Hatches Close; Endeavour to Undock Sunday

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Hatches Close; Endeavour to Undock Sunday*

Mission Control, Houston has given the STS-118 crew a “go” for undocking
Space Shuttle Endeavour from the International Space Station at 8 a.m.
EDT Sunday. Mission managers made the decision as astronauts Dave
Williams and Clay Anderson were wrapping up the fourth spacewalk of the
mission.

Closing the hatches Saturday at 5:10 p.m. allows Endeavour to undock
from the station Sunday in preparation for a possible landing on
Tuesday. The earlier landing is being considered in the event Hurricane
Dean threatens the Houston area. It would allow an opportunity for the
shuttle to land before Mission Control would be shut down to prepare for
a storm.

Managers will continue to review the forecast for Dean as they assess
their options.

Williams and Anderson shortened their spacewalk to 5 hours, 2 minutes,
to allow the early hatch closing and departure. They installed a stand
for the shuttle’s robotic arm extension boom on the station’s truss
structure, installed an External Wireless Instrumentation System antenna
and retrieved two containers of the Materials ISS Experiment. They also
had a chance to look down at the hurricane as it swirled in the
Caribbean Sea.

The spacewalk began at 9:17 a.m. and concluded at 2:19 p.m., bumping up
the total time for STS-118’s four spacewalks to 23 hours and 15 minutes.
Saturday's excursion was the 92nd spacewalk devoted to station assembly.

*Hurricane Dean Information*
On-orbit Hurricane Dean Video: + Real Video
<http://mfile.akamai.com/18565/rm/etouchsyst2.download.akamai.com/18355/real.nasa-global/STS-118/Hurricane_Dean.ram>
| + Windows Media
<http://mfile.akamai.com/18566/wmv/etouchsyst2.download.akamai.com/18355/wm.nasa-global/STS-118/Hurricane_Dean.asx>
+ NASA Hurricane Resource Page
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/main/index.html>

*Mission Information*
+ View Barbara Morgan Video
<javascript:watchNASAOnDemandTV('','http://mfile.akamai.com/18565/rm/etouchsyst2.download.akamai.com/18355/real.nasa-global/sts-118/STS118_Morgan.ram','http://mfile.akamai.com/18566/wmv/etouchsyst2.download.akamai.com/18355/wm.nasa-global/STS-118/STS118_Morgan.asx')>
+ STS-118 Mission Overview
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/index.html>
+ STS-118 Fact Sheet (900 Kb PDF)
<http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/184910main_sts118_factsheet4.pdf>
+ STS-118 NASA TV Schedule
<http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/mission_schedule.html>
+ STS-118 Briefing Animations
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/multimedia/sts118_anim_07102007.html>
+ STS-117 Mission Archive
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/main/index.html>
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