[url=http://www.arrl.org/?artid=7183][img]http://www.arrl.org//news/crawlies/10556/thumb.jpg[/img][/url] International Space Station Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, and Flight Engineer Suni Williams, KD5PLB (photo, in spacesuit), on Sunday wrapped up the second spacewalk in an ambitious schedule. The two astronauts also went outside the station January 31 to undertake necessary ISS construction tasks. At the conclusion of a fourth spacewalk in the current series by members of the three-person ISS crew on February 22 , Lopez-Alegria will have completed his tenth spacewalk, an astronaut record, and Williams her fourth, the most ever by a woman. NASA says that by the end of their respective duty tours, Lopez-Alegria should lead all US astronauts in the number of spacewalks and the amount of time spent spacewalking, while Williams will hold the NASA astronaut record for longest time in space. NASA and Russia plan as many as two dozen spacewalks in 2007, the most in a single year. Work scheduled on the ISS this year will more than double the its electrical power generation and use. Williams also spoke with students at seven schools during January Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts from NA1SS.

The first of three spacewalks in nine days by Commander Michael
Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Sunita Williams wrapped up Wednesday
at 6:09 p.m. EST. During the 7-hour 55-minute excursion, the
spacewalkers reconfigured one of two cooling loops for the Destiny
module, rearranged electrical connections and secured the starboard
radiator of the P6 truss after retraction.

Having a real, live astronaut on hand for the occasion helped to make an Amateur Radio contact with the International Space Station's NA1SS even more special for 11 fourth and fifth graders at Romeo Elementary School in Dunnellon, Florida. When the contact with Mission Specialist Suni Williams, KD5PLM, was done, NASA Educator Astronaut Joe Acaba, KE5DAR, joined the students in their enthusiasm. Acaba, who once taught at Dunnellon Middle School, made several informational presentations to the entire school before and after the January 17 event, says Larry Phelps, K4OZS, of the Silver Spring Radio Club (SSRC), which handled Earth station duties.

With the recent news that the tracked debris count from F1C has risen to over 300 pieces .... and unofficial
estimates that there may be tens of thousands of bits out there , I'm wondering what level of threat this poses to the forthcoming EVAs ?

At least one piece of debris has already come within a few kilometres of the station. Does anyone know if there are any contingency
measures in place to minimise the risk to the crew ?

John

On Thursday, December 14, astronaut Tim Kopra and future space participant Charles Simonyi took and passed their amateur radio license exams.

Callsigns have since been issued. Charles Simonyi received the callsign KE7KDP and Timothy Kopra was issued the callsign KE5LUT.

Charles Simonyi KE7KDP an architect of Microsoft's Word and Excel programs, paid Russia more than $20 million for a round-trip ride to the station and a stay aboard the orbiting lab during April.