Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson concluded joint operations with the STS-118 crew Saturday afternoon. STS-118's stay at the station began Aug. 10 and featured four spacewalks to continue the on-orbit construction of the station.

The STS-118 crew exited the station before hatches closed at 5:10 p.m. EDT Saturday in preparation for undocking on Sunday.

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.

Two astronauts conducted a five-hour spacewalk today, finishing up the last priorities of Endeavour's mission, while their crewmates inside prepared for an early undocking, now scheduled for Sunday.

Mission Specialist Dave Williams and International Space Station Flight Engineer Clay Anderson left the station's airlock at 8:17 a.m. By the time they returned at 1:19 p.m., they'd completed all of the tasks scheduled for the replanned spacewalk, which was trimmed by two hours to allow for a day-early hatch closing at 4:10 p.m. CDT today.

Williams and Anderson installed the External Wireless Instrumentation System antenna, attached a stand for the shuttle's robotic arm extension boom and retrieved the two materials experiment containers to be brought home on the shuttle. Two other tasks originally planned for the spacewalk - cleaning up and securing debris shielding and moving a tool box to a more central location - were deferred to a future spacewalk.

DOUBLE SPACESHIP FLYBYS: Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on Monday, August 20th. If that happens as planned, sky watchers across North America may be able to witness something rare and beautiful: a double-spaceship transit across the night sky. US cities favored for flybys on Aug. 20th or 21st include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Phoenix. The space station and shuttle will appear as separate, bright points of light moving in tandem. Flyby times depend on where you live. Subscribers to Spaceweather PHONE ( http://spaceweatherphone.com ) will receive phone and email alerts when the pair are about to appear. Flyby timetables are also available from Heavens Above ( http://heavens-above.com ).

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."

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/msg00963.html

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

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/msg00958.html

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.

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/msg00962.html