ISS Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK (center), and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT (right), this week passed a milestone of sorts, logging their 100th day in space on December 26. The newest addition to the crew, Flight Engineer Suni Williams, KD5PLB (left), meanwhile has been familiarizing herself with the space station and adapting to life onboard. [img]http://www.arrl.org/news/crawlies/10418/thumb.jpg[/img]

HOUSTON - The three residents of the International Space Station spent a busy week unpacking, inventorying and stowing more than two tons of equipment and supplies left by the Space Shuttle Discovery.

The week began with Christmas, a day off for the crew except for required maintenance and exercise. Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Sunita Williams were back on their regular schedule Tuesday, waking at midnight CST and going to bed at 3:30 p.m.

http://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/msg00244.html

Special event station VI3JAM will take to the air January 2-13 from the 21st Scouts Australia Jamboree. Part of the World Scouting centenary activities, VI3JAM is aimed at stimulating interest in Amateur Radio among attending scouts. One Jamboree highlight is a planned Amateur Radio contact with astronaut Suni Williams, KD5PLB, on the International Space Station. The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA), Amateur Radio Victoria (ARV) and Icom Australia are the sponsors. Icom Australia has supplied a two-building ham radio shack with HF, VHF and UHF equipment. Held every three years, the Jamboree is expected to attract 13,000 attendees.

ISS014-E-08323 -- The Expedition 14 crew members share a meal Image above: Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria (left) and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin share a meal at the galley in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA - TO VIEW PICTURE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

To continue studying the impact of countermeasures to the effects of living in space, Flight Engineer Sunita Williams unstowed and set up the blood and urine collection hardware. Her samples will be used to better understand the impact of countermeasures such as exercise and pharmaceuticals on nutritional status and nutrient requirements.

The STS-116 crew closed Space Shuttle Discovery's payload bay doors
about 12:13 p.m. EST in preparation for a 3:56 p.m. landing at Kennedy
Space Center, Fla.

If flight controllers elect to take this landing opportunity, Commander
Mark Polansky will fire Discovery's jets to begin the descent to Kennedy
at 2:49 p.m.

All three landing sites have been activated today due to forecasts of
questionable weather at Kennedy and Edwards Air Force Base in
California. The forecast for the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico
is favorable.

http://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sare

MEPSI Deploy Video available here: http://www.aj3u.com/mepsi.php

RAFT Deploy Video available here: http://www.aj3u.com/raft.php

A.J. Farmer, AJ3U

STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialist Nicholas Patrick used the shuttle's robotic arm and boom extension sensor system to check the heat shield for any space junk or micrometeoroid hits that may have occurred while the orbiter was docked to the International Space Station.

Mission Specialists Bob Curbeam, Christer Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter are stowing items in preparation for the return to Earth. Discovery is slated to touch down at 3:56 p.m. EST Friday.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

The RAFT and ANDE satellites are due to be launched from Shuttle Discovery after it undocks from the ISS. Like PCSAT and PCSAT-2, they will be transmitting telemetry and digipeating APRS packets on 145.825. We are in need of stations around the world to receive this telemetry and gate it to the APRS-IS.

You do not need a complex station to help out! A 2-meter receiver and omni-directional antenna will work just fine. If we have many stations with omni antennas that participate, it will be just as effective as a smaller number of stations that have full tracking antennas. When you are away from your home 2M station, put it to good use by setting it to 145.825 and gate the packets heard to the APRS-IS using software such as UI-View32 http://www.ui-view.org. You can also use ALogger which was designed for this purpose. You can download ALogger here: http://www.billdiaz.dynip.com/Alogger204.zip

The first Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school contact in Swedish delighted both students and onlookers this past weekend. European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang, SA0AFS/KE5CGR, chatted in his native tongue Sunday, December 17, with youngsters at Thunman School in Knivsta, Sweden. ARISS-Europe Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, said everyone enjoyed hearing the Swedish language from space.

Complete story at arrl.org

We ask that ALL radio amateurs (except for command stations) refrain from any transmissions until after the spacecraft have been opened for general use. There are many stations involved in the checkout, so wait until you see specific authorization for general use before using the digipeater. If all goes well in a few days, we hope to open the satellites up for general use in accordance with the User Service Agreement. See: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande/ANDEcontract.txt The success of these digipeaters is protocol driven and depends on user adherence to published operating parameters. Please check the User Service Agreement before operating and periodically throughout the short life of these satellites.