NASA STS-120 Report #07 1 a.m. CDT Friday, October 26, 2007

HOUSTON – Delivery of Harmony highlights the day as the crews of Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station prepare for the first of a record five spacewalks planned for a single shuttle assembly mission.

The day began at 12:39 a.m. CDT with the wakeup song “Rocket Man” by Elton John, played for Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock on the day he performs the first spacewalk of his career.

Wheelock and Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski exit the Quest airlock at 5:28 a.m. for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk. They will retrieve an S-band antenna assembly from the Z1 truss and pack it in the shuttle payload bay for return to Earth for refurbishment, disconnect umbilicals running between the P6 and Z1 trusses to facilitate the demating of P6 later in the flight, and prepare the connecting node Harmony for removal from the payload bay.

After the spacewalkers unplug Harmony from shuttle power, the station’s Canadarm2 will grapple it, lift it from Discovery’s payload bay, and install it on the port side of the station’s Unity node. Leak checks between the two modules will continue the rest of the day and overnight before the astronauts enter Harmony for the first time Saturday.

Harmony will be relocated to the front of the Destiny laboratory after the shuttle departs. It will provide the docking ports for laboratory modules from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that are to arrive late this year and early next year.

The next STS-120 status report will be issued Friday evening or earlier if events warrant.