NASA has set media accreditation deadlines for the next space shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Shuttle Discovery is targeted to launch Feb. 12 at 7:28 a.m. EST on the STS-119 mission to the station. The seven-member crew will deliver the final pair of power-generating solar arrays and the last segment of the space station's backbone.

All U.S. and international journalists must apply for credentials to attend the liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida or cover the mission from other NASA centers. To be accredited, reporters must work for legitimate, verifiable news-gathering organizations. Media representatives may need to submit requests for credentials at multiple NASA facilities.

As part of NASA's celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station, the agency is providing a special 2009 calendar to teachers and the public.

The calendar contains photographs taken from the space station. It highlights historic NASA milestones and fun facts about this international construction project of unprecedented complexity that began in 1998.

The calendar can be downloaded and printed by visiting:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

"We hope this calendar will inspire the next generation of explorers and provide interesting and challenging information for educators, students and anyone interested in space," said International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "As we near the completion of space station assembly, we are doubling the crew size, increasing our knowledge and operational experience, and continuing our quest of exploration and discovery."

The International Space Station's Expedition 18 crew focused its attention on spacewalk preparations and maintenance activities Thursday.

To prepare for their upcoming spacewalk, Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov gathered tools, prepared spacesuits and reviewed procedures with Russian spacewalk specialists.

During the spacewalk, Fincke and Lonchakov will install EXPOSE-R outside the station's Zvezda Service Module. EXPOSE-R is a suite of nine European Space Agency experiments that will expose a variety of seeds and spores to the harsh environment of space for more than a year. The spacewalk is scheduled for Dec. 22.