December 16, 2006 - The STS-116 and Expedition 14 crews continued cargo transfers and spacewalk preparations Friday aboard Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station.

The crews also held their tradition joint news conference. Meanwhile, flight controllers continue to troubleshoot a problem with the retraction of a solar array on the station’s P6 truss.

The crews continued to transfer items between the shuttle and station. Discovery delivered 5,200 pounds of supplies and equipment to the station. About 4,100 pounds made the trip in the SPACEHAB Logistics Single Module. SPACEHAB is a pressurized module located in the shuttle payload bay. It also will carry items from the station back to Earth.

The STS-116 and the Expedition 14 crews took a break from their transfer activities to hold a joint news conference. All 10 shuttle and station crew members gathered Friday afternoon in the U.S. Destiny Laboratory to field questions from U.S. and European media.

STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky answered a question about commanding a mission with five first-time space travelers. “It has been pretty fantastic,” he said. “They are just doing great.”

STS-116 Mission Specialists Thomas Reiter and Christer Fuglesang had a discussion with Swedish dignitaries. Fuglesang is the first Swede to fly in space. Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin talked with KNX Radio, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio.

The spacewalk preparations include a review of the timeline, and the spacewalking duo camping out over night in the Quest airlock. During the campout, the pressure will be lowered in the airlock to the pressure normally found on at Earth 10,000 feet above sea level. The procedure protects against decompression sickness as Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam and Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams go to the even lower pressure of spacesuits on Saturday.

Curbeam and Williams will complete the rewiring of the station power systems during the spacewalk slated to begin at 2:37 p.m. EST Saturday, as per playfuls.com.

Flight controllers have conducted several types of tests in their efforts to find a way to fold the partially retracted solar array. Early Friday morning, they commanded the array through a series of "wiggle" tests, swiveling the wing 10 degrees at a time repeatedly to see if that would help the situation. Then about 1 p.m. EST, they collected data on array movement while Reiter exercised on station equipment. Flight controllers continue to analyze the situation and search for a solution.

Source: NASA

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