December 2006 - Sarex (INACTIVE)

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2006-12-18 07:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 18 Dec '06

18 Dec '06

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2006-12-18 07:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: The times listed below are subject to last minute changes due to continuing Shuttle EVA operations. Thunmanskolan, Knivsta, Sweden via telebridge VK4KHZ Contact was successful Sun 2006-12-17 18:19 UTC via VK4KHZ (***) Kashiwabara Community Center, Sayama, Japan, direct via 8J1K Contact is a go for Wed 2006-12-27 12:22 UTC During Expedition 14, ARISS expects to have one ARISS school contact per month rather than approximately one per week. It is also anticipated that there many not be many general contacts. STS-116 12A.1 Launch (Polansky, Oefelein, Curbeam, Higginbotham, Patrick KD5PKY, Christer Fuglesang KE5CGR/SA0AFS, Suni Williams KD5PLB up) On orbit and docked Total number of ARISS school contacts is 259. (***) QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's ISS callsigns: DP0ISS, NA1SS, RS0ISS ***************************************************************************** The schedule page has been updated as of 2006-12-18 07:00 UTC. Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2006-11-20 22:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correctio… tf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf ***************************************************************************** There has been a rumor that the ISS was having direct contacts on the 40 meter band. There is no HF radio equipment on board and available yet. The HF antenna is mounted. Sometimes WA3NAN will retransmit shuttle audio. ***************************************************************************** Expedition 13/14 on orbit: Thomas Reiter DF4TR Expedition 14 on orbit: Michael Lopez-Alegria KE5GTK Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT Expedition 14/15 on orbit: Sunita Williams, KD5PLB ***************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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STS-116 MCC Status Report #16
by Arthur Rowe 17 Dec '06

17 Dec '06

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 9:30 a.m. CST Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 12.17.06 STATUS REPORT: STS-116-16 STS-116 MCC Status Report #16 Astronauts will spend much of today getting ready for a fourth spacewalk during Discovery’s mission to the International Space Station. On Saturday, Mission Specialists Bob Curbeam and Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams finished rewiring the International Space Station during a 7-hour, 31-minute spacewalk. After planned tasks had been completed smoothly and ahead of schedule, they also shook a balky solar array wing in hopes of completing its retraction. That helped gain some ground – the wing is about 65 percent retracted, compared to less than 50 percent before the spacewalk. About 11 bays remain deployed, compared to about 17 before. Managers decided Saturday afternoon to add that fourth spacewalk to Discovery’s visit to the station. This one will be done by Curbeam, who participated in all three of the previous spacewalks, and Christer Fuglesang, a spacewalker on the first two. While Curbeam and Williams were still outside Saturday, mission managers decided to add the spacewalk, scheduled to start at 12:47 p.m. CST on Monday, and to add a day to Discovery’s stay at the station. Today the station’s Canadarm2 will be moved into position to support the Monday spacewalk. Discovery’s arm will be used to provide camera views. Discovery crew members will reconfigure spacesuits and transfer them to the station’s Quest airlock. At 8:02 p.m., Discovery and station crews will hold a procedure review for the spacewalk. Curbeam and Fuglesang will begin an overnight “campout” in the airlock, its pressure reduced to 10.2 psi. The crew goes to bed at 12:17 a.m. Monday. The campout is part of a process to avoid any possibility of the two spacewalkers developing decompression sickness in the relatively low pressure of their spacesuits. The suits are pressurized to a little less than 5 psi. In other activities, transfer of equipment and supplies between the spacecraft is about 70 percent complete. Crewmembers and flight controllers believe it should be mostly finished after today’s work. Shuttle crewmembers Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Curbeam, Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter, were awakened at 8:17 a.m. CST to the “Beautiful Blue Danube" performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The music was for Fuglesang. The next STS-116 status report will be issued Sunday evening, or earlier if events warrant. - end -

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STS-116 MCC Status Report #15
by Arthur Rowe 17 Dec '06

