Arizona Kids and teens are set to blast their local libraries into orbit after completing Outer Space Base, a library series of space science programs in Tucson. Nine- to thirteen-year-olds will participate in a live educational downlink with Expedition 17 astronaut Greg Chamitoff aboard the International Space Station on Friday, Aug. 15, from 1:10 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. CDT.

The Pima County Public Library is the first public library system to host a space station downlink. The downlink also will be a first for the State of Arizona.

Outer Space Base programs are the product of a partnership between the library, NASA, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the Mars Education Program at Arizona State University, in Phoenix.

Some new high-tech gear slated for launch this year will prepare the International Space Station (ISS) to permanently double its current three-astronaut population.

A new toilet, a pair of astronaut bedrooms and a handy new system that recycles urine into pure, drinkable water are on the docket for a fall shuttle flight to the space station, where they'll be tested before the outpost can scale up to six-person crews next year.

"Our biggest question right now is getting our life support systems working so we have enough for six-person crew," said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who will launch to the station in October to command the Expedition 18 crew that will oversee the new equipment's installation. "Right now, we're running kind of a water deficit and it's being supplemented by the shuttle."

The countdown to the lighting of the cauldron and the fireworks that followed its ignition were not the only rocket-related allusions that led to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Space explorers from at least three nations took part in carrying the torch to the Beijing National Stadium in China while the son of a U.S. astronaut prepared to compete as one of the athletes.

The flame's relay, which began in March from Greece, traveled longer than any previous torch -- over 85,000 miles (137,000 km), the equivalent of more than three orbits around the Earth's equator, visiting 130 cities in 130 days.