Commander Sergei Alexandrovich Volkov and cosmonaut Oleg Dmitrievich Kononenko of the 17th International Space Station crew docked their Soyuz TMA-12 with the orbiting laboratory's Pirs Docking Compartment at 8:57 a.m. EDT Thursday, marking the beginning of their six-month stay aboard.

With Volkov, a lieutenant colonel in the Russian Air Force, and Kononenko was spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi. She is a South Korean flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Yi will return to Earth with Expedition 16 crew members Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko in their Soyuz TMA-11 on April 19. Expedition 16 launched to the station Oct. 10.

An International Space Station visiting crew ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the Han Gwang Boys & Girls High School in Pyeong Taek City, Gyeong Gi Province, Republic of Korea on 13 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:57 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between stations HL0ARISS and HL0HQSC. The contact should be audible over most of Korea and parts of Eastern Asia. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in Korean.

Han-Gwang school was founded in Pyeong-taek city in 1955 by a christian. Now it consists of 4 schools under the same name, Han-Gwang (boys' junior & senior high school and girls' junior & senior high school). Four Schools have about 250 teachers and about 5,000 students. Especially it has one Bible class a week and one worship service where every student takes part in it every Monday.

The amateur radio system has been powered down in support of safety regulations related to the docking of the soyuz vehicle bringing the Expedition 17 prime crew to the ISS.

Kenneth - N5VHO