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

After days of glitches and tweaks, a new recycling system designed to turn astronaut urine back into drinking water is apparently working well aboard the International Station.

The space station's urine processor, part of a larger wastewater recycling system, worked non-stop for a full four-hour test and longer late Monday to the delight of astronauts and NASA engineers. The system is crucial if the space station is to jump to double-sized, six-person crews next year.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/081125-sts126-urine-recycler.html

An upgraded Russian cargo ship launched toward the International Space Station early Wednesday, hauling fresh supplies for astronauts aboard the orbiting lab, though an antenna failed to deploy shortly after reaching orbit making it likely the spacecraft will have to be guided in manually by the orbiting lab's crew, NASA officials said.

The unmanned space freighter Progress 31 lifted off atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket at about 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 GMT) from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft will dock at the space station on Sunday a few hours before the planned landing of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, which is currently docked at the station and due to depart Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody in the ISS Fan Club,ARISS,International Space Station,NASA.

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