Tuesday, January 23

NASA Sets Briefing to Preview Series of Space Station Spacewalks

Jan. 23, 2007

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4769

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-010

NASA SETS BRIEFING TO PREVIEW SERIES OF SPACE STATION SPACEWALKS

HOUSTON - NASA will preview an unprecedented series of four spacewalks
to be conducted from the International Space Station during the next
month in a media briefing scheduled for Friday, Jan. 26. The briefing
will air live on NASA Television and streamed on the Internet at

http://www.nasa.gov.


The 1 p.m. CST briefing will originate from NASA's Johnson Space
Center, Houston, and will include questions from media
representatives at participating NASA locations. Reporters are asked
to call their preferred field center before the briefing and
spacewalks to confirm its availability.

Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Suni
Williams will begin the series of spacewalks with a six and a half
hour excursion on Jan. 31 and subsequent spacewalks scheduled on Feb.
4 and Feb. 8. Those three spacewalks will be conducted using U.S.
spacesuits and will each start from the station's Quest airlock. The
fourth spacewalk, scheduled for later in February, will be conducted
by Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin using Russian
spacesuits from the station's Pirs airlock.

Participants in the Friday, Jan. 26, press briefing will include:

-- Kirk Shireman, deputy International Space Station program manager
-- Derek Hassmann, International Space Station spacewalk flight
director
-- Glenda Laws, lead spacewalk officer for Expedition 14
-- Julie Robinson, International Space Station acting program
scientist

The U.S. spacewalks will bring on line new portions of the station's
cooling system, expanded with components that were activated during a
space shuttle mission in December. Lopez-Alegria and Williams also
will assist in the retraction of heat-rejecting radiators on the
station's P6 truss, install some external devices to stow cargo and
install cabling for a new power transfer system for future shuttle
flights, among other tasks. On the fourth spacewalk, Lopez-Alegria
and Tyurin will remove a stuck antenna from the Russian ISS Progress
23 cargo spacecraft docked to the aft end of the station. Removing
the antenna will ensure it can safely undock in early April.

Coverage of the Jan. 31 spacewalk on NASA TV will begin at 8 a.m.
Coverage of the Feb. 4 and 8 spacewalks will begin at 6:30 a.m. Media
briefings will follow the conclusion of each spacewalk and also will
air on NASA TV and the agency's homepage.

For NASA TV downlink, schedules and streaming video information,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more about the crew's activities and station sighting
opportunities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


-end-

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