17 Dec '06

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 NASA NEWS 9:30 p.m. CST Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 12.16.06 STATUS REPORT: STS-116-15 STS-116 MCC Status Report #15 During a spacewalk partially choreographed as it happened, STS-116 Astronauts Bob Curbeam and Sunita Williams finished rewiring the International Space Station and shook loose a balky solar array so their crewmates inside could retract it almost two-thirds of the way. By finishing the electrical work, the spacewalkers set the stage for installation of more solar arrays and science modules, including those being supplied by international partners. For a second time, flight controllers shut down about half of the station’s systems, including some lights, communication gear, ventilation fans and back-up computers as the third spacewalk of Discovery’s mission began at 1:25 p.m. CST. Curbeam and Williams finished their rewiring tasks at nearly the same time posted by Curbeam and Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang on Thursday. By 3:18 p.m., controllers were powering up the second half of the station’s new power grid and cooling systems. The spacewalkers also installed a robotic arm grapple fixture and positioned three bundles of Russian debris shield panels outside the Zvezda service module before moving on to their P6 solar array panel 4B retraction work. The debris panels will be installed on a future spacewalk. Then, using maneuvers dubbed the “Beamer Shake” and the “Suni Shake,” the spacewalkers tackled grommets and guide wires that have been preventing a full retraction of the array since Wednesday. Curbeam and Williams stationed themselves on opposite sides of the array and took turns shaking the array blanket box while the crew inside the station reeled in the array one bay at a time. Curbeam shook the blanket 19 times, and Williams shook it 13 times. The crew inside the station, coordinating with flight controllers on the ground, initiated eight retraction cycles. As a result of their combined efforts, the array is now 65 percent retracted, with only 11 bays still deployed. The 7 hour, 31 minute spacewalk concluded at 8:56 p.m. In the midst of the excursion, Mission Control informed the crew that managers had decided to extend Discovery’s mission one day to allow a fourth spacewalk. Curbeam and Fuglesang will venture outside Monday in an attempt to complete retraction of the array and collect additional information that could prove useful when the opposite side of the array is retracted on the next shuttle mission, STS-117, in March. The extended flight plan preserves a late inspection of Discovery’s heat shield after it undocks from the station. Discovery is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center on Friday afternoon. Discovery’s crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 12:17 a.m. Sunday, and will awaken at 8:17 a.m. for a day devoted to cargo transfers and spacewalk preparations. The next STS-116 status report will be issued Sunday morning or earlier if events warrant. - end -

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STS-116 MCC Status Report #14
by Arthur Rowe 16 Dec '06

