a 2:33 p.m. landing.

Flight controllers will continue to monitor weather forecasts throughout the day. Preliminary forecasts indicate a continuing chance of clouds and rain over the next 24 hours. The alternate shuttle landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California will not be called up for support Friday. Endeavour has enough supplies to remain in orbit until at least Sunday if necessary.

Aboard Endeavour are Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington and the returning International Space Station Expedition Five crew of Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev. Wetherbee, Lockhart, Lopez-Alegria and Herrington have been aloft since Nov. 23. Korzun, Whitson and Treschev have been in orbit since June 5.

There are a total of four landing opportunities on Saturday, two in Florida and two at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The Kennedy Space Center remains the primary landing site, with improved weather conditions predicted. Preliminary forecasts at KSC currently show the potential for continuing cloud cover, but generally improved conditions. Weather at Edwards Air Force Base is expected to be acceptable to support a landing.

The first opportunity for Endeavour to return to Florida would see a deorbit burn at 12:32 p.m. Central Time with landing at 1:37 p.m. Central. The second opportunity of the day begins with a deorbit firing of Endeavour's engines at 2:09 p.m. with landing at 3:15 p.m. Central. If weather conditions require Endeavour to land at the alternate site in California, the first opportunity would be at 4:45 p.m., with a second opportunity at 6:22 p.m. Central.

Flight controllers will carefully monitor weather forecasts on both coasts overnight as they prepare to bring Endeavour home Saturday. A landing tomorrow will conclude a 185-day stay in space for the returning Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - and a 14-day mission for the STS-113 crew of Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, and Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington.

There are two landing opportunities in Florida today. The first begins with a deorbit firing of Endeavour's engines at 11:51 a.m. resulting in a 12:57 p.m. Central Time landing. If weather does not permit a landing on the first opportunity, there is a second, with a deorbit burn at 1:27 p.m. resulting in a 2:33 p.m. Central Time landing.

Preliminary forecasts for today continue to show low cloud ceilings, possible windy conditions and rain at the Florida landing site. A clearing trend is expected over the next 24 hours with improved conditions in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday. The alternate shuttle landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California will be called up for support as well on Saturday.

There are two landing opportunities available at both the Kennedy Space Center and Edwards Air Force Base on Saturday, if required. The first of two opportunities in Florida would see Endeavour land at 1:37 p.m. Central Time, with a second opportunity at 3:14 p.m. Central. The times for a California landing are 4:45 p.m. Central and 6:22 p.m. Central.

Endeavour's seven-member crew includes Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington, and the returning International Space Station Expedition Five crew of Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev. Korzun, Whitson and Treschev are now in their 184th day in space.

Aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition Six crew is completing its first week in orbit. Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit have been busy at work stowing away the supplies and hardware carried to orbit by Endeavour. They also are preparing for Thursday's scheduled 6 1/2 hour-long spacewalk to be conducted by Bowersox and Budarin. NASA Television coverage of the spacewalk begins at 7 a.m., with the start of the spacewalk slated for 8 a.m. Central.

Commander Jim Wetherbee guided Endeavour to a touchdown on KSC's shuttle runway at 1:37 p.m. Central, completing a 5.74-million-mile journey that added a new segment to the space station's growing backbone and exchanged resident space station crews. Endeavour's landing completed the final shuttle mission of the year and brought home the station's Expedition Five crew -- Commander Valery Korzun, Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev. The Expedition Six crew -- Commander Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin -- remain on the International Space Station, beginning a three-month stay. Ending a 14-day flight aboard Endeavour today were Wetherbee, Shuttle Pilot Paul Lockhart and Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington.

Official landing times for Endeavour include main gear touchdown at 1:37:12 p.m. Central which equates to 13 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds Mission Elapsed Time. Nose gear touch down occurred at 1:37:23 p.m. Central or 13 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes and 36 seconds Mission Elapsed Time. Wheels stop for Endeavour occurred at 1:38:25 p.m. Central or 13 days, 18 hours, 48 minutes and 38 seconds Mission Elapsed Time.

The Expedition Five crew and Endeavour's crew will return to Houston's Ellington Field on Monday, December 9. A welcome home ceremony is planned beginning at 3 p.m. Central at Hangar 990.

This is the fourth day of landing attempts for Endeavour. There are four landing opportunities available today, the first two opportinuties in Florida and the later two in California. The forecast for the Kennedy Space Center today calls for a slight chance of low clouds and fairly strong winds predicted to calm as the day progresses.

The first opportunity for Endeavour to return to Florida would see a deorbit burn at 12:32 p.m. Central Time with landing at 1:37 p.m. Central. The second opportunity of the day begins with a deorbit firing of Endeavour's engines at 2:09 p.m. with landing at 3:15 p.m. Central. If weather conditions require Endeavour to land at the alternate site in California, the first opportunity would begin with an engine firing at 3:41 p.m. Central leading to touchdown at 4:45 p.m. Central. The second California opportunity would begin with an engine firing at 5:18 p.m. Central leading to a touchdown at 6:22 p.m. Central.

A landing today will conclude a 185-day stay in space for the returning Expedition Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev - and a 14-day mission for the STS-113 crew of Commander Jim Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart, and Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington.

They will continue preparations for activation of the P3/P4 truss segment attached to the station Tuesday.

Spacewalkers Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean will release and remove launch locks and launch restraints from the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint of the P4 truss. That joint will enable the new solar arrays to track the sun. The arrays are to be unfurled late today and early Thursday.

Burbank and MacLean spent the night in the Quest Airlock, as did Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Joe Tanner before their Tuesday spacewalk, part of the campout pre-breathe protocol. Burbank and MacLean are preparing for their spacewalk, with help from shuttle Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and station Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 4:15 a.m. CDT.

Tanner, now a veteran of six spacewalks, will serve as the intravehicular officer for this spacewalk. Piper will operate the station robotic arm to ensure video viewing during the spacewalk.

Because of the success of the first spacewalk, planners were able to add get-ahead tasks to today’s scheduled activities. Once their original tasks are complete, Burbank and MacLean also will prepare the P3 for the mobile transporter, part of a movable base system for the Canadarm2 to move along rails on the truss structure.

Depending on time available, they will remove a keel pin and drag link and stow them within the truss structure. They’ll also remove a Space Vision System target, rotate P1 and P3 mobile transporter and tether shuttle stops. They'll install a temporary rail stop for the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid cart.

Meanwhile, inside the orbiting laboratory, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams will continue with station operations tasks as well as transfer activities and preparations for their upcoming departure.

The two are scheduled to return to Earth aboard their Soyuz spacecraft Sept. 28. They will be replaced by Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who are scheduled to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan a little after 11 p.m. CDT Sept. 17. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany will remain on board the station and join the Expedition 14 crew.

Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station at 7:50 a.m. CDT, completing six days, two hours and two minutes of joint operations with the station crew. As the shuttle departs, a new station crew is preparing to launch to the complex tonight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

Atlantis left the station with a new, second pair of 240-foot solar wings, attached to a new 17.5-ton section of truss with batteries, electronics and a giant rotating joint. The new solar arrays eventually will double the station's onboard power when their electrical systems are brought online during the next shuttle flight, planned for launch in December.

Atlantis is now aiming for a 4:57 a.m. CDT Wednesday landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Meanwhile, the station's Expedition 14 crew -- Commander and NASA Science Officer Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and spaceflight participant Anoushheh Ansari -- are set to launch in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from Baikonur at 11:09 p.m. CDT. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will begin a six-month stay aboard the station when they dock to the complex on Wednesday. Ansari is visiting the station for eight days under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

After undocking, Atlantis' crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- got a breath-taking view of the station as the shuttle circled the complex. During their stay at the station, the shuttle crew conducted three spacewalks in four days to prepare the new components for operation.

As Atlantis performed a full fly-around of the station, the shuttle crew took photographs and video of the complex's new T-shaped solar array configuration. The station's truss now stretches 179 feet.

In addition to the new truss section and its arrays, the astronauts transferred 800 pounds of hardware and 1,043 pounds of water to the station in exchange for 1,084 pounds of returning hardware. They also placed about 200 pounds of launch locks, restraints and other unneeded hardware on ISS Progress 21 for disposal.

The shuttle astronauts spent five days, 21 hours and 57 minutes with hatches open to the station working with the station's Expedition 13 crew -- Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter. The hatches were shut for Atlantis' undoccking at 5:27 a.m. CDT. Vinogradov, Williams and Ansari will land in a Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan Sept. 29. Vinogradov and Williams have been in orbit since March.

On Monday, the shuttle crew will use the ship’s robotic arm to grapple the boom sensor system once more to conduct a final inspection of the heat shielding on Atlantis’ wings and nose cap. The additional late inspecting ensures the areas still are in good shape for entry into the atmosphere and landing.

Atlantis' crew begins their sleep period at 2:15 p.m. CDT and will awaken at 10:15 p.m. CDT.

Crew members will get a look at the results of their STS-115 mission, which resumed assembly of the station. They'll do a full fly-around, the first in four years, to photograph the station with its new truss segments and solar arrays.

Before undocking, the STS-115 crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- will say farewell to Expedition 13 -- Commander Pavel Vinogradov, and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter -- about 5 a.m. before closing the hatches between the two vehicles.

Then, with Ferguson at the controls, Atlantis will slowly move away from the station. The fly-around is scheduled to start at about 8:15 a.m. Atlantis is to leave the area a little after 9:30 a.m.

Meanwhile, on the ground, preparations are under way for the launch of the next inhabitants of the station. The Expedition 14 crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari, are scheduled to launch in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:09 p.m. CDT. They are scheduled to dock with the orbital laboratory two days later.

The shuttle and station crews woke at 11:15 p.m. to "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins, played for Ferguson. In his reply, Ferguson thanked soon-to-retire STS-115 lead guidance, navigation and control flight controller Charles Alford for his 40 years of NASA service. The shuttle pilot also thanked all those in Mission Control for helping to make spaceflight possible.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari lifted off at 11:09 p.m. CDT Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

They are expected to arrive at the station early Wednesday. They will begin nearly nine days of handover activity as Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin prepare for their own six-month stay. Ansari, visiting the station as part of a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth with Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams. European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter will remain onboard as part of Expedition 14.

Traveling about 50 miles behind the station, the Atlantis crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank, Joe Tanner, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- woke at 10:15 p.m. to “Rocky Mountain High.” It was played for Tanner.

The crew will focus today on the final inspection of the shuttle’s reinforced-carbon-carbon surfaces on the wing leading edges and nose cap. Ferguson, Burbank and MacLean will use the shuttle’s robotic arm to get a final look at those areas, ensuring no critical damage may have occurred since their arrival in space. Aside from a few other minor tasks it will be a light-duty day. Atlantis is prepared for its landing Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The overheating is believed to have melted a rubber seal, causing a small amount of smoke, a strong odor and possibly releasing a small amount of a chemical irritant.

Aboard the station are Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency. At the time of the problem, Vinogradov was working with the Russian Elektron oxygen generator, a device that recycles wastewater on the station into oxygen for the cabin air. The Elektron had been shut off for nine days as planned during the joint operations by the station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

At the request of Russian flight controllers, Vinogradov attempted to restart the unit at about 2 a.m. CDT. The Elektron operated only briefly before shutting down. Several subsequent attempts were made to restart the device in various modes. Just before 6 a.m. CDT, Vinogradov restarted the unit again after it had shut down.

A few minutes later, as the station was out of communications with the ground, Vinogradov noted the Elektron overheating, light smoke and a bad odor. When the station moved into communications, at about 6:16 a.m. CDT, Mission Control asked the crew to manually initiate a fire alarm onboard to allow software to automatically shut down ventilation fans between the station modules. Flight controllers also checked for contaminants in the cabin air and found only low levels that posed no danger to the crew. However, the crew was asked to briefly don surgical masks, goggles and gloves to protect against possible irritation by a chemical used in the Elektron, potassium hydroxide, that may have leaked.

Vinogradov reported that a small amount of clear liquid had leaked from an apparently damaged seal on the Elektron and cleaned it up, sealing it in airtight bags. Within an hour, the crew had powered back on all station ventilation equipment and had returned to working on normal activities.

The incident will not affect plans to undock a Progress cargo craft from the station tonight and the docking of the next station crew with the complex, set for 12:24 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari lifted off at 11:09 p.m. CDT Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan bound for the station. Their Soyuz spacecraft is in excellent condition.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean -- are continuing preparations for a return to Earth. The crew completed a late inspection of the heat shielding on the nose and wings of the shuttle today using a laser scanning system. They are scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:59 a.m. CDT Wednesday. They began a sleep period at 1:15 p.m. CDT and awaken at 9:15 p.m. CDT for what is planned to be their final full day in orbit.

Three people aboard the Soyuz TMA 9 talked with the six Atlantis astronauts and the three-man Expedition 13 crew aboard the International Space Station.

The linkup was managed through Houston's Mission Control Center. The 12 people on the three very different space vehicles began their chat about 2 a.m. CDT.

"It's a little crowded in the sky today," said Jeff Williams from the station. "We look forward to having you guys on board," he told the Soyuz crew. "We'll see you back on Earth sometime soon," Atlantis Commander Brent Jett told Expedition 13.

The Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Williams and Thomas Reiter, is awaiting the arrival of Expedition 14, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin. With them is spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari. They are scheduled to dock with the station at 12:24 a.m. Wednesday.

Atlantis' crew, Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve MacLean, is getting ready to come home, with a landing scheduled for Kennedy Space Center at 4:59 a.m. CDT Wednesday.

They were awakened at 9:15 p.m. Monday with “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi” (Don’t Leave Without Me) for MacLean, performed by fellow Canadian Celine Dion. They checked out Atlantis' flight control surfaces and later tested reaction control system thrusters. Today they'll continue stowage activities and other preparations for their landing.

The unpiloted Progress 21 cargo spacecraft with its load of station discards undocked from the orbiting laboratory at about 7:30 p.m. Monday. It re-entered the atmosphere and was incinerated over the Pacific Ocean about 11 p.m.

The decision to pursue additional inspections was made this morning after video from cameras aboard the shuttle showed a piece of debris in close proximity to the vehicle.

Also, the weather forecast for a landing on Wednesday had called for poor conditions, and Atlantis has plentiful supplies aboard to allow multiple landing attempts as late as Saturday. Atlantis is now aimed toward a landing on Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Engineers are concerned the debris seen could be something that came loose from Atlantis. They will use the extra time to verify the shuttle is in good shape for the trip home.

Atlantis' crew -- Commander Brent Jett, Pilot Chris Ferguson and mission specialists Joe Tanner, Dan Burbank, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Steve MacLean -- will use the shuttle's robotic arm on Wednesday to inspect the spacecraft. The crew began a sleep period at 12:45 p.m. CDT today and will awaken at 8:45 p.m. CDT. Before going to sleep, the crew positioned the arm above the payload bay, and Mission Control has used its cameras to survey the top side of the shuttle. The cameras on the robotic arm will later be used by the crew to inspect areas on the underside of Atlantis.

Atlantis' primary landing opportunity to Kennedy on Thursday begins with a deorbit engine firing at 4:14 am. CDT and culminates in a touchdown at 5:22 a.m. CDT.

Meanwhile, the International Space Station's next crew, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are closing in on the complex. With them is Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari, a U.S. businesswoman who will spend eight days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency. They will dock their Soyuz spacecraft to the station at 12:24 a.m. CDT Wednesday.

Aboard the station, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut, will open hatches to greet their new arrivals at 3:10 a.m. CDT Wednesday. The station crew spent some additional time earlier today gathering data on the Elektron oxygen generating system's overheating malfunction. Russian engineers are continuing to evaluate the system's malfunction and future repairs. Repair work is not planned to be performed while the crew hands over operations of the complex to Expedition 14. Oxygen supplies on the station are plentiful, and the cabin air will be refreshed using oxygen canisters and tanks until the Elektron is repaired.

That decision was made after cameras detected a piece of debris near the shuttle early Tuesday.

The survey is to make sure Atlantis is ready for re-entry and its landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Florida weather also was questionable for a Wednesday landing.

