With the successful landing of the space shuttle Endeavour Sunday night, the International Space Station is on the verge of completion after $100 billion and 11 years of construction. NASA plans just four more missions to wrap up its few remaining station deliveries.

For Endeavour, in particular, Sunday's shuttle landing marked the beginning of the end. The spacecraft is the youngest of NASA's three aging space shuttles and engineers quickly began working to prepare it to launch one final spaceflight in July.

"We'll go into that with our heads held high," shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach said after the landing. "It's a little bit [of a] sad note, but a great ending to a great mission and we're looking forward to the next one."

Topocs in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contact
2. ARISS International Team Meeting Held
3. ARISS News on Amateur Radio Newsline
4. ARISSat-1 Meeting Held

1. Upcoming School Contact
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled with Doncaster Primary School in Doncaster, Victoria, Australia on Thursday, February 25 at 08:23 UTC. Astronaut Timothy Creamer, KC5WKI will make the connection through telebridge ground station VK4KHZ in Australia. The contact has been integrated into school subjects such as physics, space, geography and English.

The hatches between space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station were closed at 3:08 a.m. EST Friday. During 9 days, 52 minutes of joint operations, the station got a new module and a viewport offering a valuable, enjoyable vantage.

Hatch closure came after a farewell ceremony by the two crews. Endeavour Commander George Zamka, Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken said their goodbyes in the Harmony module to Station Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineers Maxim Suraev, Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer.

[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/160328main_021710_iss.jpg[/img] Image above: Aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition 22 crew, dressed in blue shirts, and the STS-130 crew talk with President Barack Obama. Image credit: NASA TV All 11 astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Endeavour received a congratulatory phone call from President Barack Obama Wednesday. The president was accompanied at the White House by congressional leaders and a dozen middle school students from across the country who are in Washington, D.C. for a national engineering competition.

Topics in this report:
1. Astronaut Training Status
2. ARRL QST Covers ARISS News
3. ARISSat-1 Meeting to be Held

1. Astronaut Training Status
Astronaut Ron Garan participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program training session and plans to study for his amateur radio license. He is scheduled to fly with the Expedition 27 crew in March 2011.

Expedition 23 cosmonauts, both prime and backup crew members, received training on the ARISS radio equipment. See: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss23/photo_02-09.html

2. ARRL QST Covers ARISS News
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) published an ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) news item in its March 2010 issue of QST. Under "This Just In" is an item about the record number of ARISS educational activities coordinated in 2009. The ARRL monthly journal has a circulation of 150,000.

Astronauts moved an old docking port to a new spot on the International Space Station late Monday in the second straight day of tricky crane work 220 miles above Earth.

The astronauts used the station's 57-foot (17-meter) robotic arm to attach the old docking adapter, a cone-shaped connecting piece, from the top of the orbiting lab to the outboard end of its newest room Tranquility.

The crane work ended at 9:28 p.m. EST (0228 Tuesday GMT) and came one day after a new observation deck was plucked from the end of the Tranquility module and attached to a bottom port, where its seven windows are expected to give astronauts unprecedented views of Earth and space.

Endeavour shuttle astronauts Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick are back inside the International Space Station after successfully completing all their planned chores for their first spacewalk to deliver the outpost's new Tranquility node and Cupola. They completed their work at 3:49 a.m. EST (0849 GMT).

Total spacewalking time: 6 hours, 32 minutes.

It was the first spacewalk for Patrick and fourth for Behnken, who ended with more than 25 hours of cumulative time working in space. Together, the two astronauts helped install Tranquility (crewmates Terry Virts and Kathryn Hire used the station's robotic arm to actually move it). They also stored some equipment for a later spacewalk and removed an old tool carrier platform from the station's Dextre maintenance robot.

With broad smiles and hearty hugs, the six Endeavour astronauts received a warm welcome as they entered the International Space Station just after 2:16 a.m. EST (0716 GMT). The two crews joined into one as the station flew 216 miles above the coast of western Australia. The two vehicles docked about two hours earlier.

"We're happy to see our friends," station commander Jeffrey Williams told his guests after they floated aboard. "Some of us are really happy because we haven't seen many people other than the crew for a long time."

The station is currently home to two American astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and a Japanese astronaut. The station astronauts said they had made a special "Welcome" sign for their guests and greeted them with hearty laughs, at times saying "Welcome aboard!" and "It's good to see you!"

Topics in this report:
1. Astronaut T. J. Creamer Enjoys ARISS Contact with Riley Ave. Students
2. Principal has Good Memories of First ARISS Contact
3. ISS Ham Debrief Held with Frank De Winne
4. ARISSat-1 Status Report Posted

1. Astronaut T. J. Creamer Enjoys ARISS Contact with Riley Ave. Students
On Tuesday, February 2, astronaut Timothy Creamer, KC5WKI spoke with Riley Avenue Elementary School students through an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. The Calverton, New York youth spent weeks preparing for the contact, studying space and the solar system during Science and creating rockets and robots in Art class. The Peconic Amateur Radio Club helped coordinate the contact and provided the equipment used. A Riley fourth grader and newly licensed ham acted as the control operator during the contact.

The space shuttle Endeavour lit up the predawn sky above Florida with a false sunrise early Monday as it soared into orbit like a brilliant, artificial star.

Endeavour roared into space at 4:14 a.m. EST (0914 GMT) from a seaside pad here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center after a one-day delay due to low clouds. The launch was expected to be the last time a NASA shuttle blasted off at night.

"Looks like the weather came together tonight. The vehicle is in great shape and it's time to go fly," NASA launch director Mike Leinbach told the crew just before liftoff. "We wish you good luck, Godspeed, and we'll see you back here in about two weeks."