Happy Friday… the first of the mission’s five EVAs is underway. NASA reports:

Spacewalkers Go to Work to Expand Station

Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock rides the station's robotic arm
Image Above: STS-120 Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock rides the station’s robotic arm into Discovery’s payload bay. Image credit: NASA TV

STS-120 Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock kicked off STS-120’s first spacewalk at 6:02 a.m. EDT to prepare Harmony for removal from Discovery’s payload bay. The excursion is scheduled to wrap up at about 12:32 p.m.

Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli is the spacewalk coordinator, assisting the spacewalkers with their tasks from inside the spacecraft. Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Clay Anderson and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Daniel Tani are at the controls of the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm.

The spacewalkers have removed and stowed the S-band Antenna Structural Assembly. They will secure a Payload and Data Grapple Fixture onto Harmony that could not be in place during launch, remove contamination covers and disconnect the power cables linking Harmony to Discovery.

The station robotic arm operators then will remove Harmony from the payload bay and begin moving it toward its position on Unity. Finally, the spacewalkers will prepare the P6 truss for its relocation.

Flight Day 3 pics and video are up at the JSC Gallery. Discussion here. Status Report #07 here. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.