The crew woke up at 8:45 p.m. CDT Tuesday to “Beautiful Day” by U2, played for Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper. After some routine personal time, they began the survey at about 11:30 p.m. Pilot Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialists Dan Burbank and Steve MacLean are using the shuttle's robotic arm and its cameras to get a full look at Atlantis' thermal protection system. The task could take up to five hours.

Specialists on the ground will review the imagery as it is available and determine if a more detailed survey using the 50-foot orbiter boom sensor system (OBSS) is warranted. The OBSS survey, if needed, would take another three hours.

Atlantis Commander Brent Jett and Mission Specialists Joe Tanner and Piper will help as needed with the survey and continue with other tasks including waste and water dump, exercise, downlink of imagery and stowage of the Payload General Support Computer.

Atlantis' next landing opportunity is Thursday with a deorbit engine firing at 4:14 a.m. CDT and touchdown at 5:22 a.m. Atlantis has enough supplies to stay in orbit until Saturday.

Early Wednesday International Space Station Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari arrived at the orbiting laboratory. Their Soyuz docked at 12:21 a.m. The hatch opening and welcoming ceremony with the Expedition 13 crew, Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter, is scheduled for 3:30 a.m.

Atlantis is now aimed toward a landing that will begin with a deorbit engine firing at 4:14 a.m. CDT and culminate in a touchdown at 5:21 a.m. CDT at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The astronauts would close the shuttle's payload bay doors in preparation for the landing at about 1:44 a.m. CDT. A backup opportunity for landing would begin with a deorbit engine firing by the shuttle at 5:51 a.m. CDT leading to a touchdown at 6:57 a.m. CDT.

The weather is forecast to be acceptable for landing at Kennedy, with few clouds and light winds.

The astronauts performed televised inspections early this morning of the shuttle's heat shield, nose, tail, payload bay, wings and other areas using the robotic arm and a boom extension. Engineers found no issues of concern during the survey.

A shim and a spacer piece that had been protruding from thermal tiles on Atlantis earlier in the mission were found to be missing during the inspection. But it is not known whether one of them was the item seen floating near Atlantis in video on Tuesday. Atlantis' astronauts began a sleep period at 12:45 p.m. CDT. They will awaken at 8:45 p.m. CDT.

The new International Space Station Expedition 14 crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, along with spaceflight participant Anousheh Ansari, docked to the complex at 12:21 a.m. CDT. They opened hatches at 3:34 a.m. CDT and were greeted by Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter.

Joint crew operations continue through next week, until Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, and Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari undock and land their Soyuz spacecraft on Thursday, Sept. 28.

The new crew, Expedition 14 Commander and NASA Science Officer Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, docked to the complex with Ansari on Wednesday. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who arrived at the station aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in July and has served as flight engineer for Expedition 13, will remain on the station and join Expedition 14. Ansari is a U.S. businesswoman spending eight days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

During the weekend, Vinogradov and Tyurin may work with the Elektron oxygen-generating system to install a new liquids unit, a component that overheated early this week.

Several crew events will be broadcast live on NASA TV next week. On Monday, Sept. 25, at 5:40 a.m. EDT, all crew members will participate in a news conference with Russian media. At 12:17 p.m. EDT Monday, Williams and Lopez-Alegria will be interviewed by CBS News and AP TV.

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 12:04 p.m. EDT, Williams and Lopez-Alegria will be interviewed by CNN Espanol and the Houston Chronicle. On Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 12:28 p.m. EDT the crews will hold a station change of command ceremony.

The hatches between the station and the departing Soyuz will be closed about 2:45 p.m. EDT. The Soyuz will fire its engines at 8:20 pm. EDT to begin its descent. Landing is at 9:10 p.m. EDT in Kazakhstan.

Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA station science officer Jeff Williams landed in their Soyuz TMA 8 spacecraft about 50 miles northeast of Arkalyk. Russian recovery forces and NASA officials arrived at the site shortly after the spacecraft touched down. The Soyuz undocked from the space station at 5:53 p.m. EDT.

The crew will spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations.

With Williams and Vinogradov was Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari, who flew to the station with the Expedition 14 crew and spent eight days there. The American businesswoman went to the station under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

During their mission, which launched March 29, Vinogradov and Williams were joined by Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany. He became the first non-Russian, non-U.S. long-duration station crew member. He will remain aboard as part of the Expedition 14 crew until December when he returns to Earth on the next space shuttle flight.

Two successful spacewalks were conducted during Expedition 13. The first was by Vinogradov and Williams in Russian spacesuits and the second by Williams and Reiter in U.S. spacesuits.

Vinogradov and Williams welcomed Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts and Reiter during the STS-121 mission to the station in July. In September Space Shuttle Atlantis' crew on the STS-115 mission brought and installed the station's integrated P3/P4 truss segments.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, Mikhail Tyurin and Reiter, now are on their own aboard the station after a week of handover, maintenance and some science activities. Vinogradov and Tyurin replaced a major component of the Elektron oxygen-producing device, which malfunctioned shortly after Atlantis departed.

The device was activated Sept. 16 and functioned for about three hours before shutting itself off. Further troubleshooting is planned.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin have been aboard the station for 19 days, while Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency is in his third month in orbit. Along with other work, the crew members prepared for a short trip away from the station next week, when they will fly the Soyuz spacecraft from one docking port to another.

Early in the week, the crew conducted a check of procedures required to exit the station in an emergency, ensuring all necessary equipment is in place. Throughout the week, time was set aside for Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin to familiarize themselves with the station and operations. They started several new scientific activities and medical checks.

Lopez-Alegria began his first session with the nutrition experiment. He collected blood and urine samples and began logging all of his consumed food and drink. The experiment, which tracks many vitamins and minerals essential for good health, is the most comprehensive in-flight study to date of human physiological changes during long-duration spaceflight. The information will help define nutritional requirements and food systems for future missions to the moon and Mars.

Lopez-Alegria also supported the Passive Observatories for Experimental Microbial Systems in Micro-G (POEMS) experiment, by storing the next set of samples into the Minus-Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). MELFI is a cold storage unit that maintains experiment samples at temperatures of minus 80 degrees Celsius, minus 26 degrees Celsius or 4 degrees Celsius throughout a mission. POEMS will evaluate the effect of stress in the space environment on the generation of genetic variation in model microbial cells.

On Friday, all crew members performed a normal periodic fitness evaluation, exercising on a stationary bicycle, measuring heart rates and blood pressure. One new scientific investigation began with Reiter as part of his evaluation. An oxygen uptake monitor provided by the European Space Agency was used to measure Reiter's oxygen consumption, a key parameter that can be used to measure fitness. The fitness evaluations are performed monthly. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin also checked emergency medical equipment and supplies, a check done early in each crew's flight.

Tyurin spent time mid-week continuing to troubleshoot the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system. The system converts water into oxygen to replenish cabin air. It has not been functional since it overheated just before Expedition 14 arrived. The crew replaced components in an Elektron control panel this week, but problems persisted.

Russian engineers are evaluating the system and further repairs may wait until the next supply ship arrives with additional parts. The next Progress cargo craft launches later this month. Plentiful oxygen supplies are available on the station. Oxygen is being replenished from tanks located on the Quest airlock.

U.S. flight controllers are evaluating a vibration seen in one of the station's Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs) this week. The electrically powered CMGs maintain the station's orientation so thrusters and limited fuel are not used for that purpose. The vibrations were first observed Sept. 28 as a station maneuver was performed using thrusters. The gyroscope, CMG-3, was taken off line to allow additional testing. Since then, controllers have run various tests with CMG-3 to better characterize the intermittent vibrations. Engineers have determined it could be put back on line and into normal operation, if needed. Only three CMGs are necessary to properly maintain the station's orientation.

The station crew members will board the Soyuz spacecraft docked at the rear of the Zvezda living quarters module on Tuesday to prepare for the short move. With Soyuz Commander Tyurin at the controls, they will undock from the Zvezda port at 3:14 p.m. and re-dock to the Earth-facing Zarya module port at 3:39 p.m. EDT.

NASA's payload operations team at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on the station.

Station Commander and NASA Science Officer Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter boarded their Soyuz spacecraft and flew it from one docking port to another. The relocation was a routine procedure conducted ahead of the launch and arrival of the next Progress supply ship, scheduled for later this month.

With Tyurin at the controls on Tuesday, the Soyuz undocked from the aft position of the Zvezda module at 3:14 p.m. EDT and docked to the Zarya control module's Earth-facing docking port at 3:34 p.m. EDT.

The 23rd Progress vehicle will launch Oct. 23 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will dock to the vacated Zvezda port three days later, delivering supplies to the crew.

More than three weeks into a six-month stay, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin are settling in to the routine of life in microgravity. They joined Reiter in celebrating his 100th day in space since his launch aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery July 4. Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut, will return home aboard Discovery in December during the STS-116 mission. Discovery will bring NASA astronaut Suni Williams as Reiter's replacement to the station during that flight.

Oxygen is being supplied in the station cabin by tanks on the outside of the U.S. Quest Airlock while an onboard Russian oxygen-generation system, called the Elektron, is not working. Additional parts to repair the Elektron are expected to be among the supplies arriving late this month on Progress.

The station's orientation is being managed by three of the four electrically driven Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs). One gyroscope, designated CMG 3, was shut down after exhibiting intermittently high vibrations early Monday. Three gyros are sufficient to orient the station, and there has been no impact to the safety or operation of the station due to the shut down of CMG 3.

Flight controllers are evaluating plans for CMG 3 and any changes that might be needed to assembly operations during the December mission of Space Shuttle Discovery. During that mission alternating systems on the station will be powered off as the complex is rewired to bring online new supplies of electricity from the recently added solar arrays. Steering jets could be used to control the station's orientation if needed as gyroscopes are powered down during those procedures.

This week the crew also performed routine medical checks and took water samples while loading the docked Progress vehicle with unneeded items. Lopez-Alegria swapped a water separator in the Quest Airlock's Common Cabin Air Assembly to ensure a filter doesn't become clogged. The maintenance procedure was previously performed by the Expedition 5 crew.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin practiced using the manual docking system for the Russian Progress cargo ship. They rehearsed rendezvous; fly around maneuvers and approach and docking with an on-board simulator.

During the training, technicians at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan completed preparations for the launch of a Progress cargo craft on Monday, Oct. 23 at 9:40 a.m. EDT. It is scheduled to dock to the complex Thursday, Oct. 26 at 10:28 a.m. EDT.

The Progress is filled with more than two tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station and its crew. Also aboard are new spare parts for the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system, which has been shut down since last month.

Earlier Friday, Lopez-Alegria replaced equipment in the Carbon Dioxide Removal System, used to remove impurities from the station's atmosphere. Only one of its two systems designed to purge carbon dioxide from the air has been operating due to particulate matter clogging an air valve. Lopez-Alegria installed a new air flow regulator valve and a filter to recover the use of the second of two adsorbent beds in the device.

He also joined Tyurin to inspect and photograph the Zvezda Service Module windows and conducted a video tour of the station for training of future expedition crews.

Lopez-Alegria, who also serves as the NASA science officer, collected his second set of blood and urine samples for the Nutrition Experiment. This is NASA's most comprehensive in-flight study of human physiological changes during long-duration spaceflight. The experiment measures bone metabolism, oxidative damage, nutritional assessments and hormonal changes. It also will help to define nutritional requirements and develop food systems for missions to the moon and Mars.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin also completed a medical officer proficiency training session. European Space Agency Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter began the first of three runs of the Analysis of a Novel Sensory Mechanism in Root Phototropism experiment in the European Modular Cultivation System. Seeds will sprout next week in the modular cultivation facility, where plants and other small organisms can grow in variable gravity conditions using a centrifuge.

By sprouting seeds under different levels of partial gravity and different frequencies of light, this study will increase the understanding of the different systems plants use to determine what direction their roots and shoots should grow and which genes are responsible for successful plant growth.

NASA's payload operations team at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on the station. Other science work this week included sessions of the Profilaktika and Urolux Russian experiments.

The station remains under the control of three gyroscopes after one was shut down more than a week ago. On Monday, flight controllers conducted a test of Control Moment Gyro (CMG) 3, which was turned off due to excessive vibrations. Monday's test, looking at the health of the accelerometer, spun the CMG up to 500 rpm and then let it coast down to zero while acceleration data were taken with the Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System to correlate and compare with data from the internal CMG accelerometer. An initial review indicated no unusual vibrations, but engineers continue to analyze the results.

On Monday, flight controllers will begin a five-day checkout of the Thermal Radiator Rotary Joints (TRRJ) on the S1 and P1 trusses that will rotate once the station's upgraded external thermal loops are activated during the STS-116 mission. The TRRJ test will enable the radiators to auto track or revolve when required to dissipate heat from the trusses' avionics equipment.

The new resupply ship lifted off at 9:41 a.m. EDT (7:41 p.m. Baikonur time). It will be the 23rd Progress to visit the station. Less than 10 minutes later, the cargo ship reached orbit, and its solar arrays and navigational antennas were deployed for the three-day trip to the orbital outpost.

Two pre-programmed firings of the Progress' main engine are scheduled Friday to fine-tune the ship's path to the space station. Additional rendezvous maneuvers are planned over the next three days.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter were flying 220 miles over southern Russia, north of the Mongolian border, when the Progress was launched. Carrying almost 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel, oxygen, air, spare parts and other supplies, the Progress is scheduled to automatically dock to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 10:28 a.m. EDT Thursday.

The ISS Progress 22 craft that arrived in June remains docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment. That Progress will be used to stow trash and supply oxygen to replenish the station's atmosphere when required. The spacecraft won't be discarded until mid-January.

With almost 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station's Expedition 14 crew, the ISS Progress 23 automatically docked to Zvezda at 10:29 a.m. EDT as the spacecraft and the station flew 220 miles above Italy. The 23rd Progress to visit the station was launched Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Following the initial docking, the final latching of the Progress craft to the station was delayed by about three and a half hours as Russian flight controllers evaluated potential interference by an antenna on the spacecraft. At the time of docking, flight controllers could not confirm that the antenna used by the Progress' Kurs automated docking system had retracted as commanded. If the antenna had remained extended, it could have interfered with the final latching of the supply ship to the station.

After reviewing data, Mission Control Moscow commanded the Progress' docking probe to slowly retract, pulling the ship firmly into the port and aligning the hooks and latches that hold it secure. Latches for the craft on the station were secured at about 2 p.m. EDT. Flight controllers will command additional latches on the Progress to close Friday. This allows the operation to be completed in a normal manner over Russian communications sites.

During the hours between initial docking and final latching, the station's orientation was allowed to drift to avoid any disturbance of the softly docked cargo ship. The station's drift resulted in lower power generation by the solar arrays. The crew then powered off several pieces of non-critical equipment as outlined in a standard procedure that reduces power consumption. Soon after the latches were closed, however, the station's attitude control was restored and power generation was returned to normal.

Due to the long operations Thursday, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter will open the hatch to the supply ship on Friday. Supplies on the Progress include food, fuel, oxygen and air, clothing, experiment hardware and spare parts, as well as personal items from the crew's families. The new Progress joins an older Progress supply ship that arrived at the station's Pirs Docking Compartment in June. Progress 22 will remain docked until mid-January. It will be used to stow trash, and its supply of oxygen will help replenish the station's atmosphere when required.

ISS Progress 23 holds 1,918 pounds of propellant for the Russian thrusters, 110 pounds of oxygen and almost 2,800 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and life support components, including parts for the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system. The system has been inoperable since last month, and Tyurin is expected to resume repairs on the unit next week.

Engineers continue to review data from the station's S-band communications system, which experienced dropouts late last week in the transmission link of one of two redundant channels used for voice and commanding capability. After collecting data last weekend from "string 1" of the S-band system, its transmitter was reactivated Wednesday, but the communications problem occurred once again.

"String 2" of the system is being used for voice and commanding with no impact to station activities. Flight controllers are analyzing the problem to determine if any procedural adjustments must be made for the upcoming flight of Discovery to the station on the STS-116 mission.

