Hello, finally the great day is arrived. On November 9 at 10:28 UTC the students of Istituto Comprensivo F. Negri of Casale Monferrato, north west of Italy will talk with Bill McArthur, the ISS Commander.
The preparation of the contact started on May 2004 with several meetings at the school with a total of 300 students.

Nov. 9 - 17:45 UTC:
Furtherwick Park School - Canvey Island
UK

and

Nov. 9 - 10:28 UTC:
Istituto Comprensivo F. Negri
Casale Monferrato - Italy

From AMSAT Sarex reflector:
Bill McArthur was active on voice during the 2012 UTC pass over Europe on Nov 3. He worked a couple of stations in the UK and one in Italy. He commented thiswas his first chance to work Europe. Earlier that day, McArthur spoke with students in Japan and answered 19
questions. This makes the 200th successful ARISS
school contact since the program began in Dec 2000. The crew has been and continues to be busy preparing for a spacewalk that is schedule for Nov. 7.
Kenneth - N5VHO

Hello All,

I just heard Bill Mc Athur calling CQ on Europe (03-11-2005).
Congrats to: M0DTS and IZ7EVR.
I was not good prepared for voice operation this pass so I did not make a contact.
You can hear my recording on
http://pd0rkc.ontwikkel.nl/ISSAUDIO/iss031105.mp3

To all: DO NOT FORGET TO POST VOICE REPORTS!!!

73's Cor PD0RKC
http://www.flaps40.net/pd0rkc

Hello All,

Today I've received an big envelope from the European Space Agency ESA.
I've opened the envelope and I saw a nice gift from astronaut Andre Kuipers!.
Andre Kuipers was our dutch astronaut at crew 9 ISS mission!
Inside the envelope:
--------------------------------------------
Mission Delta DVD (wow!!!!).
Picture of Andre Kuipers (with autograph).
Small ESA card.
A 125 pages book about Andre's ISS mission.
-------------------------------------------

Members of the 12th station crew, Commander and NASA Science Officer Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, are scheduled to install a new camera assembly during the Nov. 7 spacewalk, beginning about 9:30 a.m. EST. They also will remove and jettison the Floating Potential Probe. McArthur is designated EV1 (for Extravehicular Activity) and will wear the spacesuit with red stripes. Tokarev, EV2, will be in the all-white suit.

http://www.amsat.org

The next International Space Station Expedition 12 ARISS school contact will be with students at the Kawachi Citizen's Committee for youths, Japan, on Thursday, 3 November 2005. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 07:44 UTC.

Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev this week checked the clothes, tools and plans they will use for a five and half-hour spacewalk set for Nov. 7.

McArthur and Tokarev will mark five years of continuous human presence on the International Space Station Nov. 2. They are the 12th station crew. The first station crew, Commander Bill Shepherd, Flight Engineers Sergei Krikalev and Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, arrived at the fledgling complex Nov. 2, 2000. The size of an efficiency apartment at that time, the station has grown to a volume larger than the average three-bedroom house with the most sophisticated laboratory ever to fly in space.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

I just read this and thought i would post it for all to read..

Saturday (10/29) was a special day for Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev: it's his birthday. [The Russian Air Force Colonel was born on October 29, 1952, in Kap-Yar in the Astrakhan Province in Russia. He is married, with two children, a daughter and a son.]

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18496

Five NASA astronauts held a reunion of sorts in Houston, Texas Thursday to celebrate the upcoming birthday of a rather bulky five-year-old to be: the International Space Station (ISS) currently orbiting Earth.

http://space.com/missionlaunches/051027_iss_5yr_astronauts.html