A 6-hour, 30-minute spacewalk by International Space Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani will continue the external outfitting of the Harmony node in its new position in front of the U.S laboratory Destiny.

The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. EST Saturday from the U.S. airlock Quest. As was the case in the Nov. 20 spacewalk, Whitson, the lead spacewalker, will wear the suit with the red stripes while Tani will be in the suit with the barber-pole stripes.

After leaving the airlock and setting up tools and equipment, Whitson will remove, vent and stow an ammonia jumper, part of a temporary cooling loop. Removing it allows connection of the hookup of the permanent Loop B ammonia cooling loop on a second fluid tray on the station's exterior.

The research capacity of the International Space Station is set to double during a December NASA mission that is a milestone for European spaceflight.

The European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory packed inside space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay is the culmination of years of design and engineering work aimed at creating Europe's primary component for the space station.

At 23 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, the cylindrical segment is designed to host specialized experiments examining how humans react to microgravity and the effect of space on various fluids and objects such as crystals.

NA1SS and the italian astronaut PAOLO NESPOLI and STS-120 Commander Pam Melroy from the ISS
talking to an Italian school (IK1XHI & IZ6BAJ)
freq. 145,800 MHz - FM

Date 29/10/2007

Time 9.30 (GMT+1)

SWL only

Audio File: 

ISS_29-10-07.mp3

The ANDE satellite (NO-61) is about to deorbit within the next four weeks, possibly as early as Dec 16.
See: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-ops.html

There is a award certificate available for operations in the last ten days of the life of ANDE.
See: http://www.ande-deorbit.com/award.shtml

Ron H, AH6RH
Honolulu, HI