In other activities, the crew conducted sound level measurements in the station's modules and installed cables in the Russian segment of the station. They performed regular station maintenance and took time to chat with a reporter from the Orange County Register in California on Tuesday. Reiter continued his work with European plant growth experiments while throughout the week Lopez-Alegria did log entries for a sleep experiment.

In two weeks, the crew will begin preparations for a spacewalk Nov. 22 by Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria in Russian Orlan suits from the Pirs Docking Compartment to replace and retrieve several science experiments from the hull of the Zvezda Service Module. Tyurin also plans to hit a golf ball from a bracket on Pirs as part of a Russian commercial activity.

On Monday, Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin installed new valves and cables to repair the Elektron oxygen-generation unit which shut down in mid-September. Tyurin re-activated it after installing the new parts, and the Elektron is supplying oxygen for the cabin atmosphere.

The crew unpacked most of the items from the recently arrived Russian Progress cargo ship including the Elektron parts, fresh food and other systems hardware. The rest will be unpacked as needed and as time permits.

Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria worked on robotics proficiency tasks throughout the week. At the start of the week, ground controllers relocated the Mobile Transporter to a different worksite on the station's truss. On Wednesday, Lopez-Alegria maneuvered the Canadarm2 robotic arm over to the transporter and its operating base from the arm's normal home base on the Destiny Lab. The free end of the arm was photographed to help robotics specialists as they evaluate an issue that can cause snares to misalign inside the arm's end effector.

On Thursday, Lopez-Alegria connected the free end of the arm to another grapple fixture on the Mobile Base System and released the opposite end. Friday, the Mobile Transporter was moved by ground controllers to the outermost worksite on the port truss. It will provide support there for the Canadarm2 operations during the next shuttle assembly mission, STS-116. Next week Lopez-Alegria will check out the robotic system for the shuttle flight, which will bring and install a new truss spacer segment to the station.

Lopez-Alegria set up and activated cameras for a session of the Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students, or EarthKAM experiment.

The middle school students study the Earth, then control a special digital camera mounted on the space station to photograph coastlines, mountain ranges and other geographic items from the unique vantage point of space. At the University of California at San Diego, an undergraduate student team manages the image requests and posts the photographs on the Internet for the public and participating classrooms around the world to view. More than 107 schools from 10 countries participated in this session.

The second sample of seeds for the Analysis of a Novel Sensory Mechanism in Root Phototropism was harvested and frozen in the Minus-Eighty Laboratory Freezer, a cold storage unit that maintains experiment samples at temperatures of -80 C, -26 C, or 4 C throughout a mission. Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter worked with the experiment, which will increase the understanding of the different systems plants use to determine the direction their roots and shoots should grow and which genes are responsible for successful plant growth.

Reiter also continued work on a suite of European Space Agency science experiments. One such experiment, called CARD, is helping scientists examine the relationship between salt intake and the cardiovascular system when exposed to the microgravity environment.

Crewmembers typically experience reduced blood pressure in microgravity. To help them readjust to gravity on Earth, they take salt tablets just before returning, which temporarily increases the blood volume. CARD is looking at the effects of ingesting occasional salt supplements throughout the long duration mission. This experiment's results could also help improve treatment of patients on Earth with heart failure.

The crew began gathering tools for a Nov. 22 spacewalk by Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria in Russian Orlan suits from the Pirs Docking Compartment. They will replace and retrieve several science experiments from the hull of the Zvezda Service Module.

Tyurin also plans to hit a golf ball from a bracket on Pirs as part of a Russian commercial activity.

Throughout the week the crew prepared the Pirs docking compartment for the Nov. 22 spacewalk by Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin. The astronauts gathered tools and equipment they will use on the nearly six-hour spacewalk.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin next week will prepare the Russian Orlan spacesuits they will wear for the excursion. During the spacewalk they will relocate a communications antenna, install new experiment hardware and photograph a Kurs rendezvous system antenna on the Progress supply ship that docked last month to the Zvezda module's aft docking port. Tyurin also will conduct a Russian commercial demonstration by hitting a golf ball teed up on the exterior of Pirs.

A top priority for Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter this week was packing material destined to return to Earth on the Space Shuttle Discovery in December. Lopez-Alegria completed a routine checkout of the Mobile Servicing System that moves the station's robotic arm up and down the truss, in support of that shuttle assembly flight.

On mission STS-116, targeted to launch Dec. 7, the shuttle crew will deliver another component of the station's girder-like truss structure and perform spacewalks to rewire the station's electrical system. The shuttle crew includes astronaut Suni Williams, who will relieve Reiter on board. Reiter will have spent six months on the complex.

Lopez-Alegria, the NASA International Space Station Science Officer for Expedition 14, collected his third set of blood and urine samples for the Nutritional Status Assessment experiment. This experiment measures physiological indicators of the changes in the human body during spaceflight.

The samples are stored in the Minus-Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer aboard the station. Once returned to Earth the blood and urine samples will be analyzed to understand a wide variety of bodily systems, including hormonal changes and how they relate to stress, bone and muscle metabolism. Scientists will also look at markers to measure bone metabolism, oxidative damage, and vitamin and mineral status.

These findings are expected to give researchers a better understanding of what happens to crewmembers in space and when it happens. It also will help to define nutritional requirements and develop food systems for future missions to the moon and Mars.

Working hundreds of miles away from home didn't stop Lopez-Alegria from participating in this week's general election. Texas law permits residents who happen to be in orbit on Election Day to cast a ballot from space. This was first done by David Wolf from the Mir space station in 1997. Lopez-Alegria made his choices on an encrypted computer ballot that was downlinked to Mission Control and forwarded to the county clerk's office in Houston for tabulation.

Lopez-Alegria, who will make his sixth spacewalk, and Tyurin, with three previous spacewalks to his credit, climbed into Russian Orlan spacesuits Friday to test all systems and communications gear. This ended a week during which the spacewalkers also installed U.S. lights on their suit helmets, reviewed procedures for the extravehicular activity and performed leak checks on the Progress 22 craft currently docked to the Pirs airlock.

The six-hour spacewalk includes a commercial golf demonstration by Tyurin. Under a commercial agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency and a Canadian golf company, Tyurin will hit a golf ball into space from a spring-mounted tee on the ladder next to the hatch of Pirs. The ball will be tapped over the back of the station's Russian segment so that the ball travels away from the complex. NASA flight controllers have calculated that it will burn up in the atmosphere in about three days. The ball weighs much less than the standard 45 gram golf ball. The ball used for this demonstration weighs three grams, approximately the weight of three paper clips.

During the spacewalk, Tyurin will examine part of the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship. One of the antennas for the Progress' automated docking system may have failed to fold back when the spacecraft approached the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on Oct. 26. If it's necessary, Tyurin will manually retract that antenna.

Also, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will reposition a communications antenna on the aft end of Zvezda associated with next year's docking of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, check restraining bolts on one of two Russian cargo cranes attached to Pirs and deploy an experiment to measure solar flares.

Wednesday marked the first live high-definition television broadcast from space. It featured Lopez-Alegria, with Reiter serving as camera operator. The broadcasts were conducted by NHK Television in Japan and the Discovery HD Theater. Known as the Space Video Gateway, the HD system onboard transmits high bandwidth digital television signals to the ground through a computer. Previously, high-definition video was recorded and then returned to Earth for viewing.

Flight controllers this week continued to test one of the station's four control moment gyroscopes (CMGs). CMG-3 exhibited high vibrations and electrical currents in the past and was shut down Oct. 9. The recent test results will be compared to a previous series of tests to provide additional data on the state of the gyroscope's accelerometer, lubricant and lubrication of the spin bearings.

CMG-3 is scheduled to be removed and replaced on the STS-118 shuttle mission, targeted for launch in June 2007. The gyroscope will be stowed and returned to Earth on the STS-122 mission next fall. The station continues to function on three healthy CMGs without affecting operations.

Reiter also continued work this week on a suite of European Space Agency science experiments, including one called CASPER. Its objective is to develop ways to help astronauts sleep better during long-duration missions. Alteino Long Term Monitoring of Cosmic Rays or ALTCRISS is another experiment Reiter performed. It is allowing scientists to study the effects of shielding on cosmic rays. The information gained may help engineers better understand the radiation environment and how to provide efficient shielding against it.

With Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter inside to monitor systems, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin opened the hatch to the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock at 6:17 p.m. CST as the station flew over the Atlantic Ocean near the west coast of Africa. They wore Russian Orlan spacesuits for the 19th spacewalk conducted out of Pirs since it was mated to the Russian segment of the station in September 2001 during Tyurin's first flight as part of Expedition 3.

The start of the spacewalk was delayed more than an hour after Tyurin encountered a problem with a cooling hose for his spacesuit. He climbed out the suit to reposition the hose, and uninterrupted cooling for the suit was restored.

After setting up tools and equipment outside Pirs, Tyurin placed a three-gram golf ball on a spring-mounted tee and clamped it onto the ladder next to the Pirs hatch. Appearing uncomfortable with his feet planted on the ladder, Tyurin used a gold-plated six-iron to tap the golf ball safely away from the aft end of the Zvezda Service Module. Tyurin said he was pleased with his golf shot, and Russian flight controllers chose not to have him hit another ball so the crew could tackle other tasks.

Tyurin's golf shot was part of a demonstration for a commercially sponsored endeavor between a Canadian golf company and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The golf club and three balls were flown to the station on recent Russian Progress cargo ships. NASA's safety analysis showed that the balls will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up in about three days. The balls weigh only about as much as three one-dollar bills.

The two spacewalkers then moved to the end of Zvezda where the recently arrived ISS Progress 23 cargo ship is docked. Tyurin released a latch on one of the antennas for the craft's Kurs automated rendezvous system that failed to retract when the Progress docked on Oct. 26. Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria attempted to move the so-called "orientation" antenna back to its retracted and stowed position with their hands and with a prybar, but the antenna would not budge. Russian flight controllers also sent commands to drive the antenna to its retracted position, but that also failed.

The spacewalkers took a number of pictures to send to Russian engineers, who will evaluate options for freeing the stuck antenna on a future spacewalk. The engineers surmise something may be frozen in the linkage for the antenna's drive mechanism, preventing it from moving.

While at the aft of Zvezda, Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria spent a few minutes removing and repositioning one of several communications antennas previously installed around the module's docking port. This will assist the docking of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle that will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana next year.

In its previous location, the antenna partially blocked the opening of one of Zvezda's engine covers. The antenna was reinstalled less than a foot from its original position, out of the way of future operations with the engine.

Next, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin moved to the top of the forward section of Zvezda to install an experiment called "BTN-Neutron" that will measure the volume of neutron particles emitted by solar flares that reach low Earth orbit. The crew wrapped up its work by jettisoning a pair of thermal covers for the experiment that will be tracked by flight controllers to ensure they pose no possibility of hitting the station or the shuttle Discovery that is scheduled for an assembly mission to the station in a few weeks.

It was the 73rd spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance totaling 444 hours and 14 minutes of time outside the outpost and the first of four scheduled during Expedition 14. The spacewalk was the sixth in Lopez-Alegria's career and the fourth for Tyurin.

Shuttle Discovery is due to launch at 8:35 p.m. CST Thursday, Dec. 7 on mission STS-116. In addition to work that will bring power online at the station from solar arrays delivered to the complex in September, Discovery also will bring a new crew member to the outpost.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter reviewed the STS-116 mission plans this week. They prepared the station's Quest airlock, spacesuits and tools for three spacewalk planned for the shuttle mission. The crew packed equipment that will return to Earth aboard the shuttle, including Reiter's personal items since he will get a ride home aboard Discovery. STS-116 astronaut Sunita Williams will replace him as an Expedition 14 flight engineer.

Flight controllers worked on two problems aboard the station this week, neither of which is expected to affect Discovery's launch or mission.

An attempted reboost of the space station's altitude was cut short Wednesday. Russian flight controllers suspect that sensitive software detected a slight shift in the orientation of the station as the thrusters were fired. The change in orientation is believed to be normal, but it is new for the station due to the changes in its mass and balance resulting from the addition of the new solar arrays and truss segment in September.

The Progress cargo craft's thrusters fired for 3 minutes, 16 seconds before automatically shutting off. They had planned to fire for 18 minutes, 22 seconds. Russian controllers plan to complete the reboost Monday with a 21-minute firing of the Progress thrusters and a software adjustment. The reboost next Monday, planned for around 3:35 p.m. CST, will optimize Discovery's rendezvous with the station.

Flight controllers are analyzing a problem that occurred during testing of a new software package used to detect and solve problems with the station's giant Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. The joint is used to rotate the new solar arrays, allowing them to track the sun. The new software is designed to automatically realign the teeth of the joint's gears should they become misaligned, rather than requiring controllers to send commands for the realignment.

However, while running through a test of the software on Tuesday, a remote power controller, or station circuit breaker, opened. The circuit breaker was successfully reset on Thursday. Extensive analysis and troubleshooting appears to indicate there is no problem with any equipment aboard the station. Work continues, however, to refine the new software.

Discovery's seven-member crew will link up with the International Space Station on Monday to begin a complex, week-long stay that will rewire the outpost and increase its power supply. During three spacewalks and intricate choreography with ground controllers, the astronauts will bring electrical power on line generated by a giant solar array wing delivered to the station in September.

Aboard Discovery are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein, and mission specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Bob Curbeam, Sunita Williams and Christer Fuglesang, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. Aboard the station awaiting Discovery's arrival are Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter, also an ESA astronaut.

Williams and Reiter will switch places when Discovery arrives. Williams will begin a six-month stay as a station crew member and Reiter will journey home on Discovery. Reiter has been on the station since July.

After reaching orbit tonight, Discovery's crew began procedures to open the shuttle’s payload bay doors and set up computers and other equipment. They also plan to power up the shuttle's robotic arm to check its operation. They will use the arm on Sunday to inspect Discovery's heat shield. On Monday, Discovery is planned to dock to the station at about 3:47 p.m. CST.

During the mission, Fuglesang and Curbeam will conduct two spacewalks. Williams and Curbeam will perform a third spacewalk. The mission will retract one solar array on the station and begin the rotation of a giant joint on the complex to allow the recently added arrays to track the sun. The astronauts will rearrange the power cabling to a more resilient permanent setup, and they will prepare for the startup of new cooling systems.

Mission Control will power down virtually the entire station at one point or another to prepare it for the crew's work. The results will ready the complex for more solar arrays and laboratories to be added next year.

As Discovery launched, the station was 220 miles above southern England near Southampton. Discovery's crew begins a sleep period at 1:47 a.m. CST Sunday and will awaken for their first full day in space at 9:47 a.m. CST Sunday.

The astronauts will use the shuttle’s robotic arm to unberth the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) for a detailed examination of Discovery’s thermal protection system. Once the reinforced carbon-carbon on the wings’ leading edges and Discovery’s nose have been inspected, they will stow the boom and use the robotic arm to inspect Discovery’s crew cabin and orbital maneuvering system pods on either side of the tail.

In preparation for docking, the astronauts will install a centerline camera and extend the outer ring of the Orbiter Docking System. They also will check out rendezvous tools. Docking is scheduled for a little after 4 p.m. Monday. After hatch opening and welcome, Williams will become a member of the station’s Expedition 14 crew and stay for the first half of Expedition 15. Thomas Reiter, who joined Expedition 13 at its midway point and stayed for the first part of Expedition 14, will come home aboard Discovery.

Discovery’s astronauts also will check out the spacesuits to be used on three spacewalks outside the International Space Station. Curbeam and Fuglesang will do the first two spacewalks, and Williams will join Curbeam for the third. The primary goal of the first spacewalk is to install the P5 segment of the station’s main truss. The two subsequent spacewalks will focus on rewiring of the station’s electrical system, switching it from a temporary configuration to its permanent power grid.

Discovery’s crew was awakened at 9:48 a.m. Sunday with "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles, played for Polansky. The station crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Reiter, got their regular wakeup tone at 9:20 a.m.

Discovery’s crew, Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Bob Curbeam, Sunita Williams and Christer Fuglesang, are looking forward to a very busy day. So are members of the station crew, Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter.

