An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants from the Robinson Elementary School, Robinson, Texas at the Mayborn Discovery Museum in Waco, TX on 25 June. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:45 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge 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. Audio from the QSO is planned to be fed into the EchoLink *AMSAT* (101 377) and *JK1ZRW* (277 208) servers during the contact.

Topics in this report: 1. Upcoming School Contacts 2. Astronaut Training Status 3. ARRL QST Articles on ARISS Activities 4. CQ VHF Article on SuitSat-2 5. AMSAT Videos Available 1. Upcoming School Contacts An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled with Robinson Elementary School in Robinson, Texas on Wednesday, June 25 at 15:45 UTC via telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. This is the first ARISS contact to be held with astronaut Greg Chamitoff, KD5PKZ. Approximately 300 second and third graders are enrolled at the school. Round Rock Texas Scout Pack #304/Blackland Prairie Elementary School in Round Rock, Texas has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, June 30 at 18:06 UTC. This event will introduce scouts to the concepts required for their radio merit badges, giving them a practical example of amateur radio in action. It will also provide an activity for the scientist badge. The entire Pack (50-60 boys of various ranks) will be involved, as well as select Blackland Prairie Elementary School staff and students. Pack 304 will participate in a contest to determine the best questions to ask the astronaut. Media (newspaper, radio, television) coverage is planned and the governor will be invited to the event.

NASA astronaut Gregory Chamitoff is settling into life aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and gearing up for the long orbital haul.

Chamitoff, 45, is newest member of the station's three-man Expedition 17 crew, where he'll serve the dual role of flight engineer and NASA's science officer for the next six months of his long-duration spaceflight.

"It's amazing to be up here, but what makes it meaningful are our family and friends back there," Chamitoff said of Earth this week in a televised interview.

A native of Montreal, Canada, Chamitoff is a planetary geologist and engineer by training and grew up in San Jose, Calif. He is married and father to three-year-old fraternal twins, and is making his first career spaceflight on Expedition 17.

Over 100 space shuttles will land this November at the Kennedy Space Center, though NASA can take credit for only one. The additional orbiters will be courtesy the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which on Thursday formally announced the "Shuttles Orbiting the Space Coast" program, a public art exhibit organized to celebrate the first half-century of U.S. space exploration.

"It's appropriate to celebrate NASA's 50th anniversary by showcasing its longest running manned space vehicle â€" the space shuttle," said Linn LeBlanc, the Foundation's Executive Director, in an e-mail to collectSPACE.com. "There were discussions with several of our astronaut members, if the vehicle should be shown in flight or fully-stacked, but it was unanimously decided to show the orbiter in all its glory â€" in flight!"

Two space tourism firms hoping to give fare-paying customers the rides of their lives are set to take some major steps forward in coming months.

On July 28, the suborbital tourism firm Virgin Galactic will unveil the first WhiteKnightTwo mothership for its planned fleet of SpaceShipTwo spaceliners designed by aerospace veteran Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites. Meanwhile, the Virginia-based company Space Adventures is preparing to launch its sixth paying customer on a $30 million trek to the International Space Station on Oct.12, with two more orbital hopefuls already waiting in the wings.