An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Vrij Technisch Instituut Sint-Lucas, Oudenaarde, Oost - Vlaanderen, Belgium,on 22 Sep. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 13:47 UTC.The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and ON4OB. The contact should be audible over eastern Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in Dutch.

Oudenaarde is situated 45km (30miles) west of Brussels and has about 30.000 inhabitants. It is situated in the heart of the Flemish Ardennes, with gently rolling hills and countryside, loved by walkers and cyclists alike.

Topics in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contacts
2. Liberty Middle School - ARISS Contact Successful
3. ARISS Contact Held During Belgian Space Week
4. Delta Researchers Schools Experience ARISS Contact
5. Astronaut Training Status
6. AMSAT Symposium, ARISS Ops Meeting

1. Upcoming School Contacts
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled for Vrij Technisch Instituut Sint-Lucas in Oudenaarde, Oost - Vlaanderen, Belgium on Tuesday, September 22 at 13:47 UTC. Students have learned about Earth rotation, orbit speed, time zones, satellites, weather forecasts and geostationary versus polar satellites. The antennas which will be used for the contact as well as a UPS device have been constructed by the students themselves.

The Expedition 20 crew opened the hatches to the newly arrived Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) Friday at 2:23 p.m. EDT. The crew entered the pressurized section of the HTV to begin cargo transfers to the station. After the HTV is empty they will fill it with trash. Cargo from the unpressurized section will be transferred using both the Canadarm2 and Japan's external robotic arm attached to the Kibo laboratory.

After chasing the International Space Station for seven days the HTV was grappled with the Canadarm2 and berthed to the station's Harmony Node on Thursday at 6:26 p.m. The station's newest crew member, Nicole Stott, along with Flight Engineers Robert Thirsk and Frank de Winne, operated the Canadarm2 flawlessly as the HTV floated just 30 feet away from the station.

NASA Television will air the launch of the next two residents of the International Space Station, a spaceflight participant and the return of two members of the current station crew. Coverage begins with a broadcast of prelaunch activities Sept. 17 and continues through the landing on Oct. 11.

Soyuz Commander Max Suraev, NASA Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte are scheduled to launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:14 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Laliberte, a Canadian citizen and founder of Cirque du Soleil, will fly to the station under an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

NASA will preview the next space shuttle mission during a series of news briefings on Friday, Oct. 16, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will broadcast the briefings live. Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations.

Shuttle Atlantis' 11-day mission, designated STS-129, is targeted to launch Nov. 12. The flight will include three spacewalks and the installation of two platforms to the International Space Station's truss, or backbone. The platforms will hold spare hardware to sustain station operations after the shuttle is retired. Atlantis also will return NASA astronaut Nicole Stott after spending more than two months aboard the orbiting laboratory. This is slated to be the final time a station crew member will be returned home on a space shuttle flight.

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Delta Researchers Schools, Dutch Ministry of Education from Space Expo, Noordwijk, The Netherlands on 18 Sep. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:55 UTC.
The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and VK4KHZ. The contact should be audible over portions of Australia. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in Dutch.

This is a regular ARISS contact arranged for Delta Researcher Schools every year as part of the commitment to DRS that ESA has entered into during the time of Andre Kuipers Delta Mission to the ISS. This agreement was made between The Ministry of Education in the Netherlands, ESA and NASA in 2004.

[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/160328main_iss020e039751.jpg[/img] Image above: Flight Engineer Nicole Stott uses a vacuum cleaner in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA The Expedition 20 crew of the International Space Station stepped up preparations Tuesday for the rendezvous and berthing of an unpiloted Japanese cargo craft. Flight Engineers Nicole Stott, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne conducted a final session of robotic arm training to prepare for the grapple of the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), which is slated for Thursday at 3:50 p.m. EDT. The crew will berth the HTV to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node using Canadarm2.

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Euro Space Center, Transinne, Belgium on 16 Sep. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 07:12 UTC.
The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over the west coast of the U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in Dutch.

An International Space Station ARISS contact has been planned with 10 to 14 year students at the Euro Space Center,Transinne, Belgium on 16 September 2009. Approximately 500 youngsters from different schools in the French part of Belgium come together with astronauts, cosmonauts and a taikonaut who participate in the "Belgian Space Week 2009" from 14 to 18 September.

WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting eligible educational institutions, museums and other organizations to begin registering to screen potential space shuttle artifacts.

The artifacts represent significant human spaceflight technologies, processes and accomplishments of the shuttle program. More information about the types of artifacts that may be available is included in a brochure, "Space Shuttle Program Artifacts," located at: http://www.nasa.gov/transition

To ensure broad access to potential shuttle artifacts, NASA partnered with the General Services Administration to provide a first of its kind, Web-based electronic artifacts prescreening capability. The Web-based artifacts prescreening module may be accessed at: http://gsaxcess.gov/NASAWel.htm

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Liberty Middle School, Camas, Washington on 15 Sep. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 20:26 UTC.
The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and ON4ISS. The contact should be audible over portions of western Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

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