The shuttle crew was awakened at 9:18 a.m. CST with the song "Beep Beep," performed by Louis Prima. It was played for Williams.

Rendezvous operations will begin at about 10:35 a.m. CST. The terminal initiation engine firing by Discovery, a firing that begins the final phase of the rendezvous when the shuttle is about nine miles behind the station, is scheduled for 1:28 p.m. CST.

By 3 p.m. CST, Discovery should be about 600 feet below the station. At that point, Polansky will guide the shuttle through a backflip called the rendezvous pitch maneuver. The maneuver will allow station crew members to photograph Discovery's heat shield. The electronic images will be transmitted to the ground for analysis by engineers.

Shortly after docking, a safety briefing and a welcome ceremony, Williams will transfer her custom seat liner to the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station. When that happens, she becomes a member of the station crew. At the same time, Reiter becomes a Discovery crew member for his ride home, completing about six months in space.

A little after 7:15 p.m. CST, Discovery’s robotic arm will lift the 4,100-pound P5 truss segment from the shuttle's cargo bay. It will be handed off to the station’s arm, where it will stay during the crews’ sleep period, in preparation for its installation on Tuesday.

To prepare for the mission's first spacewalk, Curbeam and Fuglesang will spend tonight in the station’s airlock, where pressure will be reduced to 10.2 psi, a pressure roughly equal to the atmosphere on Earth at about 10,000 feet above sea level. The airlock "campout" at the lower pressure protects against decompression sickness, commonly called "the bends," as the two go to the even lower pressure of spacesuits on Tuesday.

Discovery’s crew entered the station complex at 5:54 p.m. CST as Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria rang the on-board ship’s bell, a centuries-old naval tradition. Lopez-Alegria and crewmates Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter greeted Discovery Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Bob Curbeam, Sunita Williams and Christer Fuglesang with smiles and hugs. The warm welcome followed a 4:12 p.m. rendezvous and docking.

Before launching into their first joint task of the mission -- extracting the new P5 truss member from Discovery’s cargo hold -- the combined crew was called upon to conduct an impromptu inspection of the tip of Discovery’s port wing using the space station’s robotic arm. The inspection was precipitated by a minor vibration reading on a wing sensor in that area about 4:30 a.m. Monday.

Though the single reading could indicate an on-orbit impact, it was not unusual and mission managers did not expect to find any damage. End-effector camera views will allow imagery analysts in Houston to verify that the reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the wing’s leading edge are unscathed. The imagery analysis team also began to review pictures taken of Discovery’s belly during its approach to the station. Teams will meet overnight to determine if a final inspection of the orbiter’s tiles is needed.

The added task delayed unberthing of the 4,100-pound truss section about an hour. But once the inspection was complete, the crew used the shuttle’s robotic arm to pull the truss section out of the payload bay and hand it to the station arm. The P5 truss will remain suspended over Discovery’s port wing overnight, awaiting installation in the first of three planned spacewalks tomorrow.

Before going to bed, the crews gathered for a thorough review of the plan for tomorrow’s spacewalk. Curbeam and Fuglesang will spend tonight in the station’s airlock, where pressure will be reduced to 10.2 psi. The airlock "campout" will purge the spacewalkers’ bloodstreams of nitrogen bubbles and protect against decompression sickness as the two go to the even lower pressure of spacesuits on Tuesday.

Discovery’s crew is scheduled to awaken at 9:47 a.m. CST Tuesday, and the Expedition 14 crew at 10:17 a.m. The spacewalk is to begin at 2:22 p.m., with truss installation expected at 4:07 p.m.

The six-hour, 10-minute excursion by astronauts Bob Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang is set to begin at 2:42 p.m. CST. Curbeam and Fuglesang spent the night in the station's Quest airlock, from which they will begin the spacewalk. The installation of the new truss section, called the P5 truss, will require intricate teamwork by the astronauts. The spacewalkers will visually guide astronaut Joan Higginbotham as she maneuvers the piece in place from aboard the station using the station's robotic arm. The installation is a tight fit -- at times with only a couple of inches to spare.

Discovery remains in good condition. Mission Control has informed Discovery's crew that engineers analyzing imagery of the shuttle's heat shield likely will not request a focused inspection of heat shield areas during time that could be set aside for that activity tomorrow. Mission managers will review the status of all shuttle systems during their regular meeting this afternoon.

Discovery's crew changed late yesterday. Astronaut Sunita Williams, who launched aboard Discovery, officially became a member of the Expedition 14 station crew at 11 p.m. CST Monday as reported by station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria. At the same time, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who has been on the station since July, became a member of Discovery's crew for a trip home. Williams joins Lopez-Alegria and Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin aboard the station as she begins a six-month stay.

Discovery’s crew, Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Curbeam, Fuglesang, Higginbotham and Reiter, were awakened at 9:47 a.m. CST to the song "Waterloo," performed by ABBA. The song was played for Fuglesang.

The installation of the P5 truss is expected to begin about 4:07 p.m. CST, after Curbeam and Fuglesang have removed launch restraints and a arm capture fixture that is no longer needed. Once the segment has been maneuvered into its permanent position, the spacewalkers will bolt it in place and hook up electrical connections. At the end of the spacewalk, they will replace a malfunctioning camera on the starboard side of the station truss.

During the spacewalk, Curbeam will wear a spacesuit with red stripes on the legs. Fuglesang will be in an all-white suit.

Furling of the wing, the left wing of the station's P6 solar arrays that were launched and deployed in December 2000, is the first step as astronauts and Mission Control begin a complex rewiring of the station's power system. The array retraction, performed slowly and in stages, should begin about 12:22 p.m. CST. Within about 40 minutes, the 115-foot long wing should be folded to only a few feet in length. At about 2 p.m. CST, the ground will send commands to power up a giant rotating joint on the station's truss that will begin turning, paddle wheel-style, a new set of solar arrays that were added to the station in September.

The joint, called the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, will allow the new arrays to track the sun as it rises and sets with each station orbit. If the left P6 solar array wing was not retracted, it would interfere with the rotation of the new set of arrays.

The retraction of the final few feet of the left P6 wing should be completed by 5:17 p.m. CST. The rotation of the new set of arrays, called the P4 arrays, sets the stage for activities beginning tomorrow, during the mission's second spacewalk, to rewire the station. The rewiring will bring power generated by the P4 arrays on line for use by the station's systems and prepare for more arrays to be added next year.

The retraction isn’t the only thing on today’s schedule. The shuttle crewmembers, Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Bob Curbeam, Christer Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter, will join their station colleagues in transfer activities, moving equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft.

A total of 4,107 pounds was brought up in the single Spacehab module in Discovery’s cargo bay. An additional 1,107 pounds came up on the shuttle middeck. The shuttle is to take 2,998 pounds from the station back to Earth in Spacehab and 727 pounds on the middeck.

Oefelein, Patrick, Curbeam and Fuglesang will take a break from their work at 7:07 p.m. CST for an interview by CBS Radio, Fox Radio and Space.com.

Discovery’s crew received its wakeup call at 9:17 a.m. CST with the song, "Suavemente," performed by Elvis Crespo, played for Higginbotham. The station crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Sunita Williams, got their wakeup tone half an hour later.

Flight controllers sent commands to enable a large joint to begin rotating around 7 p.m. CST, moving the solar arrays on the P4 truss like a giant paddle wheel to track the sun as the station moves from daylight to darkness in orbit. A few hours later, just before 10 p.m. CST, valves were opened to allow 300 pounds of ammonia to flow into the truss segments of the station and its radiators, the first step toward providing permanent cooling for the avionics and electronics on the complex.

Those vital activation tasks occurred after a day-long effort by Discovery’s crew to retract the port array on the P6 solar array truss structure, which was installed six years ago to provide early electrical power for the station.

The crew spent six hours today sending as many as 45 commands in a start-stop fashion to retract, then redeploy, then retract the balky Venetian-blind like array panels in an effort to fold them into a narrow blanket box at the base of the array. But guide wires that help fold the arrays flat into the box apparently became snagged with only 17 out of 31 bays of the port array retracted. That was enough, however, to provide enough clearance to enable the new P4 arrays to begin rotating as planned.

Mission managers met tonight to discuss various options for completing the P6 array retraction, and decided to press ahead with the second of three scheduled spacewalks Thursday by Bob Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang during which they will rewire the first pair of electrical channels for the permanent power system on the station.

Managers will convene over the next few days to determine whether additional spacewalk activity by Discovery’s crew will be scheduled to complete the retraction of the P6 array, although they have concluded that the array is in a safe configuration for the remainder of this mission, Discovery’s undocking next week, and if necessary, for the arrival of a new Russian Progress resupply ship in January should a spacewalking task be added to the Expedition 14 crew following Discovery’s flight.

Late tonight, to gather data for a future decision, Mission Control asked Discovery Commander Mark Polansky and Station Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria to consider which flight day would be best for a fourth spacewalk if one is ordered to complete the P6 array retraction. Polansky and Lopez-Alegria asked for more details about what such a spacewalk would entail before offering their thoughts.

With the station’s new solar arrays rotating and its permanent cooling system operating as advertised, Discovery’s crew members will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 1:17 a.m. CST and will wake up Thursday at 9:17 a.m. CST to begin preparations for the second spacewalk of the flight. The station crew members will be awakened thirty minutes later.

Curbeam and Fuglesang spent the night in the station's Quest airlock at a reduced atmospheric pressure of 10.2 psi. The "campout" procedure reduces nitrogen levels in the blood to help avoid decompression sickness as the astronauts go to the even lower pressure of spacesuits.

The spacewalk is planned to last about six hours. The two spacewalkers are scheduled to reconfigure two of the station's four power channels, channels 2 and 3, bringing power on line from the new set of solar arrays added to the station in September. The remaining two power channels, 1 and 4, will be reconfigured in a third spacewalk on Saturday. The changes will convert the station power system to a permanent setup, ready for even more arrays and science modules to be added next year.

At about 11:22 a.m. CST, station flight controllers will be sending commands that will power down roughly half of the station's systems in preparation for the spacewalkers' rewiring job this afternoon. The result will partially power down some communications systems, lighting, ventilation systems and backup computers, among other systems. Once the spacewalkers have completed the new power connections, flight controllers will power all the equipment and systems back on. As changes are made in the power system, additional cooling systems also will need to be brought online as well.

Late last night, half of the new cooling system for the P4 truss was filled with ammonia to be ready to begin circulating today when pumps are activated.

During the spacewalk, Curbeam, who will wear a suit with red stripes on the legs, and Fuglesang, who will wear an all-white suit, also will relocate two small handcarts that run along rails on the station’s main truss. Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Suni Williams and Discovery Mission Specialist Joan Higginbotham will operate the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm in support of the spacewalk.

Managers and engineers continue to evaluate whether further actions will be taken during STS-116 to complete the retraction of the port P6 truss solar array. The array was retracted almost halfway Wednesday, with only 17 bays of its center mast remaining extended. Fully extended, the mast has 31 bays. The array was retracted sufficiently to allow the new P4 solar arrays to begin rotating last night, an operation that was completed without problems. In their current state, the P6 port array and the P4 arrays have more than 16 feet of clearance from one another. Should they remain as they are, the partially retracted arrays pose no issue for the shuttle's undocking or any planned station activities until a Soyuz relocation flight set for April 2007.

A decision on any further action regarding the partially retracted array – including a possible fourth spacewalk during STS-116 for Curbeam and Fuglesang to assist in the retraction -- is not expected before Saturday.

Discovery’s crew was awakened at 9:17 a.m. CST today with the song, "Under Pressure," performed by Queen. It was played for Curbeam. The station crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Williams, woke up a half-hour later.

The final attempt of the day came at 8:04 p.m. CST when Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams deployed the P6 solar array blanket slightly and then retracted it the same distance. This left 14 of the array’s 31 bays in their storage box, the same condition in which they started the day.

After the deployment and retraction technique made no significant progress in clearing the jam, the team briefed the crew on an inspection task that is being planned for use at the end of the mission’s third spacewalk. The task would be added only if the rest of the electrical rewiring activities planned for the excursion go smoothly. Mission managers have not yet decided whether a fourth spacewalk will be attempted, but the inspection task on the third spacewalk could provide information valuable to those making the decision.

Earlier in the day, flight controllers "wiggled" the solar arrays using the beta gimbal assembly, a rotating mechanism on the truss, and the crew worked out vigorously on an a resistive exercise device. Both techniques were attempts to jostle the guide wires and stainless steel grommets that are believed to be the cause of the stalled retraction.

The third spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 1:37 p.m. CST Saturday. During the excursion, Mission Specialist Bob Curbeam and Williams will finish rewiring the station’s power system, stow three Service Module Debris Panel bundles, install an adjustable grapple bar and, if time permits, troubleshoot the problem with the stuck array. The spacewalk will be Williams’ first.

In addition to their troubleshooting activites, the crew shared its experiences in space with both U.S. and European news media during a joint press conference today, and the two European Space Agency astronauts, Christer Fuglesang of Sweden and Thomas Reiter of Germany, participated in a VIP call with Swedish dignitaries.

STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein, Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Curbeam, Reiter and Fuglesang also continued to transfer food, supplies and equipment with the help of Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Williams. The spacefarers also enjoyed some off-duty time together.

Meanwhile, the new Port 4 solar arrays continued to rotate and track the sun, generating power for the station. Flight controllers completed re-powering station systems using the updated electrical grid and power from the new solar arrays delivered in September.

To prepare for the spacewalk, Curbeam and Williams will "camp out" in the Quest airlock starting at 10:57 p.m. Spending the night at a reduced atmospheric pressure of 10.2 psi will purge their bloodstreams of nitrogen bubbles to protect against "the bends." The rest of the crewmembers begin their sleep period at 12:47 a.m. Saturday.

Mission Specialists Bob Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang rewired channels 2 and 3 of the station’s power system in a five-hour spacewalk Thursday. A similar task will be done with the two remaining station power channels, channels 1 and 4, on Saturday. However, for Saturday's spacewalk, Curbeam will be joined by International Space Station Flight Engineer Suni Williams for the outside work while Fuglesang will coordinate activities inside the spacecraft. Once the third spacewalk is complete, power will be fully online from the station’s P4 Truss solar array wings, which were installed in September. At that point, the station's power system will be ready for additional expansion with more arrays and new laboratories to be delivered next year.

Discovery Commander Mark Polansky and his crew—Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Thomas Reiter, Curbeam and Fuglesang—were awakened at about 8:52 a.m. CST to the song "Low Rider," performed by War, and played for Oefelein.

Discovery and the station are in good condition. Discovery is currently maintaining the orientation of both the station and shuttle using the shuttle steering jets, a function it began performing during preparations for the spacewalk on Thursday. Control of the station's orientation was transferred to Discovery on Thursday as part of the normal preparations of the station's power system for the rewiring job. The station usually uses its own control moment gyroscopes to maintain its orientation, without having to use fuel.

Originally, control of the station's orientation was to be transferred back to those gyroscopes late Thursday after the spacewalk tasks were completed and station systems powered up. However, problems were experienced as that transfer was attempted. Flight controllers believe the problems were due to a higher than usual amount of atmospheric drag currently experienced by the station due to recent solar activity. They may attempt to transfer control of orientation back to the station again today, although the shuttle thrusters can be used if needed for that purpose through the rest of the mission. If necessary, the station has thrusters that can be used for orientation control as well.

During the first half of their day, the astronauts will transfer supplies and equipment between the station and shuttle. At 1:07 p.m. the two European Space Agency astronauts, Fuglesang of Sweden and Reiter of Germany, will participate in a VIP call from Swedish dignitaries. At 2:47 p.m. all 10 astronauts and cosmonauts on the shuttle/station complex will conduct a news conference with reporters in the U.S. and Europe. The shuttle crewmembers will be off duty the last half of the day.

Station Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are scheduled for interviews with KNX Radio, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio at 4:27 p.m. CST.

