astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, returned to Earth at approximately 4:30 a.m. EDT Saturday, ending a mission during which she conducted five spacewalks and set a new record in American spaceflight.

Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, members of the 16th crew to live and work aboard the station, safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi also returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz. The landing was approximately 295 miles from the expected landing site, delaying the recovery forces' arrival to the spacecraft by approximately 45 minutes.

NASA will hold a series of news media briefings May 1 to discuss the upcoming space shuttle Discovery mission, STS-124. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will provide live coverage of the briefings from the Johnson Space Center, beginning at 8 a.m. CDT. Questions also will be taken from participating NASA locations.

Discovery's 13-day mission is targeted for launch to the International Space Station on May 31. It is the second of three flights to launch components of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. The shuttle also will deliver the lab's robotic arm system that will support operations outside of Kibo.

An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, Orlando, Florida, USA on 21 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 17:48 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over most of the Western USA. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Audio from the QSO is planned to be fed into the EchoLink *AMSAT* (101 377) and *JK1ZRW* (277 208) servers during the contact.