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Weather Worsening For Thursday's Launch
Space shuttle mission managers are meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to clear Discovery for liftoff on Thursday.

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STS-116 Press Kit.
The Space Shuttle Discovery launches in December on its 33rd mission to deliver another truss segment of the International Space Station and begin the intricate process of reconfiguring and redistributing the power generated by two pairs of U.S. solar arrays.

Flight Day 1:
* Launch
* Configure for orbit. Open payload bay doors, deploy Ku-band antenna, power-up SMRS.
* Download launch imagery and sensor data.

Flight Day 2:
* SRMS checkout.
* Thermal Protections System checkout.
* Docking system deployment

Flight Day 3:
* ISS Rendezvous
* Rendezvous Pitch Manoeuvre and ISS Digital Photography of Discovery
* ISS Docking
* Hatch opening and ISS ingress
* P5 Truss transferred to ISS robotic arm.
* EVA-1 pre-breathe begins

Flight Day 4:
* Station robot arm installs P5 spacer truss installation on P4 truss attachment.
* EVA-1 (Curbeam and Fuglesang) connect P5/P4 power cables and switch out S1 Truss TV camera.
* Mobile Transporter moves from Worksite 7 to Worksite 3

Flight Day 5:
* P6 truss port array is retracted to enable Solar Alpha Rotary Joint activation and rotation on P4 truss
* P4 Solar Alpha Rotary Joint activation and autotracking of the sun
* Port side loop of External Active Thermal Control System is filled with ammonia
* Curbeam and Fuglesang sleep in Quest Airlock for spacewalk pre-breathe campout protocol in advance of EVA-2

Flight Day 6:
* ISS power down of electrical channels 2 and 3
* EVA-2 to reconfigure electrical channels 2 and 3
* ISS Treadmill Vibration Isolation System gyroscope replacement and maintenance
* Port side loop of the External Active Thermal Control System is activated to allow ammonia to flow
* ISS power up of electrical channels 2 and 3

Flight Day 7:
* Shuttle to ISS transfer work
* Joint Crew News Conference
* Crew off duty time
* Starboard side loop of External Active Thermal Control System is filled with ammonia
* Curbeam and Williams sleep in Quest Airlock for spacewalk pre-breathe campout protocol in advance of EVA-3.

Flight Day 8:
* ISS power down of electrical channels 1 and 4
* EVA-3 (Curbeam and Williams) to reconfigure electrical channels 1 and 4 and transfer Service Module Debris Panels to Pressurized Mating Adapter 3
* Starboard side loop of the External Active Thermal Control System is activated to allow ammonia to flow
* ISS power up of electrical channels 1 and 4

Flight Day 9:
* Shuttle to ISS transfer work
* Mobile Transporter moves to Worksite 2 for S3 / S4 survey for STS-117, then returns to Worksite 4
* Rendezvous tool checkout in preparation for undocking

Flight Day 10:
* Final transfer work
* Farewells and Hatch Closing
* Undocking and ISS flyaround
* Final separation from ISS
* MEPSI pico-satellite deploy
* ANDE pico-satellite deploy

Flight Day 11:
* Flight Control System Checkout
* Reaction Control System Hot-Fire Test
* Cabin Stowage
* RAFT pico-satellite deploy
* Deorbit Timeline Review
* Recumbent Seat Set Up for Reiter in middeck
* Ku Band Antenna Stowage

Flight Day 12:
* Deorbit Preparations
* Payload Bay Door Closing
* Deorbit Burn
* KSC Landing

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Despite some extra risk, NASA hopes next month to launch a space shuttle at night for the first time since the deadly Columbia accident almost four years ago.
If shuttle managers give the go-ahead this month, shuttle Discovery will blast off at 9:36 p.m. ET Dec. 7 on a 12-day mission to build the International Space Station.

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NASA Announces New International Space Station Crew
NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have named two astronauts and two cosmonauts to the next International Space Station crew, known as Expedition 15. Astronauts Clayton C. Anderson and Daniel M. Tani will travel to the station next year and work as flight engineers. Cosmonauts Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and Dr. Oleg V. Kotov will spend six months aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Anderson will get a ride to the station aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-118 mission, targeted for launch in June 2007. He will return to Earth on shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-120. That flight will carry his replacement, Tani, to the station. Tani will return on shuttle mission STS-122, targeted for October 2007.
Yurchikhin will command Expedition 15, and Kotov will serve as station flight engineer and Soyuz commander. Yurchikhin and Kotov will fly to the complex aboard a Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch in March 2007. Until Anderson arrives, astronaut Sunita L. Williams will serve as Expedition 15's third crew member and flight engineer. She will fly to the station on STS-116 in December.
A native of Nebraska, Anderson was selected as an astronaut in 1998 following a technical career in mission operations at NASA's Johnson Space Centre, Houston. He managed the Emergency Operations Center at Johnson for several years before becoming an astronaut. He has a bachelor's degree from Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska, and a master's from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
A native of Illinois, Tani has a bachelor's and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. He was selected as an astronaut in 1996. Tani's first spaceflight was aboard Endeavour in December 2001 on the STS-108 mission. During that flight, he performed a four-hour spacewalk.
Yurchikhin previously visited the space station aboard Atlantis on STS-112 in 2002. He is qualified as a mechanical engineer and has a doctorate in economics. Before he was selected as a cosmonaut, Yurchikhin served as a Russian flight controller and lead engineer for several missions.
Kotov was selected as a cosmonaut in 1996 and has trained for Soyuz, Mir and space station missions. He is a graduate of the Kirov Medical Academy in Russia.

The Expedition 15 backup crew is astronaut Gregory E. Chamitoff for Anderson; Sandra H. Magnus for Tani; Russian cosmonauts Roman Y. Romanenko and Mikhail B. Kornienko for Yurchikhin and Kotov.

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