Engineers investigating the difficulties with fully retracting the port-side solar array wing of the station's P6 Truss believe a guide wire may be snagged in a swiveling grommet on one of the array's panels. The snag could be keeping the panels from folding up completely. The array remains almost halfway retracted as it has been since Wednesday. Early this morning, station flight controllers commanded the array through a series of "wiggle" tests, swiveling the wing 10 degrees at a time repeatedly to see if that would help the situation. They are continuing to evaluate the results of those tests and to investigate options for further work with the array, including the potential to add a spacewalk to latter part of this mission. Options also may include some additional troubleshooting commanding that could be performed with the array during the crew's day today.

Discovery Mission Specialist Bob Curbeam and station Flight Engineer Sunita Williams will venture outside to finish the job started on Thursday’s spacewalk. Station flight controllers will begin commanding about half of the station's systems to power down at about 10:52 a.m. CST. After Mission Control has cut the power on the two station electrical channels that are the subject of today's work, channels 1 and 4, the spacewalkers will rewire them. Completing that task will put the station power system in its permanent configuration, ready for more solar arrays and laboratories to be added in 2007.

Curbeam and Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut from Sweden, completed a rewiring job on the other two station power channels, channels 2 and 3, during a spacewalk on Thursday.

Additional tasks for today’s spacewalk include relocating debris shield panels from the station’s interior to a storage point outside. The panels, designed to increase the protection of the station's Zvezda living quarters module, will be installed during a later spacewalk by the station crew. Curbeam and Williams also will install a robotic arm grapple fixture.

Today's spacewalk is planned to be completed at 7:47 p.m. CST, but can go longer if needed. If time allows after all originally planned tasks are completed during the excursion, one or both of the spacewalkers will move up the P6 truss atop the station to the base of its partially retracted port solar wing. From that point, they will push on a blanket box into which the array has been folding to attempt to jiggle apparently misaligned guide wires and grommets into place. The result may allow additional retraction of the array.

Meanwhile, managers are continuing to evaluate a possible fourth spacewalk that would take place on Monday to attempt to fully retract the array. However, no decision has been made regarding whether that spacewalk will be pursued. To prepare for that possibility, the spacewalkers today may bring several tools inside the station that would need to be prepared with insulating tape for use on a fourth spacewalk.

The transfer of equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft continues. Late Friday, the crews were slightly ahead of the transfer schedule.

Inside the station today, station Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will replace a component of the orbiting laboratory’s carbon dioxide removal system to restore it to full operation.

The orientation of the shuttle and station is again being controlled by the station's control moment gyroscopes. Small shuttle thrusters had been controlling the orientation of the spacecraft since Friday, when an initial attempt to switch to gyroscope control was not successful. A second attempt Saturday worked. Flight controllers believe the difficulty was due to increased atmospheric drag resulting from recent solar activity.

Shuttle crewmembers Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Curbeam, Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter, along with Williams in the airlock campout, were awakened at 8:52 a.m. CST to composer Aaron Copeland’s "Fanfare for the Common Man," performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The music was played for Patrick.

Staying behind on the newly rewired space station were Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, and departing with Discovery’s crew was Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut on his way home after a six-month space voyage.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin rang the ship’s bell in Navy fashion and saluted the shuttle and crew as they departed. "From the crew of Discovery – we wish you smooth sailing – thank you for the hard work, and we hope you enjoy the new electrical system on the station," STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky radioed back from a distance of 650 feet during a half-lap fly-around.

Pilot Bill Oefelein was at the controls for the fly-around, which gave Discovery’s crew a look at its handiwork, a new P5 spacer truss segment and a fully retracted P6 solar array wing. During 7 days, 23 hours and 58 minutes of docked operations, the combined crew installed the newest piece of the station’s backbone and completely rewired the station’s power grid over the course of four spacewalks.

Before the hatches closed at 1:42 p.m., Mission Specialist Joan Higginbotham and her cargo team had transferred more than two tons of food, water and equipment for use by the Expedition 14 crew and its newest member. They also filled Discovery’s pressurized cargo carrier with equipment and experiment samples returning to Earth.

Discovery fired its orbital maneuvering system engines to finish separation from the station at 6:12 p.m., bound for a landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:56 p.m. Friday, weather permitting.

On Wednesday, Polansky, Oefelein and Mission Specialist Nicholas Patrick will use the shuttle’s robotic arm and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to inspect Discovery’s heat shield for damage from orbiting debris or micrometeoroids. Spacewalkers Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang will work with Higginbotham and Reiter to stow equipment and supplies used during the mission in preparation for landing.

During their eight days docked to the station, the shuttle crew also dropped off more than two tons of additional equipment and supplies and a new station crew member.

After some final equipment transfers between the two spacecraft, Discovery crew members will bid their station colleagues farewell. Hatch closing is scheduled for 12:57 p.m. CST. Undocking is to occur at 4:09 p.m.

With Pilot Bill Oefelein at the controls, Discovery will slowly move away from the station. A partial fly-around of the station will give the crew a look at the orbiting laboratory, with its new P5 spacer truss segment and the port wing of the P6 solar array fully retracted and firmly secured in its retention box.

Discovery will begin its departure from the area at about 6 p.m. The crew is to begin its scheduled sleep period at 10:47 p.m. Landing is scheduled for 2:56 p.m. CST Friday at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Highlights of docked operations include the four spacewalks. Mission Specialist Bob Curbeam participated in all of them, giving him the record for the number of spacewalks during a single shuttle mission. He teamed up with Sunita Williams, the new station crewmember for the third spacewalk, and with Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang for the other three.

The first spacewalk was for the P5 truss segment installation, the second and third focused on the power reconfiguration, and the fourth was dedicated to completing retraction of the port solar wing of the P6 truss.

The P6 arrays were deployed in late 2000. On Wednesday almost half the port wing was retracted, leaving 17 bays out. Saturday spacewalkers Curbeam and Williams helped retract six more bays. In a dramatic Monday spacewalk, Curbeam and Fuglesang helped complete the retraction.

Discovery crewmembers -- Commander Mark Polansky, Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Curbeam, Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter, the European Space Agency astronaut from Germany who will be coming home after about six months in space -- were awakened at 7:47 a.m. CST to "The Zamboni Song," performed by the Gear Daddies. The song, dedicated to the entire crew, was requested by the training team who sent a message to Oefelein saying they had arranged for him to fly the shuttle half a lap around the station.

Aboard the station, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Williams got their wakeup tone at 8:17 a.m.

One hour after removing the sensor-equipped 50-foot Orbiter Boom Sensor System from the payload bay with the shuttle’s robotic arm, Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialist Nicholas Patrick began to scan the reinforced carbon-carbon surface of Discovery’s wings and its nose cap to ensure the shuttle incurred no micrometeoroid debris damage during its time in space. The six-hour inspection was completed at 4:22 p.m. Imagery and damage assessment teams at the Johnson Space Center immediately began analyzing the data. A report will be offered to mission managers on Thursday.

While the inspection was conducted, Mission Specialists Bob Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham and European Space Agency astronauts Christer Fuglesang and Thomas Reiter began to pack up equipment for Discovery’s scheduled landing Friday at the Kennedy Space Center. With only one wave-off day available on Saturday, backup landing sites at Edwards Air Force Base, CA and the White Sands Space Harbor, NM are being activated for landing support Friday in the event weather diverts the shuttle and its crew from the Florida spaceport. Discovery’s scheduled landing time at the Kennedy Space Center Friday is 2:56 p.m. CST.

Late today, Discovery’s astronauts sent commands to deploy small technology demonstration satellites for the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program.

The crew deployed a pair of coffee cup-sized satellites at 6:19 p.m. CST to demonstrate how a small, low-powered autonomous satellite can observe larger spacecraft. The Micro-Electromechanical System-Based PICOSAT Inspector, known as MEPSI, may one day use on-board imagery to assess spacecraft damage.

The crew then released another pair of small scientific satellites as part of a student experiment sponsored by the United States Naval Academy at 7:58 p.m. CST. The Radar Fence Transponder, or RAFT, experiment is designed to test technology for new spacecraft design.

The last satellite experiment, the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment, or ANDE, will be deployed from Discovery’s payload bay Thursday afternoon. ANDE consists of two spherical microsatellites that will measure the density and composition of the low Earth orbit atmosphere while being tracked from the ground. The data will be used to better predict the movement of objects in orbit.

Aboard the International Space Station, the newly comprised Expedition 14 crew, Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams, enjoyed their first full day together after Discovery’s departure yesterday.

Discovery’s astronauts will begin their sleep period just after 10 p.m. CST and will be awakened Thursday at 6:17 a.m. for a day in which they will check out the shuttle’s aero surfaces and steering jets in preparation for Friday’s landing.

After the inspection, Discovery will deploy two small scientific satellites. A third will be deployed Thursday.

Discovery Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialist Nicholas Patrick will use the boom and sensor to look at thermal tiles on the shuttle’s underside. They also will inspect the reinforced carbon-carbon that protects the leading edges of the wings and the nose.

The heat shield inspection activities begin at 9:52 a.m. CST with the unberthing of the boom extension. Scanning of the heat shield with the sensor system begins at 10:52 a.m. and should take about five hours. The boom is to be reberthed into its cradle along the right side of the shuttle cargo bay at 4:22 p.m.

During the inspection, other Discovery astronauts will stow equipment in preparation for landing. Mission Specialists Bob Curbeam, Christer Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter will begin packing up in the shuttle’s cabin and the Spacehab module in its cargo bay.

At about 6:19 p.m. CST, the Microelectromechanical System-Based PICOSAT Inspector (MEPSI) mini-satellite will be released from Discovery's cargo bay. The coffee cup-sized satellite will demonstrate the use of tiny, low-power satellites to observe larger spacecraft. It will test the function of small camera systems and gyroscopes.

At about 7:56 p.m. CST, the Radar Fence Transponder (RAFT) satellite will be released from the cargo bay. The satellite is a student experiment from the United States Naval Academy that uses picosatellites to test the Space Surveillance Radar Fence.

All activities aboard Discovery are aimed toward a landing that would begin with a deorbit engine firing by the shuttle at 1:53 p.m. CST Friday that would lead to a touchdown at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 2:56 p.m. CST Friday. Mission Control continues to monitor the weather in Florida, and shuttle landing opportunities at both Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and at White Sands Space Harbor, N.M., also will be considered on Friday.

Fuglesang and Reiter are European Space Agency astronauts. Fuglesang, from Sweden, participated in three of the four spacewalks during Discovery’s stay at the station. Curbeam set a record for spacewalks on a shuttle mission, performing four. Reiter, from Germany, is returning aboard Discovery after six months on the station.

Discovery’s crew was awakened at 6:47 a.m. by "Say You’ll be Mine," performed by Christopher Cross. It was for Reiter.

On the orbiting laboratory, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Sunita Williams are beginning a light-duty day after eight days of joint operations with Discovery. At 6:30 a.m. CST they were trailing Discovery by about 730 statute miles. The gap was increasing by more than 80 miles with each 91-minute orbit of the Earth.

The crew, Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein, and mission specialists Bob Curbeam, Nicholas Patrick, Christer Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter, were awakened at 6:17 a.m. CST to the song "The Road Less Traveled," performed by Joe Sample. It was played for Higginbotham.

The crew began stowing gear away at 8:47 a.m., with all seven crewmembers participating off and on during the day.

Polansky, Oefelein and Curbeam, who serves as flight engineer, checked out flight control surfaces – the wing and body flaps and the rudder – beginning at 9:17 a.m. CST. At 10:27 a.m., they began a test firing of the shuttle's steering jets used during the early portions of descent from orbit.

Fuglesang and Higginbotham will deploy the third of three small satellites from Discovery's cargo bay today. The first two were successfully pushed into space Wednesday. The Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment (ANDE) microsatellite will be deployed at 12:19 p.m. The satellite will gather information on atmospheric drag in low orbit.

After lunch, all seven crewmembers will talk with reporters from CNN and ABC, and with students at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai, Alaska.

The crew will review deorbit procedures at 2:32 p.m. CST. The KU-band antenna, used as the primary method to transmit television to the ground among other communications, will be stowed for landing at 7:17 p.m. CST. The crew begins a sleep period at 10:17 p.m.

Shuttle landing sites at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.; and at White Sands Space Harbor, N.M. all will be active for a landing on Friday. The weather forecast currently calls for a chance of rain and low clouds at Kennedy; potential strong crosswinds at Edwards; and acceptable landing conditions at White Sands.

Discovery’s first landing opportunity Friday is to Kennedy, beginning with a deorbit engine firing at 1:49 p.m. CST with wheels touching down at 2:56 p.m. CST. The next opportunity is to Edwards with an engine firing to begin descent at 3:19 p.m. CST leading to a 4:27 p.m. touchdown. The first opportunity to land at White Sands begins with an engine firing at 3:20 p.m. CST leading to a touchdown in New Mexico at 4:32 p.m.

Opportunities also exist for Discovery to land at Edwards with a descent beginning with an engine firing at 4:54 p.m. CST leading to touchdown at 6 p.m. CST. A second opportunity to land at White Sands begins with an engine firing by the shuttle at 4:57 p.m. CST leading to a 6:02 p.m. touchdown.

The final landing opportunity available for Discovery on Friday is to Edwards, beginning with an engine firing at 6:32 p.m. CST leading to a touchdown at 7:36 p.m. CST.

Discovery is now about 2,200 statute miles ahead of the International Space Station. The distance increases by about 92 miles with each orbit.

Two station crew members, Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, are about half way through their six-month increment. The third crewmember, Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, came to the station aboard Discovery and is just beginning her six months on the station with the last half of Expedition 14 and the first half of Expedition 15.

STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein, and Flight Engineer Bob Curbeam started checking out Discovery’s aerodynamic control surfaces at 9:31 a.m. CST, and test firing the shuttle's steering jets at 10:11 a.m. The commander and pilot also practiced landings on a laptop computer trainer, and performed final checks of the communications systems that will be used for landing.

A little later in the day, Mission Specialists Christer Fuglesang and Joan Higginbotham deployed a third small satellite from the shuttle’s cargo bay. The Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment (ANDE) microsatellite, ejected at 12:23 p.m., will gather information on atmospheric drag in low-Earth orbit. The first two microsatellites were deployed Wednesday.

Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick joined the rest of the crew in talking with reporters from CNN and ABC. Oefelein, who considers Anchorage, Alaska, to be his hometown, was the main focus of questions from students at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai.

Throughout the day, the crew took turns securing their gear for landing. The crew will awaken at 6:17 a.m. Friday, and begin final deorbit preparations at 9:48 a.m.

Entry Flight Director Norm Knight said landing sites at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.; and White Sands Space Harbor, N.M., all will be activated to support landing. The Friday forecast calls for a chance of rain and low clouds at Kennedy; potential strong crosswinds at Edwards; and acceptable landing conditions at White Sands.

Knight said the entry team’s strategy will be to watch weather conditions carefully, focusing – in order – on the first landing opportunity in Florida, the second opportunities in Florida and California, and the third opportunities in California and New Mexico. A fourth California opportunity is available, but may not be used. Saturday landing opportunities are available at all three locations if weather prohibits a Friday landing.

Discovery’s first landing opportunity Friday is to Kennedy, beginning with a deorbit engine firing at 1:49 p.m. CST with wheels touching down at 2:56 p.m. CST. The next opportunity is to Edwards with an engine firing at 3:19 p.m. CST leading to a 4:27 p.m. touchdown. The first opportunity to land at White Sands begins with an engine firing at 3:20 p.m. CST leading to a touchdown in New Mexico at 4:27 p.m.

Opportunities also exist for Discovery to land at Edwards with an engine firing at 4:54 p.m. CST leading to touchdown at 6 p.m. CST. A second opportunity to land at White Sands begins with an engine firing by the shuttle at 4:57 p.m. CST leading to a 6:02 p.m.

touchdown. The final Friday landing opportunity is to Edwards, beginning with an engine firing at 6:32 p.m. CST leading to a touchdown at 7:36 p.m. CST.

Meanwhile, the Expedition 14 crew aboard the International Space Station, is settling back to normal operations with its new member, Flight Engineer Sunita Williams. Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, are about halfway through their six-month increment. Williams, who arrived aboard Discovery, is just beginning her six months on the station. She’ll span the last half of Expedition 14 and the first half of Expedition 15.

