Science was the order of the day Tuesday aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 24 crew catches up on research and experiments put on hold during the weeks recovering from the failure of an ammonia pump module in the complex’s thermal control system on July 31.

Boy and Girl Scouts at Space Jam 4, under the stars in a grass field at the Rantoul IL airport made a direct contact with the ISS via the BSA Crew 272 WB9SA Sat/Comm station Aug. 8th at 4:12 CST. Doug Wheelock talked with the Scouts as the ISS flew overhead. Crew members ran the call and shot video of the contact and the ISS flaring over head.

Videos (part 1 and 2) can be seen at:
http://www.spacejamboree.com/multimedia.php
or on YouTube by searching "crew 272 ISS" as well as past year's ISS contact videos.

Call it "American Idol" in space: NASA has launched a new contest that allows the public to pick – or even create – wake-up songs for astronauts flying on the agency's two final space shuttle missions.

NASA opened its new "Wake-up Song Contest" website Friday to allow the public to choose from a list of 40 previously played songs in the hopes of having it played during the final flight of space shuttle Discovery in November. Voting is going on now here: https://songcontest.nasa.gov/home.aspx

Topics in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contact
2. Da Vinci Science Center Contact was a Success
3. ARRL Article on Boy Scout Jamboree
4. ISS Ham Debrief with JAXA Astronaut
5. ARISS International Team Meeting Held
6. ARISSat-1 Status
7. ARISS News on Amateur Radio Newsline
8. Astronaut Training Status

1. Upcoming School Contact

[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/160328main_iss024e006819.jpg[/img] Image above: Expedition 24 Flight Engineer Shannon Walker is pictured in the orbital module of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft while docked to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA The Expedition 24 crew had another light-duty day Wednesday as the Loop A cooling system reactivation continued aboard the International Space Station. The reactivation followed Monday’s spacewalk, the third in a series of excursions that began Aug. 7 to remove and replace an ammonia coolant pump module that failed July 31.

Topics in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contact
2. QST Covers ARISS
3. ISS Ham Debrief Scheduled

1. Upcoming School Contact

Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:27 a.m. EDT, signaling the start of the second of three spacewalks focused on removing the ammonia pump module that failed July 31 and putting its replacement in place. Today's spacewalk is expected to last about six hours.

This is the fifth spacewalk for Wheelock, who is wearing the suit bearing the red stripes, and the second for Caldwell Dyson, who is wearing the unmarked suit.

Flight controllers and engineers continue meetings to review the results from the first spacewalk conducted Saturday by International Space Station Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson and to plan for the second of what now will be three spacewalks to complete the replacement of a failed pump module on the station's starboard truss.

Flight controllers are revising plans for a second spacewalk Wednesday to replace a coolant pump aboard the International Space Station, adding work to isolate an ammonia leak that should clear the way for installation of a new pump during a third spacewalk Sunday.

A formal decision on whether to proceed with the Wednesday spacewalk is expected after NASA's space station Mission Management Team reviews preparations during a meeting Tuesday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The next spacewalk to complete the removal of a failed ammonia pump module and installation and activation of a new pump module on the International Space Station's S1 Truss will take place no earlier than Wednesday.