ISS Fan Club

NASA and its international partners have assigned two crew members to the Expedition 20 International Space Station mission.

NASA astronaut Timothy J. Creamer, a colonel in the U.S. Army, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi will launch on a Soyuz spacecraft in November 2009. Creamer will be making his first trip to space.

Creamer and Noguchi will join the Expedition 20 mission in progress and remain aboard the space station for six months as flight engineers. Creamer also will serve as a NASA science officer. Other members of the Expedition 20 crew have yet to be named. Expedition 20 will continue assembly of the station as well as outfit the orbiting complex with spare parts and supplies.

NASA managers have scheduled a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for no earlier than 4 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 19, to discuss the status of the next space shuttle launch. The news conference will begin after the conclusion of the Flight Readiness Review, a meeting to assess preparations for shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission to the International Space Station.

The review is expected to include the selection of an official launch date. Discovery is targeted to launch May 31 at 5:02 p.m.

The briefing participants are:
- Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier

International Space Station crews soon will have a new water reclamation system that will recycle wastewater, allowing up to six crew members to live aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The latest addition to the station's life support system departs today from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for final flight preparations.

The new Water Recovery System, or WRS, is the second part of a comprehensive life support system for the station. It is scheduled to fly aboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-126 targeted for later this year. The first part of the system, the Oxygen Generation System, was launched on shuttle Discovery in July 2006. The two systems are part of NASA's Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System, or ECLSS, for the station.

1. Upcoming School Contact
Delta Researchers Schools 2008, Space Expo in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact via telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. The contact will take place on Friday, May 23 at 15:01 UTC. Twelve Dutch primary schools which participate in the Delta project will be represented at Space Expo. The project is a cooperation of the Dutch ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. The schools participating in the project use the themes of space and space exploration to teach science and technology. Three children (ages 7 – 12) from each school will be present.

NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman squeezed in some laughs amid his busy day aboard the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday during an orbital call from comedian Stephen Colbert.

Riesman, a flight engineer for the station's Expedition 17 mission, spoke with Colbert about life in space and his three-month mission for tonight's episode of the faux-conservative show "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.

"I can't believe my voice is being broadcast to space right now. I should say something really profound," Colbert said during the interview broadcast on NASA TV. "Eat it, Jon Stewart, I'm talking to space!"

The crew of the space shuttle Discovery successfully completed a dress rehearsal today for their upcoming launch. They capped off their practice run at Cape Canaveral with a simulated countdown to liftoff at 11:00 a.m. EDT.

The seven STS-124 astronauts are scheduled to launch May 31 at 5:02 p.m. EDT to deliver the International Space Station's largest room, the 32,500-pound Japanese Kibo Laboratory. Crewmembers are slated to perform three spacewalks during their planned 13-day mission.

Source http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080509-sts124-launch-rehearsal.html

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of a great friend, colleague and fellow ham radio operator. Dr. Ronald A. Parise, WA4SIR, left this Earth today, Friday May 9, 2008 after a very long and courageous battle with cancer.

Ron Parise was--and continues to be--an inspiration to countless students, ham radio operators, and friends the world over. His accomplishments were many, including: space explorer, pioneer, astrophysicist, pilot, ham radio operator, avionics and software expert, inspirational speaker and motivator, student satellite mentor, husband, father, and friend. While he certainly did some truly extraordinary things in his lifetime, Ron Parise is best known and cherished for keeping family and friends first…and for this, we will miss him most.

Students from coast to coast will have the opportunity to make an out of this world call to the International Space Station on Monday, May 12, from 11:20 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. CDT. The students and educators from One Stop Richmond Hill Community Center, Richmond Hill, N.Y., and Valley Christian Elementary School, Bellflower, Calif., will participate in the event.

The two locations will be part of a 20 minute in-flight education downlink, allowing students from across the country to share in this unique collaborative experience. During the event, students and educators will interact with Expedition 17 astronaut Garrett Reisman. Both locations used NASA education resources to enhance their existing curriculum and worked together to develop a comprehensive education plan to compliment the downlink. Students designed mission patches, learned about space station science experiments, made models of the space station, and explored the NASA Web site for student research and activities.

Amateur Radio recently got some good publicity when Tony Hutchison VK5ZAI appeared in an interview on the Australian Channel 7 Today Tonight show.

The show was broadcast on the 11th April and provided some great insights as to how Tony and others over the years have provided support to Nasa and how amateur radio helps to promote public awareness of the NASA space program through school contacts with the astronauts aboard the ISS.

Read the full story and view or download the video from the WIA website at http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2008/20080504-2/index.php

Source: http://w

HOUSTON -- The residents of the International Space Station will receive a new shipment of food, fuel and supplies next week, and NASA Television will broadcast its arrival live.

Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Garrett Reisman will be standing by as the unpiloted ISS Progress 29 resupply craft automatically docks to the Earth-facing port on the Zarya module at 4:37 p.m. CDT, Friday, May 16. NASA TV coverage of the new Progress' arrival will begin at 4 p.m. with commentary and available downlink television.

The cargo ship is carrying more than two tons of supplies for the three crew members. It will be launched at 3:22 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV will not broadcast the launch.