The Expedition 15 crew members are busy with science, station maintenance, preparations for their return to Earth and the arrival of the next crew to the International Space Station.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov worked Monday with a medical experiment that tests the cardiovascular system by applying negative pressure on the lower body to simulate the effects of gravity.

Flight Engineer Clay Anderson collected samples of the station's potable water. These samples are for a periodic check of the water for microbial or chemical contamination.

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NASA has assigned the space shuttle crew for Endeavour's STS-126 mission, targeted for launch in September 2008. The flight will deliver equipment to the International Space Station that will enable larger crews to reside aboard the complex.

Veteran space flier Navy Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson will command Endeavour. Air Force Lt. Col. Eric A. Boe will serve as the pilot. The mission specialists are Navy Cmdr. Stephen G. Bowen, NASA astronaut Joan E. Higginbotham, Army Lt. Col. Robert S. Kimbrough and Navy Capt. Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper. Boe, Bowen and Kimbrough will be making their first spaceflight.

On October 4, 1957, shortly after midnight local time, the treeless steppe near Tyura-Tam in central Kazakhstan lit up as the rocket motors of a converted ICBM pushed its way into the night sky. After 324.5 seconds of flight, a compressed air release mechanism separated a small payload from the rocket booster sending it on an elliptical path around our planet. This was the dawn of the space age. The former Soviet Union had successfully placed the first man-made object into orbit. Sputnik I, as the world came to know the first artificial earth satellite, was not only an important scientific and technical achievement but also an important historical milestone that marked the beginning of human space exploration and shaped many social and political events over the remainder of the 20th century.

WASHINGTON - Starting Oct. 1, NASA Television and the agency's Internet homepage will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Space Age, which began with the launch of Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957.

NASA TV news feeds and a special interactive web presentation on www.nasa.gov will feature interview excerpts with former astronauts, engineers, scientists, flight directors and other NASA employees who offer historical perspectives on the Sputnik launch. Also provided will be file footage of Explorer I, the first satellite launched by the United States on Jan. 31, 1958, 3-D spacecraft models, and the subsequent announcement by NASA's first administrator T. Keith Glennan on the establishment of the agency on Oct. 1, 1958.

The Expedition 15 crew members enjoyed a light-duty day Friday aboard the International Space Station after a busy week culminating in the relocation of their Soyuz spacecraft on Thursday.

The Zarya module's starboard solar array wing was retracted Friday morning, with the retraction of the port solar array planned for Saturday. The Zarya arrays must be completely retracted to avoid contact with the station's radiators. The starboard radiators will be deployed during STS-120 space shuttle mission in October, followed by the port radiators after the shuttle departs.

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International Space Station crew members docked their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft to the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 3:47 p.m. EDT Thursday, completing a move of 80 feet.

After the Soyuz undocked at 3:20 p.m. EDT, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov piloted the spacecraft to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, freeing up the Zarya nadir, or Earth-facing, port for the arrival of Expedition 16 on Oct. 12.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Saturday, Sept. 29, as preparations for the STS-120 mission move forward. Discovery is targeted to lift off Oct. 23 on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station.

The first motion of the shuttle out of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building is planned at 8 p.m. EDT. The 3.4-mile journey to the launch pad is expected to take about six hours.

NASA Television will provide a live picture of Discovery at the launch pad beginning at 7 a.m. Sunday. Video highlights of the rollout will air on NASA TV's Video File segments.

In the predawn hours this morning, the payload canister for mission STS-120 arrived at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The Italian-built U.S. Harmony module destined for the International Space Center will be transferred to Discovery's payload bay once the space shuttle reaches the pad.

Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, Discovery's processing continues. Earlier in the week, the orbiter was attached to the external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters atop the mobile launch platform.

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DALLAS -- Richard Garriott is perhaps best known as the legendary designer of video games like "Ultima" and the upcoming "Tabula Rasa." But growing up as the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott meant he had always wanted to go beyond games and follow in his father's footsteps.

Garriott will finally get his chance next year. On Friday, Space Adventures Ltd. announced that Garriott would be paying $30 million of his own money for a mission to the international space station in October 2008.

"My dad was an astronaut so I grew up believing that space was going to be available for everyone at some point in the future," Garriott said from Austin in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "But I realized that the NASA method was a statistical improbability. If I was going to get a chance to go myself, it would have to be through private space travel."

An International Space Station Expedition 15 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC., USA on 29 Sep. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 16:28 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and WH6PN. The contact should be audible in Hawaii. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. In addition, the audio should be available via IRLP and EchoLink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. This ARISS contact is part of the family day events Commemorating 50 Years in Space. This event is made possible by the generous support of the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences.