An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants from the Los Padres Council Troop 105, Santa Barbara, CA on 19 August. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 1538 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between stations NA1SS and K6TZ. The contact should be audible over western North America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

Troop 105 is based in Goleta, California. We were founded in 1967 and have provided the scouting experience to our boys for over 40 years. We belong to the South Coast District of the Los Padres Council. Our monthly program includes weekly meetings and monthly outings. We participate in the annual district Camporee and attend a week long summer camp. We also perform service for our community and our sponsor, St. Raphael Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus.

The Expedition 17 crew members packed discards into the ISS Progress 29, serviced spacesuits and worked with science experiments aboard the International Space Station Thursday.

The crew continued to load the unpiloted Progress cargo ship. It is scheduled to undock from the station on Sept. 2, then be deorbited to burn in the Earth's atmosphere.

Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff did routine servicing of a U.S. spacesuit's umbilical and cooling loops. He also reviewed procedures and set up equipment for Friday's scheduled checkout of the Kibo laboratory's robotic arms.

Throughout the day, crew members set up and worked with various science experiments. They also did their daily physical exercise to counteract effects of long-term weightlessness in space.

Astronaut Greg Chamitoff, aboard the International Space Station 220 miles above Earth, is ready to take your questions. Here's your chance to hear direct from space. Chamitoff's schedule will not allow him to answer many questions, but he will attempt to answer a few each week. To submit your question, post it as a comment below. Please include your name, age and location. Questions will be transmitted to Greg from Mission Control each week and his answers to a few of them will be available here.

Many past shuttle and station crews have answered questions from the web. You can take a look at those archives at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/feedback/expert/index.html.