16 Dec '06

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 10 a.m. CST Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 12.16.06 STATUS REPORT: STS-116-14 STS-116 MCC Status Report #14 The third spacewalk of Discovery’s mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to begin at 1:37 p.m. CST to complete the rewiring of the orbiting laboratory’s power system. Discovery Mission Specialist Bob Curbeam and station Flight Engineer Sunita Williams will venture outside to finish the job started on Thursday’s spacewalk. Station flight controllers will begin commanding about half of the station's systems to power down at about 10:52 a.m. CST. After Mission Control has cut the power on the two station electrical channels that are the subject of today's work, channels 1 and 4, the spacewalkers will rewire them. Completing that task will put the station power system in its permanent configuration, ready for more solar arrays and laboratories to be added in 2007. Curbeam and Mission Specialist Christer Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut from Sweden, completed a rewiring job on the other two station power channels, channels 2 and 3, during a spacewalk on Thursday. Additional tasks for today’s spacewalk include relocating debris shield panels from the station’s interior to a storage point outside. The panels, designed to increase the protection of the station's Zvezda living quarters module, will be installed during a later spacewalk by the station crew. Curbeam and Williams also will install a robotic arm grapple fixture. Today's spacewalk is planned to be completed at 7:47 p.m. CST, but can go longer if needed. If time allows after all originally planned tasks are completed during the excursion, one or both of the spacewalkers will move up the P6 truss atop the station to the base of its partially retracted port solar wing. From that point, they will push on a blanket box into which the array has been folding to attempt to jiggle apparently misaligned guide wires and grommets into place. The result may allow additional retraction of the array. Meanwhile, managers are continuing to evaluate a possible fourth spacewalk that would take place on Monday to attempt to fully retract the array. However, no decision has been made regarding whether that spacewalk will be pursued. To prepare for that possibility, the spacewalkers today may bring several tools inside the station that would need to be prepared with insulating tape for use on a fourth spacewalk. The transfer of equipment and supplies between the two spacecraft continues. Late Friday, the crews were slightly ahead of the transfer schedule. Inside the station today, station Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin will replace a component of the orbiting laboratory’s carbon dioxide removal system to restore it to full operation. The orientation of the shuttle and station is again being controlled by the station's control moment gyroscopes. Small shuttle thrusters had been controlling the orientation of the spacecraft since Friday, when an initial attempt to switch to gyroscope control was not successful. A second attempt Saturday worked. Flight controllers believe the difficulty was due to increased atmospheric drag resulting from recent solar activity. Shuttle crew members Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Curbeam, Fuglesang, Joan Higginbotham and Thomas Reiter, along with Williams in the airlock campout, were awakened at 8:52 a.m. CST to composer Aaron Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The music was played for Patrick. The next STS-116 status report will be issued Saturday evening or earlier if events warrant. - end -

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Preflight Interview: Suni Williams-NEXT ISS CREW MEMBER
by Arthur Rowe 16 Dec '06

16 Dec '06

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 Preflight Interview: Suni Williams 08.09.06 *Q: There are hundreds of thousands of pilots and scientists out there in the world, but there are only about 100 American astronauts. What made you want to try to become an astronaut and be one of those people that flies in space?* FOR THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW GO TO: nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/exp14_interview_wil…

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STS-116 MCC Status Report #12
by Arthur Rowe 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 9:30 a.m. CST Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas 12.15.06 STATUS REPORT: STS-116-12 STS-116 MCC Status Report #12 With half the International Space Station’s electrical system rewired, the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery gets half a day off today before they finish the job during a third spacewalk set for Saturday. Mission Specialists Bob Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang rewired channels 2 and 3 of the station’s power system in a five-hour spacewalk Thursday. A similar task will be done with the two remaining station power channels, channels 1 and 4, on Saturday. However, for Saturday's spacewalk, Curbeam will be joined by International Space Station Flight Engineer Suni Williams for the outside work while Fuglesang will coordinate activities inside the spacecraft. Once the third spacewalk is complete, power will be fully online from the station’s P4 Truss solar array wings, which were installed in September. At that point, the station's power system will be ready for additional expansion with more arrays and new laboratories to be delivered next year. Discovery Commander Mark Polansky and his crew—Pilot Bill Oefelein and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Thomas Reiter, Curbeam and Fuglesang—were awakened at about 8:52 a.m. CST to the song "Low Rider," performed by War, and played for Oefelein. Discovery and the station are in good condition. Discovery is currently maintaining the orientation of both the station and shuttle using the shuttle steering jets, a function it began performing during preparations for the spacewalk on Thursday. Control of the station's orientation was transferred to Discovery on Thursday as part of the normal preparations of the station's power system for the rewiring job. The station usually uses its own control moment gyroscopes to maintain its orientation, without having to use fuel. Originally, control of the station's orientation was to be transferred back to those gyroscopes late Thursday after the spacewalk tasks were completed and station systems powered up. However, problems were experienced as that transfer was attempted. Flight controllers believe the problems were due to a higher than usual amount of atmospheric drag currently experienced by the station due to recent solar activity. They may attempt to transfer control of orientation back to the station again today, although the shuttle thrusters can be used if needed for that purpose through the rest of the mission. If necessary, the station has thrusters that can be used for orientation control as well. During the first half of their day, the astronauts will transfer supplies and equipment between the station and shuttle. At 1:07 p.m. the two European Space Agency astronauts, Fuglesang of Sweden and Reiter of Germany, will participate in a VIP call from Swedish dignitaries. At 2:47 p.m. all 10 astronauts and cosmonauts on the shuttle/station complex will conduct a news conference with reporters in the U.S. and Europe. The shuttle crew members will be off duty the last half of the day. Station Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are scheduled for interviews with KNX Radio, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio at 4:27 p.m. CST. Engineers investigating the difficulties with fully retracting the port-side solar array wing of the station's P6 Truss believe a guide wire may be snagged in a swiveling grommet on one of the array's panels. The snag could be keeping the panels from folding up completely. The array remains almost halfway retracted as it has been since Wednesday. Early this morning, station flight controllers commanded the array through a series of "wiggle" tests, swiveling the wing 10 degrees at a time repeatedly to see if that would help the situation. They are continuing to evaluate the results of those tests and to investigate options for further work with the array, including the potential to add a spacewalk to latter part of this mission. Options also may include some additional troubleshooting commanding that could be performed with the array during the crew's day today. The next STS-116 status report will be issued Friday evening or earlier if events warrant.

