The first American to command five space missions, the first commander of the International Space Station (ISS) and a member of the first repair team to service a satellite on-orbit will be enshrined this May in the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

James Wetherbee, William Shepherd and George "Pinky" Nelson were confirmed on Wednesday by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation as comprising the eighth group of space shuttle astronauts to be named to the Hall. A gala and an induction ceremony will be hosted at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, home to the Hall of Fame, on May 1-2, 2009.

NASA will hold a media briefing Thursday, Jan. 22, at 1 p.m. CST, with the next resident crew of the International Space Station.

The briefing will originate from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions will be taken from reporters at participating NASA locations.

The briefing participants are:
- Expedition 19 Commander and Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka
- Expedition 19 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt
- Expedition 19 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra

On March 25, Padalka, Barratt and U.S. spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi will launch to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Simonyi will return to Earth with Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov April 5 in a Soyuz following a handover period.

A 12-year-old girl from Moscow will see her artwork launch to space in March 2009 as the winner of an international contest to design an insignia for the next cosmonaut crew.

Anna Chibiskova was honored on Monday at a ceremony held at Russia's mission control center outside Moscow, where her painting of a pair of hands supporting the Earth was revealed as the basis for the Soyuz TMA-14 crew's mission patch. Her art will be embroidered and sewn onto the spacesuits that the three cosmonauts will wear during their March 25 launch to the International Space Station.

"Thank you for your attention to the creation of our logo," said Soyuz commander Gennady Padalka before announcing Chibiskova as the winner. "We managed to see the best of more than 150 drawings, each of which is worthy of victory."

NASA TV will air a special New Year's message from International Space Station Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Sandy Magnus beginning on Monday's noon EST Video File (newsfeed).

From their vantage point 220 miles above Earth, the astronauts express their year-end thoughts on the significance of the international outpost and their New Year's wish for the complex in 2009. The crew also shares their wish for peace in the languages of all of the countries represented in the space station partnership.

For the NASA TV downlink, streaming video and scheduling information, visit:

Help Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineers Sandra Magnus and Yury Lonchakov celebrate the holiday season 220 miles above Earth by sending your greetings into space. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/postcard/

As part of NASA's celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station, the agency is providing a special 2009 calendar to teachers and the public.

The calendar contains photographs taken from the space station. It highlights historic NASA milestones and fun facts about this international construction project of unprecedented complexity that began in 1998.

The calendar can be downloaded and printed by visiting:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

"We hope this calendar will inspire the next generation of explorers and provide interesting and challenging information for educators, students and anyone interested in space," said International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "As we near the completion of space station assembly, we are doubling the crew size, increasing our knowledge and operational experience, and continuing our quest of exploration and discovery."

NASA's Kennedy Space Center will provide an opportunity for reporters to see the International Space Station's next element at 10 a.m. EST, Thursday, Dec. 18. The S6 truss segment, with its set of large U.S. solar arrays, will be attached to the starboard, or right, side of the station during space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission. STS-119 is targeted to launch Feb. 12, 2009.

NASA and Boeing mission managers involved in processing the element for flight will be available for a question-and-answer session during the event. Media representatives planning to attend must arrive at Kennedy's news center by 9:30 a.m. for transportation to the Space Station Processing Facility. The processing facility is an operational area. All participants must be dressed in long pants, shirts with sleeves, and flat, closed-toe shoes.

HOUSTON -- The residents of the International Space Station will receive a new shipment of fuel, food, supplies and holiday gifts on Sunday, Nov. 30. Docking of the cargo delivery spacecraft, known as ISS Progress 31, is set for 6:23 a.m. CST. NASA Television will begin coverage of the event at 5:45 a.m.

The unpiloted Russian resupply craft is carrying more than two tons of supplies for the station's crew, Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineers Yury Lonchakov and Sandy Magnus. The ISS Progress 31 launched at 6:38 a.m. Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

NASA and its international partners have assigned the International Space Station's crew members through 2010. The numbering sequence of expeditions was modified to reflect the start of six-person crews.

The update to the expedition numbering begins with the docking of a Soyuz spacecraft in May 2009. That Soyuz will mark the beginning of six-person crew operations. From that point forward, expeditions will end with the undocking of a Soyuz. The expedition number will change every two to four months as new crew members arrive and depart.

The arrangement emphasizes that every six-person crew living on the station is a cohesive team. A crew member typically will stay about six months and be part of two expeditions. In addition to the Russian Soyuz, the space shuttle will continue to provide transportation for station crew members through mission STS-129, targeted for the fall of 2009.

After days of glitches and tweaks, a new recycling system designed to turn astronaut urine back into drinking water is apparently working well aboard the International Station.

The space station's urine processor, part of a larger wastewater recycling system, worked non-stop for a full four-hour test and longer late Monday to the delight of astronauts and NASA engineers. The system is crucial if the space station is to jump to double-sized, six-person crews next year.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/081125-sts126-urine-recycler.html