That 6:18 a.m. CST call began a day that the crew and their support teams on the ground hope will see Discovery return to Earth after a successful flight to the International Space Station. After eight docked days and four spacewalks, the shuttle left the station with a new truss segment, a new crew member and a reconfigured power system.

All three U.S. landing sites will be activated today. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the preferred shuttle landing site, will be the first opportunity, which would see a landing at 2:56 p.m. On the subsequent orbit the focus will be on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and KSC. On the orbit after that Edwards and White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico would be the centers of attention.

Weather at Kennedy and Edwards is questionable. If the crew does not don its entry suits for the first Kennedy opportunity, a final landing chance of the day at Edwards is available to Discovery. Here are predicted CST times for the deorbit burn and landing times for each opportunity by orbit number and landing site:.

Orbit 202: Kennedy 1:49 p.m. 2:56 p.m.
Orbit 203: Edwards 3:19 p.m. 4:27 p.m.
Orbit 203: White Sands 3:20 p.m. 4:27 p.m.
Orbit 203: Kennedy 3:26 p.m. 4:32 p.m.
Orbit 204: Edwards 4:54 p.m. 6 p.m.
Orbit 204: White Sands 4:57 p.m. 6:02 p.m.
Orbit 205: Edwards 6:32 p.m. 7:36 p.m.

A total of seven landing opportunities scattered among the three sites are available Saturday if the shuttle is not able to land today.

For today’s opportunities, Discovery crew members, Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein, and mission specialists Bob Curbeam, Nicholas Patrick, Christer Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter, who is returning home after about six months on the station, will begin deorbit preparations at 9:52 a.m. Payload bay door closing would be at 11:13 a.m. for the first landing opportunity.

Aboard the station, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Sunita Williams, the new crew member who came up on Discovery, are back to their regular schedule. They got their wakeup tone today at midnight CST (6 a.m. in the GMT kept aboard the orbiting laboratory) and will begin a sleep period at 3:30 p.m.

After a New Year's Day holiday, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams spent most of the week installing the U.S. oxygen generation system activation kit in the Destiny laboratory. The parts had been delivered on shuttle mission STS-121 in July 2006. The new generator will supplement the Russian Elektron oxygen system on the station. The additional oxygen generating capacity will be important as the standard station crew size increases to six as the complex grows. In their work with the new system this week, Lopez-Alegria and Williams installed a hydrogen vent valve and power, data and fluid hoses and cables. The system will be activated and tested later this year.

Meanwhile, Expedition 14 Flight Engineer and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin worked in the Russian segment of the station, where he upgraded soundproofing of the ventilation system. Tyurin installed new fans, sound-deadening vibration isolators and air ducts with acoustic shields to reduce the noise they create.

This morning, Lopez-Alegria and Williams took time out from their work to share their mission with a group of students in the fifth through eighth grades from the Columbia Explorers Academy. From the Adler Planetarium in Chicago the students asked the astronauts about living in orbit and the goals of their mission.

Also this week, the crew finished unpacking and stowing supplies delivered last month on shuttle mission STS-116, and they marked milestones in two laboratory experiments. On Tuesday, Williams set up the hardware for the Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capabilities, or TRAC investigation. It is a NASA-sponsored experiment jointly managed by scientists from Germany and Canada. Crew members' hand and eye coordination are tested before, during and after missions. For the tests, subjects use a joystick to control a cursor on a computer screen and respond to audio and visual stimuli. The experiment gathers data about how, and to what extent, the brain adapts to weightlessness.

Crew members completed the final operations of a biological experiment on the impact of varying levels of light and gravity on plant root growth. The final images of samples in the European Modular Cultivation System were taken and downlinked, and the samples were stowed in a freezer for eventual return to Earth.

Packed with discarded items no longer needed on the outpost, Progress 22 will undock from the station’s Pirs Docking Compartment next Tuesday at 5:28 p.m. CST. Its engines will be fired three hours later to send it back into the atmosphere, where it will burn up.

The station crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams, geared up for the docking of ISS Progress 24 at Pirs, which is slated for Friday, Jan. 19 at 9 p.m. CST. Progress 24 will launch on Wednesday, Jan. 17, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:12 p.m. CST.

The new Russian cargo ship will bring about 2.5 tons of food, fuel, oxygen and supplies to the complex, including clothing and spacewalk hardware for the next resident crew that will arrive at the station in April.

In preparation for the undocking of Progress 22, Tyurin disassembled and removed the docking mechanism in the hatchway between the cargo craft and the docking compartment. The mechanism will be returned to Earth on Space Shuttle Atlantis' mission to the complex in March.

During the week, the crew worked for several hours in the Zvezda Service Module on a major systems replacement task, trained on the Robotics Onboard Trainer and relocated it to a new rack in the Destiny lab. They also repaired and tested a Russian exercise machine.

Tyurin also performed maintenance on a Russian ergometer and removed the volatile organic analyzer from the Crew Health Care Systems rack to prepare it for routine maintenance. The analyzer is used to identify and quantify a targeted list of organic compounds in the station atmosphere. Tyurin also spent time on two Russian experiments, one that studies locomotor system disorders in weightlessness and one that studies the effect of spaceflight on the growth and development of plants.

Also during the week, Lopez-Alegria completed taking samples and documented his daily diet for his mid-mission session on a renal stone experiment. This experiment examines the risk of renal, or kidney, stone formation in crewmembers pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight. In this study, potassium citrate tablets are administered to astronauts, and multiple urine samples are taken before, during and after spaceflight to evaluate the risk of renal stone formation. Lopez-Alegria is the final subject to complete the experiment.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams took the WinSCAT, a cognitive test battery used during space missions. The WinSCAT helps to assess the effects on performance of behavioral stress induced by workload demands.

The astronauts also tested emergency light power supplies onboard. In addition, Williams swapped power supplies on one of the station’s laptop computers, completed some modifications on the umbilical interface assembly in the Quest airlock, and configured and trained on the station’s Robotic Onboard Trainer. She also worked in the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for the International Space Station, or MELFI, replacing the desiccant in Dewar 4 -- a desiccant is a material that absorbs water or moisture -- and checked to make sure the nitrogen pressure was within acceptable range.

The new resupply ship lifted off at 8:12 p.m. CST (8:12 a.m. Baikonur time Jan. 18). Less than 10 minutes later, the cargo ship reached orbit, and its solar arrays and navigational antennas were deployed for the three-day trip to the orbital outpost.

Pre-programmed firings of the Progress’ main engine are scheduled over the next two days to fine-tune the ship’s path to the space station as the craft approaches the station for docking.

When the Progress launched, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams were flying 220 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean just off the southeast coast of Argentina.

Carrying more than 2.5 tons of food, fuel, oxygen, air, spare parts and other supplies, the Progress is scheduled to automatically dock to the Pirs Docking Compartment at 9 p.m. CST Friday. NASA TV coverage of the docking will begin Friday at 8 p.m. CST. The inventory aboard the new Progress includes 1,720 pounds of propellent, 110 pounds of oxygen and 3,285 pounds of supplies, spare parts and experiment and environmental system hardware.

The ISS Progress 22 craft, which arrived in June 2006, undocked from Pirs Tuesday to clear the port for the new cargo vehicle.

With more than 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station's Expedition 14 crew, the ISS Progress 24 automatically docked to Pirs at 8:59 p.m. CST (5:59 a.m. Moscow time Saturday) as the station flew 220 miles above the South Atlantic off the southeast coast of Uruguay. The 24th Progress to visit the station launched Wednesday night from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Unlike its predecessor, Progress 24 linked up to the station after its automated rendezvous antenna retracted as planned in the final 50 meters prior to docking. On Oct. 26 the automated navigation antenna on the Progress 23 failed to retract. Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will conduct a spacewalk in late February to manually retract and tie down the antenna before the older Progress undocks from the aft port of the Zvezda service module in early April.

The crew will open the hatch to the new Progress overnight and deactivate the systems of the newly arrived craft before its cargo is unloaded over the next few weeks. Progress 24 holds 1,720 pounds of propellant for the Russian thrusters, 110 pounds of oxygen and almost 3,300 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and life support components.

In addition to preparing for the cargo ship’s arrival, the Expedition 14 crew worked this week on a variety of station maintenance tasks and science experiments. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams reported what they ate and drank, and collected blood and urine samples as part of an experiment known as Nutrition. The experiment looks at how the human body processes nutrients in microgravity.

Lopez-Alegria replaced limited-life components in the Volatile Organic Analyzer (VOA), part of the Crew Health Care System. The VOA is a gas analysis system used to assess the levels of organic compounds in the station atmosphere, some of which could become harmful to the crew in high concentrations. The old components will be returned to Earth on the next shuttle mission.

Williams focused on work with lentil seedlings as part of an experiment called Threshold Acceleration for Gravisensing, or “Gravi.” The experiment uses a European Modular Cultivation System centrifuge to document the effects of varying levels of gravity on the development of plant roots with an eye toward growing edible plants for future, long-duration spaceflights.

Tyurin worked with a number of Russian experiments, including an instrumented workout on a stationary bicycle to collect data on ways to limit bone and muscle density loss associated with long-duration spaceflights.

All three crew members also spoke with experts on the ground planning the upcoming Expedition 14 spacewalks. Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin and Williams will begin on-board preparations for those spacewalks along with a fourth to remove the navigation antenna from Progress 23. The first three spacewalks by Lopez-Alegria and Williams are designed to continue outfitting the newly activated cooling systems for the station’s truss and to continue preparations for the relocation of the P6 solar array truss structure.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams will begin a 6.5-hour spacewalk from the station at about 9 a.m. CST on Wednesday, Jan. 31. It will be the first of a record four spacewalks planned during the next month.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams will conduct other spacewalks on Feb. 4 and Feb. 8. The first three spacewalks will originate from the station's Quest airlock, and the astronauts will use U.S. spacesuits. Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will use Russian spacesuits for a Feb. 22 spacewalk originating from the station's Pirs airlock.

The three U.S. spacewalks will rearrange the station's cooling system, bringing online new portions of the system that were activated during a shuttle mission in December. The Russian spacewalk will free a stuck antenna on the ISS Progress 23 cargo craft docked to the aft end of the station, ensuring that craft can undock safely in April.

The crew began the week unloading some of the more than 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies that were delivered to the station on Jan. 19 by the ISS Progress 24 cargo craft. Supplies aboard the 24th Progress to visit the station included fresh produce, gifts from home, new clothing, spare parts, oxygen and water.

The crew's attention quickly turned to preparations for the upcoming spacewalks. On Monday, the crew began working with the U.S. spacesuits. Batteries for the suits were charged, and the suit cooling systems cleaned.

On Tuesday, Lopez-Alegria and Williams trained using an onboard, laptop computer-based simulation. The training refreshed their skills operating the Simplified Aid For Extravehicular Activity Rescue (SAFER) jetpack that is worn on spacesuits. The SAFER backpack allows spacewalkers to fly themselves back to the station in the event they become untethered and separated from the complex.

On Thursday, ground controllers in Houston commanded the station's robotic arm to maneuver into the position it will occupy for the start of the spacewalk. Aboard the station, the crew set time aside to review the plans for the first spacewalk.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams continued checks of their spacesuits and checks of the SAFER backpacks Friday. The SAFER backpacks are propelled by compressed nitrogen gas, and, during the checkout, the harmless gas was released, depleting the nitrogen in one unit below the usable quantity. Two other usable SAFER backpacks remain onboard, however, and the loss of the third unit does not affect plans for the upcoming spacewalks.

The crew took time out from their work on Monday to speak with television host Martha Stewart. Crew members also took time to field questions from two schools, one in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and another in Winnebago, Neb., by amateur radio.

Wearing U.S. spacesuits, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams began their spacewalk at 10:14 a.m. EST. After setting up tools and tethers, they moved to the area that connects the Z1 truss to the S0 truss at the middle of the station’s large girder-like truss system.

There, in a location known as the “rats' nest,” Williams and Lopez-Alegria conducted laborious work in tight quarters to demate and reroute a series of two electrical cables and four fluid quick disconnect lines from the soon-to-be defunct Early External Active Thermal Control System to a permanent cooling system in the Destiny Laboratory.

The cooling loop reconfigured today, known as the Low Temperature Loop (Loop A), removes heat from the station’s environmental control systems through a heat exchanger system in the Destiny Laboratory. On the next spacewalk by Lopez-Alegria and Williams on Sunday, a Moderate Temperature Loop (Loop B) rejecting heat from avionics and payloads will be rerouted as well to the permanent system and the heat exchangers in Destiny. The thermal systems officer in Mission Control reported that the reconfiguration of the system was successful.

Lopez-Alegria began the first of a two-step process to route electrical cable harnesses from the Z1 truss’ power outlets to the S0 truss. The two wire harnesses strung today will be joined on Sunday by two more harnesses that will be connected from the S0 truss to the Destiny Lab and, in turn, to its forward docking port, Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA-2).

Once completed, that Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) will enable docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend their visits to the outpost. SSPTS is scheduled to debut on the STS-118 mission in June, enabling Endeavour to fly for two weeks. Subsequent shuttles will be able to remain aloft for comparable periods.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams then moved on to assist as flight controllers sent commands to retract the starboard heat-rejecting radiator on the P6 truss. It had been used to keep station systems at the correct temperature through the temporary cooling system after the truss was installed in 2000. They helped tie the radiator down with a series of cinches. A second radiator will be retracted during the Sunday spacewalk. A third radiator will be retracted later in the year, the only one of the three radiators on the P6 truss that will be redeployed after the truss is relocated.

The spacewalkers then installed a shroud over the radiator to keep it at the proper temperature for the next few months until it is extended once again. A similar retraction of the aft radiator on the P6 truss will be conducted during Sunday’s spacewalk.

With time running out, Lopez-Alegria and Williams moved on to another area of the P6 truss to disconnect and stow one of two fluid lines attached to a large reservoir known as the Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS). The EAS was designed to replenish ammonia to the temporary cooling system on the station in the event of a coolant leak. No longer required, the reservoir will be unbolted and jettisoned during a spacewalk by the Expedition 15 crew this summer. By stowing the fluid lines the crew preserved the ability to reuse the system, if required.

The second EAS fluid line will be disconnected and stowed at a later date.

Because a few “flakes” of ammonia were seen floating away from one of the fluid line connector caps, the crew was directed to conduct preventative decontamination measures to “bakeout” their spacesuits once they returned to the Quest airlock prior to the airlock being repressurized.

The spacewalk ended at 5:09 p.m. CST., tying for 5th for the longest spacewalk in history. It was the seventh spacewalk of Lopez-Alegria’s career, and the second for Williams. The excursion was the 78th spacewalk in support of station assembly and maintenance and the 50th staged out of the station.

With today’s spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria moved into fourth place on the all-time spacewalking list for most time outside an orbiting vehicle ahead of astronaut Joe Tanner with 47 hours and 31 minutes. Lopez-Alegria will become the all-time U.S. record holder for spacewalking time and second on the all-time spacewalking list behind Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev during the third in the current series of spacewalks on Feb. 8.

Williams is now second on the all-time list for female spacewalkers for total time outside with 15 hours and 26 minutes of spacewalking time.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams will have time to relax Thursday and Friday as they prepare spacesuits and tools for the Sunday spacewalk.

Wearing U.S. spacesuits, Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams began their spacewalk at 7:38 a.m. CST, a few minutes ahead of schedule. After setting up tools and tethers outside the Quest airlock, they moved to the area that connects the Z1 truss to the S0 truss at the middle of the station’s large girder-like truss system. This area is known as the "rats' nest.”

In these tight quarters, they rerouted a series of two electrical cables and four fluid quick disconnect lines from the soon-to-be defunct Early External Active Thermal Control System to a permanent cooling system in the Destiny Laboratory.

The cooling loop reconfigured Sunday, known as the Moderate Temperature Loop (Loop B), removes heat from the station’s avionics systems and payload racks through a heat exchanger system in the Destiny Laboratory. On Jan. 31, Lopez-Alegria and Williams reconfigured a Low Temperature Loop (Loop A) that rejects heat from the station’s environmental systems.

