This week, the Expedition 15 crew unpacked new supplies and began preparing for the arrival of the next visiting spacecraft and two upcoming spacewalks at the International Space Station.

The ISS Progress 25 docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 12:10 a.m. CDT Tuesday. During the week, the crew began unloading the more than 5,000 pounds of cargo from the supply ship.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov prepared for their May 30 and June 6 spacewalks by working on the Pirs Airlock. The cosmonauts will wear Russian Orlan spacesuits to install orbital debris protection panels on the Zvezda Service Module and replace experiments on the module's hull. Mission experts at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, will provide an overview of the spacewalks in a news briefing at 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 23, on NASA Television.

An International Space Station Expedition 15 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Toyon Elementary, San Jose, California USA on 21 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 17:21 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between stations NA1SS and K6MFW. The contact should be audible in western portions of North America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

Toyon is located in the northeast foothills of San Jose. Our population is approximately 470 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, which includes two special day classes. Our diverse student population celebrates the many cultures and ethnicity of our district. Cultural diversity at Toyon includes African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Filipino, Hispanic or Latino, Pacific Islander, and White. The primary languages spoken at home include: Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Punjabi, Hindi, Samoan, and Tagalog. Toyon is an NASA Explorer School.