An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), Washington, DC, USA on 03 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 16:10 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and NN1SS in Maryland. The contact should be audible over most of the Eastern USA. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Audio from the QSO is planned to be fed into the EchoLink *AMSAT* (101 377) and *JK1ZRW* (277 208) servers and the IRLP 9010 reflector during the contact.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson of Iowa, who returned to Earth April 19 after approximately six months on the International Space Station, will be available for satellite interviews from 6 to 8 a.m. CDT on Friday, May 2.

Whitson, the first female commander of the space station, has accumulated more time in orbit than any U.S. astronaut in history. She launched to the complex on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Oct. 10, 2007, spending 192 days in space. Whitson previously spent 185 days in space after serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 5, which launched June 5, 2002, and returned to Earth Dec. 7. She conducted five spacewalks on her recent mission and one on her previous flight, totaling 39 hours and 46 minutes of spacewalking time, more than any other female.

1. Upcoming School Contacts The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C. has been approved for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Saturday, May 3 at 15:52 UTC via the telebridge station NN1SS in Greenbelt. This year Space Day will celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASA and NASA's achievements through space exploration. Youth, ages 12 -18, will participate. The Washington Post, the NASM Web site and NASM e-news will report on the contact. The event is open to the public and thousands are expected to attend. The audio from this contact is expected to be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) Conference Room servers and the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo supply ship has successfully raised the International Space Station into a higher orbit in the first of four re-boost maneuvers scheduled between now and August, its manufacturer and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Friday.

Using two of its four main engines, the ATV Jules Verne pushed the 308-ton orbital complex for a period of 12.5 minutes, increasing its speed by just over 8 feet (2.65 meters) per second and raising its altitude by 2.8 miles (4.6 km). The ATV consumed 537 pounds (244 kg) of its fuel in performing the task.

The space shuttle Discovery moved a step closer to launch early Saturday as NASA engineers hauled the spacecraft into a massive hangar to join its fuel tank and twin rocket boosters.

Discovery made the short morning move from its processing building to the cavernous, 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to prepare for its planned May 31 launch.

The shuttle's seven-astronaut crew, commanded by veteran spaceflyer Mark Kelly, will deliver Kibo - a massive Japanese laboratory the size of a tour bus - to the International Space Station during a planned 13-day mission.

Astronauts flying on a space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope for a final time will speak to middle school students across America simultaneously at 1:15 p.m. EDT, April 30, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Through NASA's Digital Learning Network (DLN), students at five middle schools and an invited student audience at Goddard will talk to the shuttle crew. Topics of discussion will include details about the upcoming STS-125 mission to service Hubble. Astronauts also will discuss career diversity among the crew. Each has a doctorate degree in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics discipline.

The Expedition 17 crew members are busy with science and preparations for the arrival of future spacecraft at the International Space Station.

Commander Sergei Volkov spent Thursday morning photographing the docking cone on the Zarya module in preparation for the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft relocation May 6.

Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman continued working with Coarsening in Solid Liquid Mixtures-2, an experiment which examines the kinetics of competitive particle growth within a liquid metal matrix.

Early Friday, the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle's main engines will fire for 12 minutes, 15 seconds to complete the two-part reboost of the station. Ignition is scheduled for 12:22 a.m. EDT.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery is being readied for its STS-124 mission, currently targeted for launch May 31.

Inside the orbiter processing facility, shuttle workers are preparing for the orbiter's April 26 move to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be joined with its external tank and solid rocket boosters. Rollout of the entire space shuttle assembly to Launch Pad 39A is set for May 3.

STS-124 is the second of three flights to deliver the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station. At 37 feet long and 14 feet wide, the Japanese Pressurized Module will be the station's largest science laboratory. The shuttle also will deliver the lab's robotic arm system that supports operations outside of Kibo. The lab's logistics module, which was installed in a temporary location during STS-123 in March, will be attached to the new lab.

1. Upcoming School Contacts Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Florida has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, April 21 at 17:48 UTC via the telebridge station W6SRJ in Santa Rosa, California. Arnold Palmer is one of 8 hospitals under the Orlando Regional Healthcare umbrella and addresses the unique medical needs of children in the Central Florida area. The children who participate in this contact will be patients at the hospital. It will be an exciting surprise and enriching experience that will make their hospital stay a memorable event. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) Conference Room servers and the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, returned to Earth at approximately 4:30 a.m. EDT Saturday, ending a mission during which she conducted five spacewalks and set a new record in American spaceflight.

Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, members of the 16th crew to live and work aboard the station, safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi also returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz. The landing was approximately 295 miles from the expected landing site, delaying the recovery forces' arrival to the spacecraft by approximately 45 minutes.