The Expedition 28 and STS-135 crew members continued their focus on cargo transfers Thursday aboard the International Space Station. They also had time for news media interviews, exercise and some welcome off-duty time.

Unloading of the multi-purpose logistics module Raffaello’s 9,400 pounds of cargo was well over half complete. Transfer of its remaining cargo to the station was expected to be finished Friday or Saturday.

A statue has been unveiled in London to celebrate the first spaceman-Yuri Gagarin.
The figure,which has been placed just off the mall next to admiralty arch,features the cosmonaut in his flight suit and standing on a globe.
Gagarin shook the world when it was announced on the 12th april 1961 that he had circled the earth in a spacecraft.
A host of dignitaries were present for the unveiling,including the cosmonaut's daughter Elena Gagarina.

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:41:08 AM CDT

Expedition 28 spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan are using the new In Suit Light Exercise (ISLE) protocol to prepare for today’s excursion, a technique first used on shuttle mission STS-134. Rather than “camping out” in the Quest Airlock at low air pressure last night, the pair waited until this morning to breathe pure oxygen through air masks for an hour as the air pressure inside Quest is lowered to 10.2 pounds per square inch.

After many delays due to weather, the Space Ship Atlantis launched Friday morning. It's going to be the final flight in the space shuttle program. The moment was a difficult one for many linked to the program, but concluding this section will open new ones in NASA's exploration of the cosmos. Source for this article - Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on its final mission by Newsytype.com.

A lot of delays

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:51:41 AM CDT

Piloting the Canadarm2 from the robotic workstation in the International Space Station’s cupola, astronauts Doug Hurley and Sandy Magnus grabbed the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module at 5:16 a.m. EDT. They lifted it out of shuttle Atlantis’ cargo bay at 5:47 a.m. and installed it on the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony node at 6:46 a.m.

Topics in this report:
1. Upcoming School Contact
2. Japanese Contact Successful
3. AMSAT Covers ARISSat-1
4. Status of ARISS U.S. Proposal Process

1. Upcoming School Contact

Wednesday 6th July, five astronauts from the last Dicovery mission STS 133 and Professor Brian Cox gave a lecture to school children in the Isle of Man.

This was streamed live online at the time, and has now been put up on YouTube, link below:-

http://www.youtube.com/user/wimanxIOM

Regards

Matty

MD0MAN

From the press office of Roscosmos:

Alexander Samokutiaev, flight engineer of the International Space Station’s expedition 28, informed about the planning for the upcoming Russian EVA in his blog in Roscosmos web.

According to Russian cosmonaut, the EVA is slated for August, pending the launch of the shuttle scheduled for July 8.

Alexander will work outside the ISS with his colleague Sergey Volkov. The cosmonauts are to perform several ISS RS refurbishing tasks, as well as to launch small satellite Kedr.

The International Space Station’s orbit was raised Friday after the docked ISS Progress 43 cargo craft fired its engines for 30 minutes. The reboost was the second of two this week and places the station at the correct altitude for space shuttle Atlantis’ scheduled docking on July 10. The shuttle program’s final mission, STS-135, is officially set for launch on July 8 at 11:26 a.m. EDT.

Topics in this report
1. Upcoming School Contact
2. Japanese Contact Successful
3. ARISS International Team Teleconference Held
4. News of U.S. ARISS Proposal Process Distributed
5. Astronaut Training Status
6. ARISS Items in ARRL Letter
7. AMSAT Covers ARISS Proposal

1. Upcoming School Contact