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Crews Hold News Conference, Prepare for Spacewalk
by Arthur Rowe 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 *Crews Hold News Conference, Prepare for Spacewalk* Image above: STS-116 and Expedition 14 crew members participate in a joint news conference. Image Credit: NASA TV TO VIEW PICTURE OF BOTH CREWS GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html The STS-116 and the Expedition 14 crews took a break from today’s cargo transfers to hold a joint news conference. Other activities include preparations for STS-116’s third spacewalk. All 10 shuttle and station crew members gathered this afternoon in the U.S. Destiny Laboratory to field questions from U.S. and European media. STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky answered a question about commanding a mission with five first-time space travelers. “It has been pretty fantastic,” he said. “They are just doing great.” The crews will enjoy a few hours of light duty before wrapping up the day with preparations for Saturday’s spacewalk by STS-116 Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam and Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams. The preparations include a review of the timeline and the overnight campout in the Quest airlock. Curbeam and Williams will complete the rewiring of the station power systems during the spacewalk slated to begin at 2:37 p.m. EST Saturday. Earlier today, STS-116 Mission Specialists Thomas Reiter and Christer Fuglesang had a discussion with Swedish dignitaries. Fuglesang is the first Swede to fly in space. At 5:20 p.m., Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin talked with KNX Radio, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio. Flight controllers have conducted several types of tests in their efforts to find a way to fold the partially retracted solar array on the P6 truss. During the overnight hours, they commanded the array through a series of "wiggle" tests, swiveling the wing 10 degrees at a time repeatedly to see if that would help the situation. Then about 1 p.m. EST, they collected data on array movement while Reiter exercised on station equipment. Flight controllers continue to analyze the problem and may ask for more tests later today. For the latest news and information on the International Space Station and the Expedition 14 crew, please visit the main station page. + Read more <http://www.nasa.gov/station>

