An International Space Station Expedition 18 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at St Anthony's College, Shillong, India on 01 December. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 0819 UTC.

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

Founded in 1934 by Fathers of the Don Bosco Society, St.Anthony's College is one of the oldest colleges in the North East India. The college is situated in Shillong which is a picturesque hill station in India and which is considered as the ‘Scotland of the East'. Since its humble beginning 74 years ago, the college has since grown manifold in size and ranking. Today, the college has 28 departments with 120 teaching staff, 60 support staff and over 2100 students, and is considered as a premier institute of education in whole country of India. Students from the various states of the country as well as some foreign countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Zambia etc study here. The College has been awarded with the highest degree of Five Stars for excellence by the National team, and is well recognized by the UGC (University Grant Commission). In everything that we do, our aim is the education of the total person, in keeping with our motto: EVER MORE BETTER EVER, the translation of the Latin Excelsior

NASA and its international partners have assigned the International Space Station's crew members through 2010. The numbering sequence of expeditions was modified to reflect the start of six-person crews.

The update to the expedition numbering begins with the docking of a Soyuz spacecraft in May 2009. That Soyuz will mark the beginning of six-person crew operations. From that point forward, expeditions will end with the undocking of a Soyuz. The expedition number will change every two to four months as new crew members arrive and depart.

The arrangement emphasizes that every six-person crew living on the station is a cohesive team. A crew member typically will stay about six months and be part of two expeditions. In addition to the Russian Soyuz, the space shuttle will continue to provide transportation for station crew members through mission STS-129, targeted for the fall of 2009.

Look too closely at the STS-126 mission patch and you might miss it. The crew emblem, which depicts space shuttle Endeavour on its way back from the International Space Station (ISS) - a scene that will be played out for real on Sunday should the current schedule and weather hold - also symbolizes the flight's primary payload.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/cs-081125-sts126-mission-patch.html