Mission managers announced today that the fourth spacewalk of STS-120 is targeted for Friday. This spacewalk was originally scheduled for Thursday and would have involved work on the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. However, the station program has decided to attempt to repair the damaged P6 4B solar array wing during Friday's spacewalk. Performing the spacewalk on Friday preserves the program's option to schedule another solar array repair spacewalk during STS-120 if needed.

+ View images of P6 4B solar array from Mission Status Briefing at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts120/news/ms...

[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/194029main_4-2007-10-30_120228.jpg[/img] A view of P6 4B solar array wing. Image credit: NASA TV The deployment of the P6 2B solar array was completed at 11:30 a.m. EDT. NASA halted the deployment of the P6 4B solar array wing to evaluate a snag spotted by the crew. Deployment is about 75 percent complete with 25 of 31 bays deployed. The crew has been asked to photograph the area on the solar array wing and downlink the images to the ground. Meanwhile during post-spacewalk activities, Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock reported to the ground that he has noted a hole in one of his gloves. He is sending photos to the ground for assessment.

[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/194029main_4-2007-10-29_124826.jpg[/img] Image Above: STS-120 and Expedition 16 crew members gather in the Harmony node to talk to the press Monday. Image credit: NASA TV The Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station crews are using the station and shuttle robotic arms to move the P6 truss segment and preparing for Tuesday's spacewalk, the third of the mission. The crews will also get some off duty time this morning. The shuttle robotic arm operators have handed the P6 truss back to the station robotic arm operators. The shuttle's Canadarm took the P6 from the station's Canadarm2 earlier this morning and held it until Canadarm2 moved closer to the worksite. The Canadarm2 operators will install P6 to the P5 truss during the mission's third spacewalk.

The Wright Flyer got only a few feet off the ground during its maiden flight in 1903, but traveled to the moon 66 years later.

A lead cargo tag that took months to cross the Atlantic Ocean from England to the nascent colony at Jamestown recently made the same crossing in minutes.

Now a plastic handle whose sole role was to make the fictional world of Star Wars look realistic is ready to take a real trip to the stars aboard space shuttle Discovery for mission STS-120.

From pieces of history to articles of pop culture, the assortment of items astronauts have taken with them into space is as varied as the world the artifacts represent.

The STS-120 and Expedition 16 crews will enter the Harmony module for the first time just before 9 a.m. EDT Saturday after Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli and Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson open the hatches. Harmony will provide the docking ports for new research laboratories from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The laboratories will be delivered to the station on upcoming shuttle missions.

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/msg01186.html

An STS-120 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at Liceo Scientifico G.Galilei, Civitavecchia, Roma, Italy and ITI-LST Mottura Caltanisetta, Italy on 31 Oct. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 07:33 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between station IZØJPA (Nespoli) and ground stations IZØLSG and IT9YBA. The contact should be audible in most of Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in Italian. Live audio from this contact can be heard on the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) Conference Rooms, and on the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. For further information, please check the calendar of events on http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/fieldops/events.php .

[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/194493main_sts120_eva1_small.jpg[/img] Image Above: STS-120 Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock rides the station's robotic arm into Discovery's payload bay. Image credit: NASA TV STS-120 Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock kicked off STS-120's first spacewalk at 6:02 a.m. EDT to prepare Harmony for removal from Discovery's payload bay. The excursion is scheduled to wrap up at about 12:32 p.m. Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli is the spacewalk coordinator, assisting the spacewalkers with their tasks from inside the spacecraft. Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Clay Anderson and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani are at the controls of the station's Canadian-built robotic arm.

An STS-120 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at IIS Deambrosis-Natta Sestri Levante, Italy and the Faculty of Engineering, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy on 29 Oct. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 08:23 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between station IZØJPA (Nespoli) and ground stations IK1XHI and IZ6BAJ. The contact should be audible in most of Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in Italian. Live audio from this contact can be heard on the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) Conference Rooms, and on the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. For further information, please check the calendar of events on www.amsat.org.

Two Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) antennas have been installed on the nadir side of the new International Space Station's Columbus module, set to launch later this year. On October 12, the antennas successfully passed electrical and SWR tests, with one of the two antennas, Antenna 42, going through a final test -- a thermal test under vacuum. Based on modeling, engineers have no fear the antenna will pass with flying colors. Columbus will house an additional Amateur Radio station, including the first digital Amateur Radio TV (DATV) station in space, as well as a ham radio transponder. The yet-to-be-built Columbus amateur gear will facilitate operation on new frequencies that will make it possible for ARISS to establish wideband and video operations for the first time and allow continuous transponder operation. Video from the installation and inspection is available at the Columbus Web site.

HOUSTON - NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of space shuttle Discovery's mission, designated STS-120, to the International Space Station.

NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. NASA TV is webcast at: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA Web coverage of STS-120 includes current mission information, interactive features, and news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, also is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle