January 7, 2003

Kyle Herring
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1874)

John Ira Petty
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

Release: H03-007

NASA TV Features Space Station Briefing and Spacewalk

The activities of the residents aboard the International Space Station and a preview of their next Extravehicular Activity (EVA), or spacewalk are the subjects of a Mission Status Briefing beginning at 2 p.m. EST, Jan. 14, from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. The briefing will air on NASA TV.

Briefing participants include: Melissa Gard, Expedition Six Increment Manager; Norm Knight, International Space Station Flight Director; and Daryl Schuck, Expedition Six EVA Officer.

The EVA is on Wednesday, Jan. 15. Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox and NASA Space Station Science Officer Don Pettit will spend more than six hours in space working on the Station. NASA TV coverage and commentary begins at 6 a.m. EST, with the spacewalk scheduled to begin at about 7 a.m. EST.

Bowersox and Russian Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin originally were scheduled to perform the spacewalk in December. Pettit replaced Budarin because on-orbit medical data raised concerns among U.S. Flight Surgeons responsible for medical certification of spacewalk activity. This decision does not affect Budarin's other on-orbit duties. Due to medical privacy concerns, no further information will be made public. Both NASA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency have agreed to the personnel change for the EVA.

Bowersox and Pettit will use the Quest Airlock for the planned six and a half hour spacewalk to continue outfitting of the newly delivered Port One (P1) Truss segment. The work includes deployment of a radiator and other procedures to prepare Station components for future assembly flights.

Expedition Six was launched aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on Nov. 23, 2002. The crew arrived at the Space Station two days later to begin their four-month mission.

The spacewalk coverage will be briefly interrupted at 9 a.m. EST for the STS-107 Countdown Status Briefing (CSB) from the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Spacewalk coverage resumes immediately following the CSB.

NASA TV is on GE-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

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