ISS Crews Transfer Cargo, Prepare for Fourth Spacewalk

The STS-118 and Expedition 15 crews are transferring cargo and preparing for Saturday’s spacewalk. Later today, the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts will also hold the traditional joint crew news conference.

The Mission Management Team decided Thursday that the spacewalk, STS-118’s fourth, will not include repair of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s heat shield. After hours of reviewing data and imagery collected during the inspections by the STS-118 crew, the managers decided the damage did not pose a safety risk to the crew or Endeavour.

The spacewalk preparations include preparing equipment and reviewing procedures. Mission Specialist Dave Williams and space station Flight Engineer Clay Anderson will conduct the excursion, which is slated to kick off at 10:01 a.m. EDT Saturday.

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

The joint news conference will take place at 1:34 p.m. The crew members will field questions from reporters on the ground.

Source: NASA