On Sunday, the spacewalkers also assisted in the retraction of the aft heat-rejecting radiator on the P6 truss. The radiator had been used since 2000 to keep station systems at the correct temperature through the temporary cooling system. They helped tie the radiator down with a series of cinches. Unlike the starboard radiator, which was retracted Jan. 31, the aft radiator did not require the installation of a protective thermal shroud due to the station's orientation to the sun. During this summer's STS-118 shuttle mission, a third radiator will be retracted, the only radiator on the P6 truss that will be redeployed after the truss is relocated to the far port side of the truss.

Once the radiator was retracted, Lopez-Alegria and Williams completed Wednesday’s unfinished task of disconnecting and stowing the second of two fluid lines for the Early Ammonia Servicer, a large tank on the P6 truss that is no longer needed. The EAS was designed to replenish ammonia to the temporary cooling system on the station in the event of a coolant leak. The servicer will be jettisoned during a spacewalk by the Expedition 15 crew this summer.

Lopez-Alegria, at the base of the P6 truss, photographed the starboard solar array and the blanket box into which it folds. Engineers will analyze the photos and finalize plans to retract that array during the STS-117 shuttle mission to the station next month.

After the photographs were taken, Lopez-Alegria and Williams resumed the stringing of electrical cables from the S0 truss to the Destiny Laboratory and to its forward docking port, Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA-2), to which visiting shuttles dock. The cables provide electricity for the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS). The system will enable docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend their missions. SSPTS is scheduled to debut during STS-118, enabling Endeavour to fly for two weeks. Three of the six cables were connected Sunday. The others probably will be connected during a spacewalk Thursday, Feb. 8.

Lopez-Alegria removed a sunshade from a data relay box on another pressurized mating adapter that connects the U.S. and Russian segments of the station. Since the shade is no longer needed, it was folded up and brought inside to be discarded either on a future Russian Progress cargo ship or a shuttle mission.

Back in the airlock, Lopez-Alegria and Williams did some precautionary decontamination procedures after a few ammonia flakes were seen early in the spacewalk.

The spacewalk ended at 2:49 p.m. as the crew returned to Quest. It was the eighth spacewalk of Lopez-Alegria’s career and the third for Williams. He surpassed astronaut Steve Smith to vault into third place on the all-time spacewalking list for most hours spent outside. Williams now holds the record for most spacewalking time by a female. Former astronaut Kathy Thornton previously held that honor. Sunday’s spacewalk was the 79th for station assembly and maintenance and the 51st done without a shuttle present.

On Monday, Lopez-Alegria and Williams will recharge batteries and prepare their spacesuits and tools for the next spacewalk set for Thursday morning.

It was the last in an unprecedented series of three U. S. spacewalks in nine days from the Quest airlock. Major tasks of this spacewalk included removing and jettisoning two large shrouds and installing an attachment for cargo carriers.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams moved from the airlock out to Crew Equipment Transfer Aid (CETA) carts on the rails of the main truss. Pushing one cart with their equipment, including a foot restraint, they moved to the Port 3 truss segment. Their first job was to remove two thermal shrouds, one from each of two Rotary Joint Motor Controllers (RJMC) on P3.

Next, they removed two large shrouds from P3 Bays 18 and 20. The shrouds, larger than king-size bed sheets, provide thermal shading. With the station in its present orientation, they are no longer needed and are being removed to avoid trapping heat.

Each large shroud was packed with one of the smaller RJMC shrouds into a package weighing about 20 pounds. Lopez-Alegria jettisoned them toward the rear of the station. Afterward, an Unpressurized Cargo Carrier Assembly Attachment System (UCCAS) on the upper face of the P3 truss was deployed. That was done in preparation for attachment of a cargo platform on the STS-118 mission to the ISS later this year.

While Lopez-Alegria finished work on the UCCAS, Williams moved to the end of the P5 truss to remove two launch locks in preparation for the relocation of the P6 truss to that segment.

The final scheduled task of the spacewalk was connecting the final four cables of the Station to Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) to Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA-2) at the forward end of the Destiny laboratory where shuttles dock. The SSPTS will allow visiting shuttles to derive power from the station to extend their missions.

Work began on the system during the Jan. 31 spacewalk, and two of the cables were routed and connected to PMA-2 on the Feb. 4 spacewalk. The astronauts completed one get-ahead task to photograph a suspect connector on the outboard end of PMA-2. It carries station shuttle communications when the shuttle is docked but hatches are closed. Communications have been intermittent during recent shuttle missions.

Approximately 3 hours, 50 minutes into his ninth spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria set a record Thursday for cumulative spacewalk time by a U.S. astronaut. Jerry Ross previously held the title with 58 hours, 32 minutes accumulated during nine spacewalks. Lopez-Alegria completed the spacewalk with 61 hours, 22 minutes of spacewalking time.

The three spacewalks from the Quest airlock in U.S. spacesuits and a Russian spacewalk on Feb. 22 are the most ever done by station crew members during such a short period and will mark five spacewalks in all for Exp. 14, a record for any expedition. Starting from scratch, it takes crew members about 100 hours to prepare for a spacewalk. By doing the U.S. spacewalks just a few days apart, considerable crew time can be saved by not having to repeat some of the preparation.

Thursday's spacewalk was the 80th for station assembly and maintenance. It was the 52nd from the station and the 32nd from Quest. It was the fourth for Williams, the most for any woman.

During the final spacewalk on Feb. 22, Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will wear Russian Orlan suits to work on an antenna on the Progress 23 cargo ship docked at the aft port of the Zvezda service module. The antenna did not properly retract when that spacecraft docked in October. The spacewalkers will try to secure or remove the antenna to avoid any interference with the undocking of a Progress in April. The spacewalk will be the 10th for Lopez-Alegria, a new record for a U. S. astronaut.

The first indications of a problem came with the loss of communications between the station and mission control just after midnight CST Sunday when an electrical switching unit experienced a brief malfunction that appropriately caused a breaker to trip, which protects the electrical system of the station much like a circuit breaker protects electrical systems and equipment in a home.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams – awake since mid evening Saturday – took immediate action and followed procedures on board to recover the communications link with mission control, Houston, at about 1:35 a.m. CST.

During the remainder of Sunday and through early Monday, restoration of systems continued. The systems affected included:
One of two redundant communications systems
One of four gyroscopes used to maintain the station’s position, or orientation
Several scientific facilities, including the freezer containing experiment samples
The Ku Band high data rate and television system
Several smoke detectors and various heaters that maintain a thermal balance of external components, including the robotic arm and its mobile base

None of these systems was permanently affected and the equipment’s temporary shut down did not impact research work or upcoming planned activities.

In addition to the recovery from the power outage, the crew also began early preparations for the next spacewalk by Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria. During that spacewalk scheduled for Feb. 22, the two will free a stuck antenna on the ISS Progress 23 supply craft and survey navigation systems for the European Automated Transfer Vehicle’s docking capability to the Zvezda Service Module. They will try to secure or remove the antenna to preclude any interference during undocking in April. The spacewalk will be the 10th for Lopez-Alegria, which will be a U. S. astronaut record. The two will wear Russian Orlan suits for the excursion out of the Pirs docking compartment.

As Atlantis was moved to the launch pad this week, station Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Mikhail Tyurin conducted leak checks of the Russian Orlan spacesuits they will wear for their venture outside Feb. 22. They also installed some additional equipment on the suits, including lights that will assist in their tasks.

Today they verified the suits are in good condition by conducting telemetry and communications checks with flight controllers in Russia at the Mission Control Center in Korolev.

The spacewalk will be the fifth by the Expedition 14 crew – a record for ISS crews. It will be the fourth spacewalk conducted from the station in the past three weeks. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 4 a.m. CST and last six hours. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television beginning at 3 a.m. CST.

The spacewalkers will attempt to free a stuck antenna on the ISS Progress 23 cargo craft docked at the aft end of the station. They also will survey docking navigation systems for the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo craft planned to make its maiden voyage this summer.

Securing or removing the antenna will ensure it will not interfere with the Progress ship’s undocking in April. The spacewalk will be the 10th for Lopez-Alegria, a record for a U.S. astronaut.

Also this week, robotics ground controllers in Houston commanded the station's mobile transporter rail car to move to the starboard side of the station's truss in preparation for the arrival of Atlantis. Atlantis will bring a new, school bus-sized truss segment with a third set of U.S. solar arrays for the complex plus batteries and other electronics. The crew will spend Monday training on the operation of the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm from a work station inside the Destiny laboratory.

On Oct. 26, the antenna did not properly retract when the Progress vehicle docked to the station's Zvezda Service Module. Moving the antenna was necessary to ensure it would not interfere with the Progress undocking in April.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin had planned to release the antenna latch with a punch and a hammer. When clearance issues prevented that, they cut struts supporting the antenna. That enabled them to partly retract the antenna and secure it with wire ties. They reported it had about six inches of clearance from Zvezda, adequate for undocking.

Early in the spacewalk, Tyurin had problems with his spacesuit's cooling system, which caused his visor to fog up. But he and Lopez-Alegria were able to complete a number of other tasks. They began the spacewalk by photographing a Russian satellite navigation antenna and changing out a Russian materials experiment. They also inspected and photographed an antenna for the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The European cargo craft has more capacity than the Progress and is scheduled to make its first trip to the station later this year. The spacewalkers also photographed ATV docking targets.

They photographed a German robotics experiment, inspected, remated and photographed hardware connectors and inspected retention mechanisms and bolted joints on a hand-operated Strela crane that helps transport people and equipment outside Pirs. They also stowed two foot restraints on a ladder at Pirs before ending the spacewalk.

The spacewalk from the Pirs docking compartment was conducted in Russian Orlan spacesuits. It was the 81st for station assembly and maintenance, the 53rd from the station, the 20th from Pirs and the fifth for this station crew. This was the 10th spacewalk for Lopez-Alegria, a U.S. record, and the fifth for Tyurin.

An altitude reboost engine firing planned for Friday was postponed following the launch delay of Space Shuttle Atlantis earlier this week. The STS-117 mission had been targeted for liftoff on March 15, but was put on hold following a hail storm Monday resulting in damage requiring repair to the external fuel tank's foam.

Russian flight controllers now plan two engine firings on March 16 and 28 to increase the station's altitude, which will place the station in the desired orbit for arrival of a Soyuz spacecraft set to launch April 7. The Soyuz will bring Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi to the station. Docking to the station is April 9. Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Simonyi plan to land in Kazakhstan April 19.

Space station managers are reviewing the work planned aboard the station for the remaining weeks of Expedition 14 and for Expedition 15 in light of the shuttle launch delay. The review seeks to optimize use of the crews' time due to the shuttle's delay.

Thursday, the station crew was awakened briefly by a caution signal when the starboard Thermal Radiator Rotary Joint (TRRJ) experienced a dropout in commands from the Rotary Joint Motor Controller. The TRRJ automatically defaulted to another command link, and there was no impact to operations. Engineers are analyzing what may have caused the problem. The rotary joint turns the radiator to provide the best possible cooling.

Flight Engineer Suni Williams practiced on a laptop computer simulation Wednesday to maintain her skill in using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. She also joined her fellow crewmates in the Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capabilities experiment to gather hand-eye coordination data before, during and after their mission. TRAC Principal Investigator Dr. Otmar Bock of the German Sport University in Cologne, Germany, hopes to better understand how the brain adapts during spaceflight. The experiment will be performed during both Expedition 14 and Expedition 15.

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams completed the last of the internal assembly tasks for the startup later this year of the new Oxygen Generation System (OGS) in the Destiny laboratory. The astronauts installed sound-deadening equipment and an electrical cable and reconnected a wastewater hose for the hardware that was delivered last summer on space shuttle mission STS-121. OGS, which will be required once the station crew size expands to six people, is slated for activation during Expedition 15. It will function initially as another backup to the Russian Elektron system.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin spent time this week in maintenance of systems in the Russian segment of the station and in long-range preparations for arrival of the first of the European Space Agency’s cargo-carrying Automated Transfer Vehicles. Tyurin set up equipment in the Zvezda module for a ground-operated test of the satellite navigation system to be used during autonomous docking of the ATV to the Zvezda module’s aft port. He also pressurized and stowed a spare liquids unit for the Elektron, which supplies oxygen for the station's crew, and installed a new liquid crystal display for the TORU system, the manual docking system for Progress unpiloted supply ships.

Expedition 14 crew members used their brains this week for scientific experiments. Lopez-Alegria and Williams conducted another session with the Anomalous Long-Term Effects in Astronauts' Central Nervous System (ALTEA) experiment. It measures exposure to cosmic radiation.

For 90 minutes, each crew member wore an instrumented helmet containing six different particle detectors which measured radiation exposure, brain electrical activity and visual perception. ALTEA will further understanding of radiation impact on the human central nervous and visual systems, especially the phenomenon of crew members seeing flashes of light while in orbit.

Crew members also tested their hand-eye coordination during the Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capabilities, or TRAC, experiment. TRAC studies the theory that while the brain is adapting to space, it is unable to provide the resources necessary to perform normal motor skills such as hand-eye coordination.

They used a laptop and a joystick to control the position of a cursor, and a reaction time box to measure their response to audio and visual cues. Understanding how the brain adapts to microgravity could lead to improved procedures for activities requiring precise motor skills.

U.S. and Russian station officials reached agreement this week on a plan to have the Expedition 14 crew relocate the Soyuz TMA-9 craft on March 29 from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda module. This will alleviate the next station resident crew from having to perform the maneuver to reach Zarya as its final destination for the Expedition 15 increment.

The ISS Progress 23 cargo ship currently docked to Zvezda, will be cast off on March 27 to make room for the Soyuz.

Both sides also agreed this week to conduct a reboost of the station on March 15 using the Progress 23 engines to place the station at the correct altitude for the launch of the Expedition 15 crew in the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule on April 7. They will dock to Zarya on April 9. The Expedition 14 crew will now return to Earth on April 20.

The new window was installed on Wednesday on the port side hatch of the Unity node. It is fitted with a berthing camera system that includes target markings on the outside of the hatch. This will help robotic operators align and dock the station’s new elements.

The window’s installation was part of the crew’s work to ready the station’s Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for its relocation later this year to Unity’s Earth-facing port. This was the second hatch window installed by an Expedition crew. A similar window was installed by Expedition 6 crew members on Unity’s starboard hatch.

Additionally, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams temporarily relocated a “wall” of collapsible water bags to allow them access to PMA-3 and provide access to some of the station’s computer cables, allowing Williams and Lopez-Alegria to install new, upgraded cabling.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams emptied all the items stowed in PMA-3 except for a spare Bearing Motor and Roll Ring Module, which was tied down for the adapter’s robotic relocation later this year. The apparatus is used to help the solar arrays swivel, or gimbal, to point to the sun for the generation of electricity.

Additional work included preparations for the April 9 arrival of the Expedition 15 crew and U.S. spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi aboard Soyuz TMA-10. The ISS Progress 23 thrusters were fired on Thursday for 12 minutes, 32 seconds to lift the station into the correct orbit for rendezvous and docking of the Soyuz. This orbital boost also provided the correct trajectory for landing of the Expedition 14 crew members and Simonyi aboard Soyuz TMA-9 on April 20.

Other tasks included preparation for the March 29 relocation of the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. As a result, the Soyuz TMA-10 will not need to perform the maneuver to reach Zarya as its final destination.

Also, the crew prepared for the undocking and discarding of the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship, the station’s giant trash can, on March 27.

To ready the station for the STS-117 mission, Williams began photography practice for space shuttle Atlantis' Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. She and her new Expedition 15 crewmates will take photos of Atlantis’ heat shield as it performs the slow, 360-degree nose-forward back flip 600 feet below the station.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin this week completed photographic observations of Earth as part of the Russian “Uragan” Earth-imaging investigation, and monitored radiation inside the station for another set of experiments. He tracks data on three different experiments that monitor cosmic rays and background radiation.

