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STS-120 day 3 highlights

This movie shows the highlights from Flight Day 3 as Discovery docked to the space station.

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STS-120 day 2 highlights

Flight Day 2 of Discovery's mission focused on heat shield inspections. This movie shows the day's highlights.

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STS-120 launch videos

Check out all angles of space shuttle Discovery's launch with our extensive video collection.

 Full coverage

STS-120 day 1 highlights

The highlights from shuttle Discovery's launch day are packaged into this movie.

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STS-120: Crew arrival

The space shuttle Discovery astronauts arrive at the Kennedy Space Center for their countdown to launch.

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STS-120: The programs

In advance of shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission to the station, managers from both programs discuss the flight.

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STS-120: The mission

Discovery's trip to the station will install the Harmony module and move the P6 solar wing truss. The flight directors present a detailed overview of STS-120.

 Part 1 | Part 2

STS-120: Spacewalks

Five spacewalks are planned during Discovery's STS-120 assembly mission to the station. Lead spacewalk officer Dina Contella previews the EVAs.

 Full briefing
 EVA 1 summary
 EVA 2 summary
 EVA 3 summary
 EVA 4 summary
 EVA 5 summary

The Discovery crew

The Discovery astronauts, led by commander Pam Melroy, meet the press in the traditional pre-flight news conference.

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Harmony module pulled from cargo bay
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: October 26, 2007

Astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Dan Tani, operating the space station's robot arm, carefully pulled the 31,500-pound Harmony module from the shuttle Discovery's cargo bay today for attachment to the international lab complex. Spectacular video beamed down from the shuttle showed the massive module being slowly maneuvered above the spaceplane over toward the left side of the outpost where it will be installed on the central Unity module.

Spacewalkers Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock, meanwhile, worked at the top of the central Z1 truss to prepare a huge set of stowed solar arrays for relocation to the far left side of the station's main solar power truss later in the mission. Parazynski's main goal was to disconnect four ammonia coolant lines between the P6 solar array to the Z1 truss and to remate them to dummy connectors on Z1. He also had to cap the open lines on the P6 side of the interface and secure the quick-disconnect fittings.

Before launch, Parazynski said he worried about ammonia leakage and potential contamination. The valves in question have "been open now for almost seven years," he said. "I would envision we will take a little bit of ammonia contamination, hopefully not a lot. We are well trained to handle anything that might happen along those lines. But they are very difficult to handle, I don't have a perfect work site for it, so that'll be one of the things that will be very challenging on the flight."

As it turned out, only a few ammonia ice crystals were reported as the umbilicals were disconnected and remated. But that was enough to trigger a contamination inspection. The concern was the potential for carrying unseen ammonia ice crystals back into the space station.

"If I took any hits it was mostly at the chest level, I believe," Parazynski said. "And Wheels, they looked like just little tiny pieces of ice or almost hail."

But Wheelock did not see any signs of contamination on Parazynski's suit.

"The sun's coming up. But again, I don't see anything, Scott, I don't see any discoloration or anything that looks waxy or a different texture. Can you see that, Paolo? I don't see anything."

"Roger, copy," Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli replied from inside the shuttle. "And Houston, I guess you followed along. I'm not sure if you have wireless (television) or not. But it looks like EV-2 (Wheelock) is not seeing any contamination on EV-1 (Parazynski)."

The spacewalkers then focused on attaching thermal shrouds to protect a stowed radiator on P6 and two electronics boxes toward the top of the array truss.

Wilson and Tani, meanwhile, carefully positioned Harmony to line it up for attachment to the Unity module using motor-driven bolts in a so-called common berthing mechanism, or CBM. The attachment does not require the spacewalkers and will be carried out robotically.

"And Scott and Wheels, do you have a minute? Nespoli asked as the shuttle-station complex sailed high above the Gulf of Mexico.

"Sure."

"If you look down, starboard side, you're about the pass right over Houston. Say hello to MCC (mission control center)."

"Starboard side, huh?" Parazynski asked.

"That's affirm, you see the coastline there," Nespoli said.

"Ooohhhh, look at that!"

"Oh, that's beautiful."

"Hello, Houston!" Parazynski said.

A few minutes later, Parazynski caught site of Harmony nearing its attachment point on the Unity module.

"Hey Wheels, look down, ISS nadir, you'll see that they've got the node about two meters out," he said.

"Oh, my goodness!"

"Isn't that great?"

"Hey, what do you think? Robeau and all the gang here have been working hard," Nespoli said, referring to Wilson by her mission nickname.

"Yes, they have," Parazynski agreed.

"All right, let's get going here," Nespoli said. "We have one hour and 10 minutes to go."

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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: ANIMATED PREVIEW OF HARMONY INSTALLATION PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF SHUTTLE PAYLOAD BAY PLAY
VIDEO: HARMONY'S PRE-LAUNCH PREPS AT THE CAPE PLAY
VIDEO: BACKGROUND INFO ON HARMONY MODULE PLAY
VIDEO: PREVIEW OF FRIDAY'S SPACEWALK PLAY

VIDEO: THURSDAY MANAGEMENT TEAM NEWS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: POST-DOCKING MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW WELCOMED ABOARD STATION PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE DISCOVERY DOCKS TO THE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: DISCOVERY PERFORMS 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE APPROACHES STATION FROM BELOW PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF THE DOCKING PLAY

VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON LAUNCH IMAGERY AND TANK'S PERFORMANCE PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS EXPLAINED PLAY
VIDEO: THE FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY

VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S LAUNCH AS SEEN LIVE PLAY
VIDEO: EXTERNAL TANK CAMERA FROM LIFTOFF TO ORBIT PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: KSC RUNWAY PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: BEACH TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 WIDESCREEN PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PLAYALINDA WIDESCREEN PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 009 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 049 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 050 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 051 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 054 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 060 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 061 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 063 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA UCS-12 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA UCS-15 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-1 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-2 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-6 PLAY

VIDEO: THE CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR THE PAD PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS SUITS UP ON LAUNCH MORNING PLAY
VIDEO: A LOOK BACK AT SHUTTLE DISCOVERY'S HISTORY PLAY
VIDEO: PAD 39A'S ROTATING GANTRY MOVED BACK PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW CLIPS WITH THE ASTRONAUTS PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY MORNING'S STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: WATCH THE CREW'S ARRIVAL FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: NEWS CONFERENCE AFTER FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ROLLS TO LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: CRANE HOISTS DISCOVERY FOR MATING TO TANK PLAY
VIDEO: DISCOVERY MOVED TO THE VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY
VIDEO: HYDRAULIC SEALS REPLACED ON LANDING GEAR STRUT PLAY
VIDEO: FUEL TANK ATTACHED TO SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS PLAY
VIDEO: FOAM REMOVED FROM FUEL TANK FEEDLINE BRACKETS PLAY

VIDEO: STS-120 MISSION OVERVIEW BRIEFING PART 1 | PART 2
VIDEO: PREVIEW OF THE MISSION'S FIVE SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: DISCOVERY'S ASTRONAUTS MEET THE PRESS PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEFING ON SHUTTLE AND ISS PROGRAMS PLAY
MORE: STS-120 VIDEO COVERAGE
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