[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/160328main_iss022e020764.jpg[/img] Image above: Expedition 22 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov works with spacewalk equipment and Russian Orlan spacesuits in the Pirs docking compartment of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA The five Expedition 22 crew members aboard the International Space Station tackled a busy schedule Tuesday, as they worked with the robotic arm to relocate a stowage platform and donned spacesuits for a thorough checkout. Following the crew's daily planning conference with teams on the ground, Commander Jeff Williams kicked off the workday with a leak check of the Water Processor Assembly, which along with the Urine Processor Assembly makes up the station's advanced recycling system known as the Water Recovery System.

When the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program began coordinating ISS-to-school contacts in 2001, only one school -- Luther Burbank Elementary School in Burbank, Illinois -- participated. Ten years later, more than 120 schools participated in the ARISS program in 2009 alone.

The number of ARISS-coordinated ISS-to-school contacts has climbed dramatically since that first contact in 2000. In 2001, there were 42 contacts, and in 2002, there were 40 contacts. During the first five years of the program -- 2000-2004 -- there was an average of 31.4 QSOs between the ISS and schools. In 2004, ARISS only conducted 35 contacts -- the lowest in its 10 year history -- but in 2005, 55 schools had contacted the ISS through the program. In 2006, there were 47 QSOs, 75 QSOs in 2007 and 62 in 2008. The 121 QSOs in 2009 show a jump of 95 percent over the 2008 numbers -- setting an ARISS record for the number of contacts.

NASA is still hoping to launch the shuttle Endeavour in early February as engineers scramble to repair broken hoses on the new space station module set to ride aboard the orbiter.

Endeavour is slated to launch the new Tranquility module to the International Space Station on Sunday, Feb. 7 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. But two of the module's four ammonia coolant hoses have failed standard pre-launch checks, prompting engineers to come up with a repair plan while others try to build new hoses from scratch, station managers said Monday.

"Folks are working really hard to get the hoses checked out, completed, certified [and] tested," said Pete Hasbrook, NASA manager for the Expedition 22 mission aboard the space station. "We are still working toward the Feb. 7 launch date."