NASA has officially bumped Thursday's spacewalk, the fourth of the five planned for space shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission, to Friday, according to mission updates on Wednesday.
"We're going to change the plans for the next couple of days," Tony Antonelli, NASA mission capsule communicator, told space shuttle Discovery commander Pamela Melroy on Wednesday.
NASA mission control center has changed its priority of the fourth spacewalk from inspection of a rotary joint to repair of a damaged solar array bay. The critical spacewalk may be further moved to Saturday if extra time is needed for preparation.
A solar panel bay ripped as it was being unfurled from a newly relocated truss on the International Space Station on Tuesday, which forced NASA to halt the deployment operation.
On Wednesday morning, Discovery crew and the Expedition 16 crew on the station took a break to participate in a traditional joint news conference with media reporters on the ground.
Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who represents European Space Agency, and Commander Melroy also talked to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. They took questions from the Italian leader while they were inside the Harmony node. The newly delivered Harmony was funded by U.S. and built by Italians.
Source:Xinhua
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