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2006-12-15 19:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2006-12-15 19:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: The times listed below are subject to last minute changes due to continuing Shuttle EVA operations. Thunmanskolan, Knivsta, Sweden via telebridge VK4KHZ Contact is a go for Sun 2006-12-17 18:19 UTC via VK4KHZ Contact is to have live simulcast via IRLP, Echolink, and webcast. (***) Kashiwabara Community Center, Sayama, Japan, direct via 8J1K Contact is a go for Wed 2006-12-27 12:22 UTC During Expedition 14, ARISS expects to have one ARISS school contact per month rather than approximately one per week. It is also anticipated that there many not be many general contacts. STS-116 12A.1 Launch (Polansky, Oefelein, Curbeam, Higginbotham, Patrick KD5PKY, Christer Fuglesang KE5CGR, Suni Williams KD5PLB up) On orbit and docked. Total number of ARISS school contacts is 258. QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's ISS callsigns: DP0ISS, NA1SS, RS0ISS ***************************************************************************** The schedule page has been updated as of 2006-12-15 19:00 UTC. Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2006-11-20 22:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correctio… tf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf ***************************************************************************** There has been a rumor that the ISS was having direct contacts on the 40 meter band. There is no HF radio equipment on board and available yet. The HF antenna is mounted. Sometimes WA3NAN will retransmit shuttle audio. ***************************************************************************** Expedition 13/14 on orbit: Thomas Reiter DF4TR Expedition 14 on orbit: Michael Lopez-Alegria KE5GTK Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT Expedition 14 future: Sunita Williams, KD5PLB ***************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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ARISS Event - Thunmanskolan, Knivsta, Sweden contact, Sun (Dec 17) at 18:19 UTC
by Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR] 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

An International Space Station Expedition 14 ARISS school contact with a visiting shuttle crewmember has been planned with students at Thunmanskolan, Knivsta, Sweden on Sunday 20 Nov. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 18:19 UTC. The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and VK4KHZ . The contact should be audible to anyone in eastern portions of Australia. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Additional listening options are listed below. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in Swedish. IRLP - Connect to the IRLP reflector 9010. You may also connect via the IRLP Discovery website at http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/listen.htm. EchoLink - The audio from this contact will be available on the EchoLink *AMSAT* (node 101 377) and the *JK1ZRW* (node 277 208) conference rooms. Please connect to the *JK1ZRW* server to keep the load light on the *AMSAT* server. This will ensure good audio quality for all listeners. _________________________________ AUDIO STREAMING AND AUDIO REPLAY PARTICIPANT INFORMATION: To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 2897689 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO To access the Audio Replay of this call, all parties can: 1. Go to the URL listed above. 2. Choose Audio Streaming under Join Events. 3. Enter the conference number and passcode. (Note that if this is a recurring event, multiple dates may be listed.) Replays are available for 30 days after the live event._________________________________ Thunmanskolan is, with a student number of about 600, the largest school in the municipality of Knivsta and encompasses grades 5 to 9. The school has been in existence since 1964. Students have access to computer rooms. These are used as a complement to the different taught subject like French, English, history etc. Thunmanskolan was the first school in Sweden with a Bulletin Board System (BBS) and they had their internet website up and running 2 years before Uppsala City Hall started their website. The students mostly come from typical middle-class areas and the community is located between two big cities i.e. the University City Uppsala, and the capital city Stockholm. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. Hur äter man i rymden och kan maten åka upp när den är svald på grund av tyngdlösheten? (How do you eat in space and can the food come back up after it is swallowed because of weightlessness?) 2. Kan fåglar flyga i tyngdlöshet? (Can birds fly in weightlessness?) 3. Hur hanterar ni avfall? Tar ni med det tillbaka till jorden eller hamnar en del i rymden? (How do you handle garbage? Do you bring it back to Earth or does part of it end up in space?) 4. Måste du alltid ha din rymddräkt på? (Do you always have to wear you space suit?) 5. Vilken är din starkaste upplevelse än så länge? (What has made the biggest impression on you so far?) 6. Varifrån får ni syret i rymdstationen? (Where from do you get the oxygen in the space station?) 7. Hur ser stjärnorna ut däruppe? Är det annorlunda än på jorden? (What do stars look like up there? Is it different than on earth?) 8. Är det sant att ni ser små ljusblixtar i ögonen från kosmisk strålning? (Is it true that you see small light flashes in you eyes from cosmic radiation?) 9. Vilken slag "personlig sak" tog du med dig? (What kind of personal thing did you bring with you?) 10. Hur definierar ni tiden i rymden? (How do you define time in space?) 11. Vad skulle du göra om du på en rymdpromenad åkte iväg från rymdstationen? (What would you do if, during a space walk, you floated away from the space station?) 12. Blir man starkare i tyngdlöshet och hur sover man i tyngdlöshet? (Do you get stronger in weightlessness and how does one sleep?) 13. Fick du lock för öronen och blev du åksjuk när raketen tog er genom atmosfären? (Did you get a pressure increase in your ears and did you become air sick when the rocket took you through the atmosphere?) 14. Vilken sorts bränsle har ni i raketen och hur mycket går det åt? (What type of fuel do you have for the rocket and how much do you burn?) 15. Varför blev du astronaut? (Why did you become an astronaut?) 16. Vad tänkte du när raketen startade? (What were you thinking when the rocket started?) 17. Vad är du mest orolig för som kan inträffa under er resa? (What is your greatest concern during your journey?) 18. Over!Jag heter Sara. Skulle du senare vilja åka längre ut i rymden till månen eller Mars? (Would you later like to travel further away in space to the moon or Mars?) 19. Tror du att det finns intelligent liv i rymden? (Do you think there is intelligent life in space?) 20.Jag heter Linnea. Är du rädd att inte komma tillbaka? (Are you afraid of not coming back?) Please note, the amateur equipment on the ISS has not been functioning in the automatic modes properly and may be silent more than usual. Information about the next scheduled ARISS contact can be found at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/upcoming.htm#NextContact . Next planned event(s): Kashiwabara Community Center, Sayama, Japan, direct via 8J1K. Wed 2006-12-27, 12:22 UTC ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.rac.ca/ariss (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada). Thank you & 73, Kenneth - N5VHO

