An International Space Station Expedition 18 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the Oregon City Schools, Fassett Middle School, Oregon, Ohio on 23 February. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 1435 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between stations NA1SS and KB9UPS. The contact should be audible over most of eastern N. America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

Fassett Middle School, located in Oregon, Ohio started with the first school year in the fall of 1960. It was named after Miss Josephine Fassett, who was an outstanding figure in guiding the Oregon school system from the days of the one-room schoolhouse through an expansion program which led to the existing superior educational facilities. The school started as a 7-9 building, then to a 7-8 building, and currently a 6-8 middle school. Currently there are 473 students at Oregon. Oregon has two middle schools that lead into its high school, Clay. The school is in the effective category, determined by the state and continually making more progress toward the excellent category. Some teachers teach solely their subject, and some teachers teach up to three preps.

NASA wants your opinion in naming the International Space Station's Node 3 - a connecting module and its cupola - before the two segments travel to space and are installed on the orbiting laboratory. The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity- and Node 2- Harmony.

Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the Node 3 components during the STS-130 mission targeted for December 2009. Once the cupola is attached to one of the module's six ports, it will offer astronauts a spectacular view of both their home planet and their home in space. The cupola's six rectangular windows and one circular window overhead will show a panoramic view that will be unrivaled by any other spacecraft ever flown. Aside from providing a perfect location to observe and photograph the Earth, the cupola also will contain a robotics workstation, where astronauts will be able to control the station's giant robotic arm.

An International Space Station Expedition 18 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at Erie Planetarium, Erie, PA USA on 21 February. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 1820 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over western N. America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Audio from the contact should also be available via the AMSAT conference on EchoLink and via the 9010 Discovery reflector on IRLP. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.