Shuttle Discovery Docks with Space Station; Spacewalk Set for Friday

SPACE - Space Shuttle Discovery and the STS-120 crew arrived at the International Space Station at 8:40 a.m.Thursday, delivering a new module and crew member to the orbital outpost. After the hatches between the station and shuttle opened at 10:39 a.m., the two crews exchanged greetings and went to work preparing for almost nine days of joint operations.

STS-120 and Expedition 16 crew members transferred to the station spacesuits and tools that will be used during STS-120’s spacewalks. The first of five excursions planned for the mission will begin at 6:28 a.m. Friday.

Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock will perform the first spacewalk. To prepare for the spacewalk, the duo is conducting an overnight “campout” in the station’s airlock where the pressure has been lowered to the pressure normally found on Earth 10,000 feet above sea level. The airlock “campout” at a lower pressure protects against decompression sickness as Parazynski and Wheelock go to the even lower pressure of spacesuits Friday.

Other post-docking activities on Thursday included a crew-member exchange. STS-120 Mission Specialist Dan Tani replaced Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, who will return to Earth with STS-120. The crew transfer became official when Tani’s custom-made seatliner was installed into the Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station.

Based on imagery analysis, shuttle engineers Friday will recommend no focused inspection of the shuttle's heat shield to the Mission Management Team. Imagery taken during the shuttle's backflip approach to station is still under review. The focused inspection is routinely scheduled on the fifth day of the mission for any additional necessary inspection of the thermal protection system.

The STS-120 crew members are scheduled to begin flight day 4 when they wake up at 1:38 a.m. Friday.

Source: NASA