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Cargo Transfers, Crew News Conference on Tap Today
by Arthur Rowe 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 Cargo Transfers, Crew News Conference on Tap Today STS-116 and Expedition 14 crews Image above: STS-116 and Expedition 14 crewmembers share a meal in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA After a hectic first six days of its STS-116 mission, Space Shuttle Discovery’s crew will enjoy a lighter schedule today. Cargo transfers, spacewalk preparations and the joint crew news conference are on the schedule today. All 10 station and shuttle crew members will participate in the traditional joint news conference at 3:47 p.m. EST. They will field questions from media from the United States and Europe. The crews will enjoy some off duty time before beginning preparations for Saturday’s spacewalk by STS-116 Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam and Expedition 14 Flight Engineer Sunita Williams. Crew members will review spacewalk procedures at 9:17 tonight. The spacewalkers will continue rewiring station power systems. Discovery continues to maintain the orientation of both the station and shuttle using the shuttle steering jets, a function it began performing during preparations for the spacewalk on Thursday. Originally, control of the station's orientation was to be transferred back to the station's gyroscopes late Thursday after the spacewalk tasks were completed and station systems powered up. However, problems were experienced as that transfer was attempted. Flight controllers believe the problems were due to a higher than usual amount of atmospheric drag currently experienced by the station due to recent solar activity. They may attempt to transfer control of orientation back to the station again today, although the shuttle thrusters can be used if needed for that purpose through the rest of the mission. If necessary, the station has thrusters that can be used for orientation control as well. Engineers investigating the difficulties with fully retracting the port-side solar array wing of the station's P6 Truss believe a guide wire may be snagged in a swiveling grommet on one of the array's panels. The snag could be keeping the panels from folding up completely. The array remains almost halfway retracted as it has been since Wednesday. Early this morning, station flight controllers commanded the array through a series of "wiggle" tests, swiveling the wing 10 degrees at a time repeatedly to see if that would help the situation. They are continuing to evaluate the results of those tests and to investigate options for further work with the array, including the potential to add a spacewalk to latter part of this mission. Options also may include some additional troubleshooting commanding that could be performed with the array during the crew's day today. For the latest news and information on the International Space Station and the Expedition 14 crew, please visit the main station page. + Read more <http://www.nasa.gov/station>

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