An International Space Station Expedition 14 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Escola Camilo Castelo Branco, Carnaxide, Portugal on Monday, 26 Feb. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:51 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and VK5ZAI. The contact should be audible in portions of Southeastern and Eastern Australia. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Additional listening options are listed below. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

IRLP - Connect to the IRLP reflector 9010.

HOUSTON - Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin retracted a stuck antenna on a cargo spacecraft during a 6-hour, 18-minute spacewalk that ended at 10:45 a.m. CST Thursday.

On Oct. 26, the antenna failed to retract when the Progress vehicle docked to the station's Zvezda Service Module. Moving the antenna was necessary to ensure it would not interfere with the Progress undocking in April.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin had planned to release the antenna latch with a punch and a hammer. When clearance issues prevented that, they cut struts supporting the antenna. That enabled them to partly retract the antenna and secure it with wire ties. They reported it had about six inches of clearance from Zvezda, adequate for undocking.

An International Space Station Expedition 14 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Vasant Valley School, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, India on Saturday, 24 Feb. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 08:50 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and WH6PN. The contact should be audible in Hawaii. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Additional listening options are listed below. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

IRLP - Connect to the IRLP reflector 9010.
You may also connect via the IRLP Discovery website at http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/listen.htm.

The Expedition 14 crew continued with preparations for a Feb. 22 spacewalk this week. The spacewalkers have conducted leak checks and have installed lights and additional equipment on their Russian Orlan space suits.

The crew conducted its Orlan dry run Tuesday morning. Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin began preparing their Russian suits around 5 a.m. EST and donning their suits for a communications and systems test.

http://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/msg00355.html

Students attending Escola Camilo Castelo Branco school in Carnaxide, Portugal are scheduled to take part in an ARISS contact with Expedition 14 Flight Engineer "Suni" Williams , KD5PLB. "Suni" will be using the callsign NA1SS during the contact. This telebridge supported event is scheduled to take place on Monday, February 26, 2007 at 15:51 UTC. Ground station operations will be provided by VK5ZAI located in Kingston SE, South Australia.

Live audio will be available on IRLP and EchoLink through the ARISS Audio Distribution Project.

IRLP users can connect to the main channel of "Discovery" Reflector 9010. The audio feed will begin approximately 10 minutes before the scheduled contact time. Streaming audio is also available through www.discoveryreflector.ca:8000/listen.pls (expect a 2 to 3 minute delay on this stream).

The next ARISS event that will be supported by the ARISS Audio Distribution Project is planned to take place on Saturday, February 24, 2007 at 08:50 UTC. Live audio will be available throught IRLP and EchoLink.

Students from Vasant Valley School, Vasent Kunj, New Delhi, India will be asking questions of Expedition 14 Flight Engineer "Suni" Williams, KD5PLB, while operating NA1SS. This will be a telebridge supported contact with ground station operations via WH6PN, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

IRLP "Discovery" Reflector 9010 will begin it's audio feed approximately 10 minutes before the scheduled contact time or 08:40 UTC. Streaming audio will also be available at www.discoveryreflector.ca:8000/listen.pls (expect a 2-3 minute delay on this stream).

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact is tentatively planned for Boulder Hill Elementary School in Montgomery, Illinois during the week of March 5. The school's radio club has been busy preparing for the contact. Students have built Morse code transmitters and crystal radio receivers. They have spoken to other hams over the radio and have been studying for their amateur radio license exams. A press release was posted to both the Beacon News and Elgin Courier News websites. See: