ISS Fan Club

Topics in this report:
1. Astronaut T. J. Creamer Enjoys ARISS Contact with Riley Ave. Students
2. Principal has Good Memories of First ARISS Contact
3. ISS Ham Debrief Held with Frank De Winne
4. ARISSat-1 Status Report Posted

1. Astronaut T. J. Creamer Enjoys ARISS Contact with Riley Ave. Students
On Tuesday, February 2, astronaut Timothy Creamer, KC5WKI spoke with Riley Avenue Elementary School students through an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. The Calverton, New York youth spent weeks preparing for the contact, studying space and the solar system during Science and creating rockets and robots in Art class. The Peconic Amateur Radio Club helped coordinate the contact and provided the equipment used. A Riley fourth grader and newly licensed ham acted as the control operator during the contact.

The space shuttle Endeavour lit up the predawn sky above Florida with a false sunrise early Monday as it soared into orbit like a brilliant, artificial star.

Endeavour roared into space at 4:14 a.m. EST (0914 GMT) from a seaside pad here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center after a one-day delay due to low clouds. The launch was expected to be the last time a NASA shuttle blasted off at night.

"Looks like the weather came together tonight. The vehicle is in great shape and it's time to go fly," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach told the crew just before liftoff. "We wish you good luck, Godspeed, and we'll see you back here in about two weeks."

Thick clouds thwarted the attempted predawn launch of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour on Sunday, forcing the orbiter's six-astronaut crew to wait at least one more day before rocketing into orbit.

Despite early predictions of good weather, a thick layer of low-lying clouds crept in over NASA's Kennedy Space Center here, preventing Endeavour's planned 4:39 a.m. EST (0939 GMT) launch toward the International Space Station. The astronauts were already strapped inside their seats awaiting liftoff.

"We were just not comfortable with launching the space shuttle tonight so we're going to go into a 24-hour scrub," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach radioed Endeavour's crew. "Thank you all for the effort you all put in tonight."

NASA will shed light on plant investigations aboard the International Space Station in a briefing at noon EST, Friday, Feb. 5. The briefing from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

The upcoming shuttle mission, planned to launch Feb. 7, will continue assembling the space station so it can be used for continuous scientific research as a national and multinational laboratory.

Microgravity plant growth experiments conducted aboard the station will help prepare for long-duration spaceflights of the future. The use of miniaturized green fluorescent proteins, that glow in the dark, and associated compact imaging systems, may be used to help monitor crop conditions on Earth.

NASA has begun counting down toward the planned predawn launch of the space shuttle Endeavour on Sunday.

Endeavour is poised to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday morning at 4:39 a.m. EST (0939 GMT) to deliver a brand-new room and observation portal to the International Space Station. The clocks began ticking down toward launch time early this morning.

"We're right on schedule, where we're supposed to be," said NASA test director Jeff Spaulding during a Thursday status briefing.

There is a 70 percent chance of good weather for Endeavour's launch. The potential for high winds is the only concern, shuttle weather officials said.

Gould Smith, WA4SXM writing on behalf of the ARISSAT-1 team said construction of the flight unit begins in early February when Tony Monteiro, AA2TX begins electronic assembly of the first US flight unit for ARISSat.

The ARISSAT-1 team has had prototypes working for months. The enclosures have been painted by NASA and the cables prepared by Larry Brown, W7LB. The flight boards were built by the Microchip ARISSat team and Chuck Green, N0ADI, with Chuck checking all the flight units.

Lou McFadin, W5DID has nearly assembled a complete flight structure (see photo above) designed by Bob Davis, KF4KSS. Lou expects to exhibit the structure in the AMSAT Booth at the upcoming Orlando HamCation. The first two flight TX/RX/Command receiver modules from Bill Ress, N6GHZ are due to arrive in February.

Image above: The ISS Progress 36 cargo craft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image Credit: Roscosmos

The ISS Progress 36 (P36) unpiloted spacecraft launched at 10:45 p.m. EST Tuesday (9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Baikonur time), loaded with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,683 pounds of spare parts and supplies.

On Thursday shortly before 11:30 p.m., P36 will dock automatically to the aft port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station using the Kurs docking system.

Topics in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contact
2. JAXA Astronaut Participates in ARISS Contact with Boy Scouts
3. Moscow Aviation Institute Experiment Activated
4. ISS Ham Debrief Scheduled

1. Upcoming School Contact
Riley Avenue Elementary School in Calverton, New York has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Tuesday, February 2 at 17:43 UTC. The school is integrating the contact throughout subject areas including but not limited to art, science, math, and English Language Arts.

2. JAXA Astronaut Participates in ARISS Contact with Boy Scouts

NASA will launch small research satellites for several universities as part of the agency's Educational Launch of Nanosatellite, or ELaNA, mission. The satellites are manifested as an auxiliary payload on the Taurus XL launch vehicle for NASA's Glory mission, planned for liftoff in late November.

The satellites, called CubeSats because of their shape, come from Montana State University, the University of Colorado and Kentucky Space, a consortium of state universities. The University of Florida was selected as an alternate in case one of the three primary spacecraft cannot fly.

CubeSats are in a class of small research spacecraft called picosatellites. They have a size of approximately four inches, a volume of about one quart and weigh no more than 2.2 pounds.

For the first time, NASA Twitter followers can personally go inside the heart of a space shuttle mission at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA is hosting a unique Tweetup on Wednesday, Feb. 17 during Endeavour's STS-130 mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour is targeted to launch on Sunday, Feb. 7.

"We're excited to be hosting NASA's seventh Tweetup," said NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who also is known as @astro_Mike. "This is the home of all of the astronauts and the historic Mission Control Center. It's an outstanding location to provide our Twitter community with an insider's view of human spaceflight. I'll be on one of the two mission control teams working at that time to keep Endeavour and space station operating safely. Hopefully a few of my Twitter followers can participate in this exciting event."