Lt. Col. Marcus Pontes, of the Brazilian Air Force, is slated to ride up to the ISS aboard a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft with the crew of Expedition 13 under an agreement signed Tuesday between the Federal Space Agency and Brazilian Space Agency (Agéncia Espacial Brasileiria).

http://space.com

Thanks to its unique level of on board autonomy and safety, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is the first fully automatic re-supply spacecraft of its kind. The ATV, even in case of malfunction, does not rely on human intervention to take over manual control of the vehicle to ensure mission success and ISS safety.

http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMSEV5Y3EE_iss_0.html

Congratulations to ESA French astronaut Leopold Eyharts who took and passed his amateur radio exam! His new callsign is KE5FNO. Eyharts is a backup crew member for Expedition 12.

http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm