Space shuttle commander Peggy Whitson and her Italian colleague Paolo Nespoli began work Saturday to prepare a new "bedroom" to be installed on board the International Space Station ISS, according to DPA. The pair floated weightless into the room of the new linking module Harmony, which is due to be used in December for docking the European space laboratory Columbus, and which can serve to offer additional sleeping quarters for ISS crews. Whitson, commander of the space shuttle Discovery, and Nespoli began dismantling the clasps which had been attached to Harmony during its transport into space in the shuttle's cargo hold. Meanwhile astronauts Dan Tani and Scott Parazynski began preparing for a spacewalk on Sunday to carry out external work on the ISS, moving a pair of two giant solar panels to a different position. On Friday, Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock carried out the first of four schedule space walks to install the Harmony linking module. The spacewalk lasted six hours and 14 minutes. The space shuttle Discovery is due to return to earth on November 6.
