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

During the event, Kelly said the crew agreed with the Mission Management Team's (MMT) decision not to have spacewalkers repair damage on Space Shuttle Endeavour's heat shield. "We are absolutely behind the MMT," he said. "We think they absolutely did the right decision."

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Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson continue joint operations aboard the International Space Station with the STS-118 crew, which arrived at the International Space Station Aug. 10. STS-118's stay has featured three spacewalks to continue the on-orbit construction of the station.

In addition to the seven STS-118 astronauts, Space Shuttle Endeavour carried the Starboard 5 (S5) truss segment to the station and STS-118 spacewalkers installed it Aug. 11. The S5 truss segment is part of the station's Integrated Truss Structure that will eventually be the length of a football field and contain four sets of solar arrays.

After mission managers decided on Thursday that no repair of Endeavour's heat resistant tiles is necessary, astronauts today will work to prepare for a Saturday spacewalk much like the one initially planned.

The Endeavour crew, Commander Scott Kelly, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, and Mission Specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan and Alvin Drew, and station Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson, were awakened at 4:08 a.m. CDT by "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," performed by KT Tunstall, for Caldwell.

The mission's fourth spacewalk will be done by Williams of the Canadian Space Agency and Anderson. Caldwell will serve as the intravehicular officer, guiding spacewalkers through their tasks and keeping them on the timeline.

When she blasted off onboard the space shuttle Endeavour last week, teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan carried millions of basil seeds to the International Space Station. Soon she'll return millions more "space seeds" for students on Earth to study. Educators, read today's story to learn how to participate. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/16aug_basil.htm?list833780

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Today, the STS-118 and Expedition 15 crews will continue cargo transfers and prepare for Saturday's spacewalk. The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts will also hold the traditional joint crew news conference.

The Mission Management Team decided Thursday that Saturday's spacewalk 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.

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