Dextre was in the spotlight Monday aboard the International Space Station.

For the first time since the station's Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator was assembled and activated during STS-123 in March, controllers on the ground began a comprehensive series of tests on the Canadian-built robotic system, also known as Dextre. Controllers tested one of the system's shoulder roll joints Monday.

Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov worked to replace an electronics box used to power the orientation of the solar arrays on the Zvezda Service Module.

In the complex's Russian Segment, Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko performed maintenance on the purification system in the Elektron oxygen generator.

Heard on 31st July 2008 on a colinear into an FT-847. Doppler wasn't a problem to resolve and peaked about +10dB over 9. Nice contact and the first time I've heard the ISS

Audio File: 

ISS310708.mp3

Topics in this report
1. Upcoming School Contacts
2. United Space School Contact Successful
3. ARISS Meetings Held
4. NASA Posts ARISS Article to Web Site

1. Upcoming School Contacts
Two simulated Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts are scheduled for Tuesday, August 5 with U.S. deployed soldier dependents visiting Euro Space Camp (ESC) in Belgium. These training sessions are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using ARISS-equivalent equipment. There will be EchoLink and IRLP coverage of both contacts.

• The first simulated contact is scheduled with Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA, at approximately 14:20 UTC.

America's next space tourist and a new space station crew are gearing up for an October launch to the International Space Station (ISS).

Computer game developer Richard Garriott, along with U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov are slated to launch Oct. 12 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport.

Garriott, the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew aboard the U.S. Skylab station and a U.S. shuttle, is set to become the first second-generation U.S. spaceflyer. He is flying under a $30 million deal brokered with Russia's Federal Space Agency by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures to visit the ISS for about a week.