Space Shuttle Discovery’s astronauts today will assemble and configure tools to repair a torn solar array blanket on the International Space Station’s port truss during the mission’s fourth spacewalk, now scheduled for Saturday.

Space shuttle Discovery astronauts will have an extra day to prepare for their mission’s fourth spacewalk, as the International Space Station Program has changed its priority from inspection of a rotary joint to repair of a solar array.

Crew members on space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station will spend today preparing for a spacewalk designed to learn more about the joint that rotates the starboard side solar arrays. The wakeup song, “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu” by Domenico Modugno, was played at 11:38 p.m. CDT Tuesday for Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli, who’s scheduled to receive a congratulatory phone call from the president of Italy at 3:13 a.m. today. The song’s title translates as “In the blue (sky), painted blue;” it is widely known as “Volare.”

The crew of space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station executed a flawless spacewalk today, but ran into some unexpected issues afterward. Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock left the space station at 4:45 a.m. to begin what would be a 7 hour, 8 minute excursion to complete all of their scheduled tasks and a few get-ahead items for future spacewalks.

Astronauts Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock today install the International Space Station’s P6 truss in its final location. A new task was also added to this third spacewalk of the mission to provide comparison data of the station’s two solar array rotary joints. The spacewalk is set to begin at 3:53 a.m. CDT.

As crew members aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery prepared for the third spacewalk, they learned that the shuttle will spend an extra day in space, with landing now scheduled for just after 4 a.m. Nov. 7.

With two successful spacewalks completed in three days, the crews on Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station have some time to relax today while also completing a big handoff and getting prepared for another EVA on Tuesday.

Astronauts Scott Parazynski and Dan Tani successfully completed all major tasks during STS-120's second spacewalk, the 17th this year and the 94th dedicated to the International Space Station's assembly and maintenance.

The second of a record five spacewalks on one space shuttle visit to the International Space Station begins this morning, and it will end with a major station element en route to a new location. Today’s wakeup song at 12:09 a.m. CDT, “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong, was played for Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski on the day he makes his second spacewalk of the mission. He and Flight Engineer Dan Tani spent the night camped out in the Quest airlock to purge nitrogen from their bloodstreams to help prevent them from experiencing decompression sickness.

Astronauts at the International Space Station now have a little more room to float around in – 2,666 cubic feet more, to be exact. The hatch of Node 2 – or Harmony, as the module was named by school children – was opened at 7:24 a.m. CDT today. Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli – who is from Italy, where the module was built – were the first to enter, and took advantage of the opportunity to remark on the appropriateness of its name.