Next week, Lopez-Alegria and Williams will conduct some of the work required to install the station’s new integrated station computer network. This new system is ten times faster than the station’s current local area network (LAN) system. It will use Ethernet connectivity over a router through either cable or wireless equipment, thus eliminating drag-through cables from the U.S. segment into the Russian segment. Installation of the LAN originally was planned for the Expedition 15 crew. However, the STS-117 launch delay prompted station managers to advance the LAN work to save time during Expedition 15.

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni Williams spent time working with experiments that may hold the key to several aspects of long-duration space flight as NASA looks forward to missions back to the moon and on to Mars or other destinations.

Each served as test subject and operator for the Anomalous Long Term Effects in Astronauts' Central Nervous System experiment that examines how cosmic radiation affects brain waves. As test subjects, they wore an electroencephalograph cap that records readings of their brain functions, and over that, a special helmet with Italian-designed instruments that records the amount and types of cosmic rays passing through the station. Since cosmic radiation is even more prevalent at greater distances from Earth, the research could lead to countermeasures important to the safety and productivity of future explorers.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams also worked with the Nutritional Status Assessment experiment tracking how their bodies process nutrients in space and how food supplies are affected by storage in that environment.

Additionally, Lopez-Alegria provided the final samples associated with the Renal Stone Risk during Spaceflight: Assessment and Countermeasure Validation investigation, which is looking at the space effectiveness of a drug used on Earth to prevent kidney stones.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin worked with three Russian experiments that monitor cosmic rays and background radiation as they relate to long-duration flights and documented the condition of the Earth below from the unique vantage point of the station.

The crew worked on an upgrade to the laptop computer network. The new, integrated station computer network will be 10 times faster than the current network, using Ethernet connectivity over a router and either cables or wireless equipment. This will eliminate drag-through cables from the U.S. segment into the Russian segment. The work was accelerated because of the STS-117 launch delay.

They also continued preparations for the undocking and discarding of the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship, which will be full of trash when it departs Tuesday, March 27. Russian flight controllers sent commands Friday that piped the last of the Progress 23 oxygen supplies into the station, and vented the Progress' propellant and oxidizer lines overboard to ensure a safe departure. The Progress is scheduled to undock at 1:11 p.m. CDT next Tuesday.

The station traffic schedule includes next Thursday's relocation of the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. All three crew members will undock the Soyuz at 5:25 p.m. and redock at 5:53 p.m. This will make room for the arrival of the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft carrying the Expedition 15 crew and U.S. spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi. The new crew is scheduled to launch from the Baikanour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan April 7 at 12:31 p.m. and dock with the station April 9 at 2:15 p.m.

Following a week of joint operations, Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin and Simonyi will climb into Soyuz TMA-9 and head for home April 20. They will leave Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov on board with Williams to start Expedition 15.

Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin guided the Soyuz away from the Earth-facing port of the station's Zarya module and docked it to the aft port of the Zvezda module. The move frees the Zarya port for the arrival of the Expedition 15 crew aboard the Soyuz TMA-10, scheduled to dock to the station on April 9.

Tyurin undocked the Soyuz from Zarya at 5:30 p.m. CDT and redocked to the Zvezda port at 5:54 p.m. CDT as the station and the Soyuz flew 210 miles above the east coast of South America. Minutes later, hooks and latches engaged between the Soyuz' docking probe and Zvezda's docking port to attach the craft firmly to the station. During the time from undocking to redocking, the crew traveled about a third of the way around the world.

To prepare for Thursday's undocking and relocation, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Tyurin and Sunita Williams shut down key station systems and configured the complex for autonomous operations in the unlikely event they would not be able to redock.

Prior to undocking, Tyurin activated the Soyuz’ backup battery as a precaution when the prime spacecraft battery indicated a slightly lower voltage reading. It was quickly determined that the voltage drop was due to the activation of some Soyuz systems, and the prime battery soon returned to its normal voltage output.

Late Thursday into early Friday, the crew will open the hatch to the Soyuz, re-enter the station and reactivate systems for regular activity. Friday will be an off-duty day for the crew as they readjust their sleep cycles, which were changed to accommodate the Soyuz move.

Further preparation for the Soyuz relocation included the undocking and discarding of the ISS Progress 23 cargo craft from the aft Zvezda port on Tuesday, March 27, making room for the Soyuz to redock. That activity went smoothly; the ISS Progress undocked at 1:11 p.m. CDT and re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 5:44 p.m.

Additional work for the crew this week included a first for the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) experiment. The experiment uses 8-inch diameter spherical satellites that fly within the station cabin. The satellites test the basics of formation flight and autonomous docking that could be used in future spacecraft. The battery-powered satellites use carbon dioxide to fuel 12 thrusters as they fly in the cabin. During a weekend "Saturday Science" session, Williams conducted a SPHERES experiment run. This was the first time three satellites flew together in tests. Investigators for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, deemed the experiment highly successful.

Back on Earth, Expedition 15 cosmonauts Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, along with spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, prepared for their April 7 launch at the Baikonur Cosomodrome, Kazakhstan.

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan about 12:30 p.m. CDT Saturday. Their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the station about 2:12 p.m. Monday.

The Expedition 14 crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, will return to Earth with Simonyi on April 20. In preparation for their departure, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin reviewed descent procedures.

Flight Engineer Suni Williams, who joined Expedition 14 in progress, will remain on the station as an Expedition 15 crew member for the first part of its increment. The two crews held a space-to-ground conference on Wednesday discussing upcoming mission activities.

On Monday, Lopez-Alegria set a new U.S. single-mission spaceflight record, passing the 196-day mark previously set by station crew members Dan Bursch and Carl Walz in 2001 and 2002.

The Expedition 14 crew performed periodic fitness evaluations this week. Additionally, they worked on a video tape recorder and on a faulty light of an ophthalmoscope that was used during a health check. They downloaded information from the Internal Wireless Instrumentation System, or IWIS, which monitors the health of the station's systems.

The crew continued scientific activities aboard the station. Williams tested a bacteria detection instrument developed by researchers at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and industry partners. The device, Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System (LOCAD-PTS) is a portable bacteria detection system small enough to fit into a compact ice cooler. Four more sessions with LOCAD-PTS are planned for upcoming weekend science sessions.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin tested their hand-eye coordination by completing their sixth sessions with the Test of Reaction and Adaptation Capability (TRAC) experiment. The experiment studies whether the decline of motor skills during spaceflight is a result of the brain adapting to space. The hand-eye coordination test is performed before, during and after the mission.

The crew also continued their work with the Anomalous Long-Term Effects in Astronauts' Central Nervous System (ALTEA) experiment. Using an instrumented helmet, the experiment measures the cosmic radiation that passes through a crew member's head, brain activity and visual perception. The experiment should help researchers better understand what levels of cosmic radiation crew members are exposed to and develop countermeasures for future long-duration spaceflights.

Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit and its antennas and solar arrays deployed. The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the station at a little after 2 p.m. Monday.

Once they arrive at the station, Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, will be greeted by the station’s current crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams.

Simonyi, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth on April 20 with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, who have been aboard the station since September 2006.

Williams, who has served as an Expedition 14 crew member since December, will remain on the station joining the Expedition 15 crew. She is scheduled to return home aboard space shuttle Endeavour this summer.

After hatch opening, scheduled for a little before 4 p.m., Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, will be greeted by the station’s current crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams.

Williams, who has served as an Expedition 14 crew member since December, will remain on the station providing Expedition 15 with an experienced flight engineer for the early part of its mission. She is scheduled to return home aboard space shuttle Endeavour this summer.

Yurchikhin is making his second flight into space. He was crew member on space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-112 mission to the station in October 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1997. Kotov is making his first spaceflight. He graduated from the Moscow Medical Academy in 1988, and was named a cosmonaut-candidate in 1996.

Astronaut Clay Anderson is scheduled to replace Williams during Expedition 15. Two Expedition 16 crew members are expected to arrive next fall to replace Yurchikhin and Kotov.

Simonyi, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth on April 20 with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, who have been aboard the station since September 2006.

E15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov arrived at the station Monday after a Saturday launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. With them on their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft was Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman flying under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are scheduled to return home in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft April 20. Simonyi will return with them after about 11 days on the orbiting laboratory.

Lopez-Alegria, who came to the station with Tyurin last September, continuously sets new U.S. single spaceflight duration records. Williams is likely to break Lopez-Alegria's record with her return tentatively planned for August after serving as an E15 crew member for the early part of that increment.

This week, in addition to handover, both crews got in their regular exercise sessions – especially important for Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin as their return to Earth approaches. Crews did required station maintenance and still managed to spend considerable time on science activities. Those activities began with time-critical transfer of several experiments from the newly arrived Soyuz to the station and station power.

Among experiments getting crew attention were Bioemulsion, a Russian effort to develop technology to produce microorganisms safely for bacterial, fermental and medical preparations. Tyurin worked with that experiment Tuesday.

On Wednesday Kotov set up the European Exhaled Nitric Oxide-2 experiment. It measures nitric oxide exhaled by spacewalkers before and after their excursions. The idea is to better understand the potential for decompression sickness.

Meanwhile, Tyurin worked with the Russian Pilot experiment. It is designed to measure during long-duration spaceflight changes in a crew member's ability to pilot a spacecraft.

On Thursday, Lopez-Alegria spent more than three hours resizing U.S. spacesuits for future users. The suits were the ones they used on an unprecedented series of three station spacewalks in a nine-day period beginning Jan. 31.

Throughout much of the week, beginning with the crew news conference on Tuesday, crew members took breaks to talk with news media representatives. U.S. organizations whose reporters interviewed them included ABC News, Space.com, CNN, and CBS.

E14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, accompanied by Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, will touch down in central Kazakhstan in their Soyuz spacecraft about 7:30 a.m. CDT Saturday, a day later than planned.

The primary landing site will be too wet for landing operations due to the spring thaw. The one-day delay in landing will allow for touchdown in a more southerly landing zone.

The landing will conclude a 215-day flight for Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, and mark the longest single flight by an American astronaut. Live coverage of the landing operations will begin on NASA-TV Saturday at 12:30 a.m. for hatch closing, then will return at 3:45 a.m. for undocking, and resume at 6:15 a.m. monitoring the deorbit burn and landing.

Crew members held a ceremony Tuesday afternoon marking the change of command of the station from Lopez-Alegria to Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin. Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams are now officially entrenched on board the station. Williams, who served as an Expedition 14 crew member since December, will provide Expedition 15 with an experienced flight engineer for the early part of its mission.

On Monday, Williams became the first person to run a marathon in space. Williams, an accomplished marathoner, was an official entrant in the Boston Marathon and ran the 26.2 mile race on a station treadmill in the Zvezda module, circling Earth at least twice in the process. Williams’ run coincided with the tens of thousands on the ground. She completed her marathon with an official time of 4:23:10.

Russian specialists are preparing plans to repair the Condensate Feed Unit in the Russian system that processes condensate recovered in the U.S. segment of the station into potable water. Since the unit failed over the weekend, the supply of drinking water has been decreasing faster than the replenishment rate. Even if they are unable to repair the unit, there is enough water already onboard to last until the ISS Progress 25 cargo vehicle docks in mid-May, providing a new supply of water.

For about 90 minutes, Lopez-Alegria completed his final session with the Anomalous Long-Term Effects in Astronauts' Center Nervous System (ALTEA) experiment, which investigates the phenomenon of crew members seeing flashes of light while in orbit. Using an instrumented helmet, the experiment measures the cosmic radiation that passes through a crew member's head, brain activity and visual perception. ALTEA should help researchers better understand what levels of cosmic radiation crew members are exposed to and develop countermeasures for future long-duration spaceflights.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams also worked on an Education Payload Operations activity linked to the International Polar Year. The crew members videotaped their Earth photography activities and their observations of sea ice and auroras. These images will later be used in NASA education videos sent to classrooms around the world.

Education Payload Operations include curriculum-based activities that demonstrate basic principles of science, mathematics, technology, engineering and geography. They are designed to support the NASA mission of inspiring the next generation of explorers.

The Expedition 14 mission included many highlights during its seven-month duration, including the setting of several records. Lopez-Alegria completed five spacewalks, which gave him a total of 10 for his career. This set a U.S. record for not only number of spacewalks, but also cumulative spacewalk time, 57 hours, 40 minutes. He also set a U.S. record for a single spaceflight's duration with more than 215 days. This tops the 196-day mark, set by station crew members Dan Bursch and Carl Walz in 2001 and 2002.

During the mission Flight Engineer Sunita Williams set the record for number of space walks and total time spent on spacewalks by a woman. She participated in four space walks for a total of 29 hours and 17 minutes. Williams will remain on the station for the first part of Expedition 14.

Three of the crew's spacewalks were conducted over the course of nine days, an unprecedented schedule for a station crew. Starting from scratch, it takes about 100 crew-member hours to prepare for a spacewalk. By doing them a few days apart, considerable crew time can be saved by not having to repeat some of those preparatory steps.

Before closing the Soyuz-station hatches at 1:03 a.m. Saturday, Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin said farewell to the Expedition 15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Williams. The new crew and Simonyi launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7 and arrived at the station on April 9. Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, spent 12 days aboard the station under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will now spend several weeks in Star City, near Moscow, for debriefing and medical examinations. Their return to Earth was originally scheduled for Friday, April 20, but was delayed due to wet ground conditions, which could have precluded helicopter operations. The one-day change allowed for landing farther to the south.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams began the week with a couple light duty days after the busy handover operations with the former crew. Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, accompanied by Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, returned to Earth on Saturday and are at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for several weeks of post mission debriefing and rehabilitation.

Additionally this week, the station crew participated in several drills to maintain medical and emergency proficiency skills. Yurchikhin and Kotov began sessions throughout the first two weeks of their residence to orient themselves with the station’s operating systems. Williams, who served as an Expedition 14 crew member, is aiding Expedition 15 with their station orientation.

On Thursday, Williams was told that she will return to Earth aboard space shuttle Atlantis, targeted for launch June 8. That shuttle mission, STS-117, will carry astronaut Clay Anderson to the station to join Expedition 15 in progress. Their rotation was originally planned for STS-118, targeted for launch Aug. 8.

NASA managers approved the crew rotation after a more detailed review determined it would not impact station operations or future shuttle mission objectives. Since an earlier crew rotation was possible, they decided it would be prudent to return Williams and deliver Anderson sooner rather than later. Upon Williams' return, she will have accumulated more time in space than any other woman.

Williams spent some of her off-duty time completing additional test runs for the Capillary Flow Experiment. Capillary flow is the key process used to move fluids in a microgravity environment. It uses the low-gravity environment provided by the station to understand the special dynamics of capillary flow and will aid in the design of fluid transport systems on future spacecraft.

On Monday, Williams set up and activated cameras for the Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students, or EarthKAM, education experiment. Middle school students program a digital camera on the station to photograph a variety of geographical targets from the unique vantage point of space. Undergraduate teams at the University of California at San Diego manage the images and post them on the Web for the public and participating classrooms around the world to view. Nearly 4,000 students from 66 schools in seven countries are participating in this run.

On Friday, Williams performed a series of test flights with small free-flying satellites for the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) experiment. The experiment uses 8-inch diameter spherical satellites that fly within the station cabin. The satellites test the basics of formation flight and autonomous docking that could be used in future spacecraft. The battery-powered satellites use carbon dioxide to fuel 12 thrusters as they fly in the cabin.

In addition to general station orientation, Yurchikhin and Kotov also performed maintenance work on life support hardware in the Russian segment. The water separator in the air conditioning system was replaced. The separator dispositions condensate water and air collected from the station’s atmosphere that forms through the air conditioner, maintaining optimum humidity levels onboard.

Flight controllers and mission managers test fired the two main engines on the Zvezda Service Module in a Wednesday reboost, raising the station’s altitude. It was the first time the engines had been fired since initial arrival of Zvezda in 2000. Another reboost using ISS Progress 24 engines is scheduled for Saturday in order to finish placing the station in its correct position for the arrival of the ISS Progress 25 cargo vehicle May 15 and the space shuttle Atlantis in June.