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ISS Visibility
by Patrick McGrane 11 Apr '07

11 Apr '07

Greetings I had ideal conditions for viewing ISS tonight. I havent done that in several years. It is extremely bright now with the additional solar panels and trusses. Brighter than a star, planet, or plane. Good conditions around continental US for visible passes and a large area of clear sky. Check your tracking programs or online utilities. Truly impressive sight now. 73, pat

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2007-04-10 21:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2007-04-10 21:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: DRS Dutch School Dutch Ministry of Education Delta Researchers School programme DRS-2007, telebridge via NN1SS Successful Tue 2007-04-10 07:25 UTC 80 deg via NN1SS (***) Salt Creek Primary School, Salt Creek, Australia, telebridge via W6SRJ Thu 2007-04-12 03:10 UTC 69 deg via W6SRJ Simulcast on Echolink, IRLP, and web(Discovery Reflector and Verizon). Fairborn High School, Fairborn, Ohio, Telebridge via VK4KHZ Contact is a go for: Thu 2007-04-12 19:00 UTC 42 deg via VK4KHZ Simulcast on Echolink, IRLP, and web(Discovery Reflector and Verizon). Puskás Tivadar Távközlési Technikum, Budapest, Hungary direct via HA5KHC Thu 2007-04-12 23:15 UTC Simulcast on Echolink Redmond High School, Redmond, Washington, telebridge via ON4ISS Contact is a go for: Mon 2007-04-16 21:17 UTC 80 deg via ON4ISS Watch for simulcast on Echolink, IRLP, and web. Simulcast on Echolink, IRLP, and web(Discovery Reflector and Verizon). Cedar Point Elementary, Bristow, Virginia, telebridge via VK5ZAI Contct is a go for: Tue 2007-04-17 19:05 UTC 82 deg via VK5ZAI Simulcast on Echolink, IRLP, and web(Discovery Reflector and Verizon). Total number of ARISS school contacts is 280. (***) 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 2007-04-10 21:00 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 2007-04-10 21:00 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 14 on orbit: Michael Lopez-Alegria KE5GTK Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT Expedition 14/15 on orbit: Sunita Williams, KD5PLB Expedition 15 on orbit: (***) Fyodor Yurchikhin RN3FI Dr. Oleg Kotov Expedition 15 future: Clayton Anderson KD5PLA Daniel Tani KD5DXE Soyuz 14S/13S on orbit: (***) Charles Simonyi KE7KDP/HA5SIK ***************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

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ARISS Event - Puskas Tivadar Tavkozlesi Technikum, Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, (12 Apr) 23:15 UTC
by Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR] 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

An International Space Station ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Puskás Tivadar Távközlési Technikum, Budapest, Hungary on 12 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 23:15 UTC. The contact will be a direct between stations HA5SIK and HA5KHC. The contact should be audible in most of Europe. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in Hungarian. Students will ask the following questions: 1. How do you feel yourself in the weightlessness? 2. How does the Hungarian PILLE work? 3. How does it feel when you look at the Earth from the space station? Does it really look like in the pictures? 4. What kind of experiments have you done on the space station? 5. Are you satisfied with the operating system of the computer on the space station? 6. What book and which personality had big influence on you during your professional career? Please note, the amateur equipment on the ISS is not 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): Redmond High School, Redmond, WA Mon 2007-04-16 21:17 UTC via ON4ISS University of Kursk, Kursk, Russia Tue 2007-04-17 18:33 UTC Cedar Points Elementary, Bristow, VA Tue 2007-04-17 19:05 UTC via VK5ZAI 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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MARTHA STEWART AT BAIKONUR
by Arthur Rowe 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 PERMISSION GRANTED BY THE EAGLE-TRIBUNE N. ANDOVER, MA. A CHNI NEWSPAPER Anything for a friend: Martha Stewart visits launch pad to watch pal blast off By Maria Danilova Associated Press BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - Martha Stewart, the apostle of the cozy and the quaint, came Friday to the bleak space town of Baikonur to watch a billionaire friend blast off for the international space station. Stewart, who parlayed her vision of gracious living into a business empire, is a longtime friend of Charles Simonyi, a software engineer and developer of Microsoft Word who paid $20-25 million for a 13-day trip to the international space station. He will lift off Saturday, aboard a Soyuz space capsule with two Russian cosmonauts. Stewart and Simonyi have been friends for about a decade, and some celebrity-gossip publications have suggested they're romantically linked. The Globe tabloid reported in 2005 that Stewart and Simonyi were set to wed, but rumors of their romantic relationship have dwindled since. Her arrival in Baikonur inspired wide speculation that the two would announce their engagement before liftoff. A spokeswoman for Space Adventures, the company that arranged Simonyi's trip, declined to comment on her visit other than to say she would watch the launch. Baikonur, a collection of worn concrete buildings amid the barren, seemingly endless Kazakhstan steppes, would seem extremely low on Stewart's list for an ideal place to announce her betrothal. But she's already made an attempt at sprucing up the space trip. Stewart chose the menu for a gourmet meal that Simonyi will be taking to the ISS as a treat for his comrades in space. They plan a celebratory feast for April 12, which Russia observes as Cosmonauts' Day. The menu includes quail roasted in Madiran wine, duck breast confit with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit, and semolina cake with dried apricots. At the space travelers' final news conference, the 58-year-old Simonyi said he had spoken with Gregory Olsen, and Anousheh Ansari - the two most recent space tourists - "and they gave me a lot of advice not to move my head and not to drink too much before the launch." Simonyi, born in Hungary, now lives in the Seattle area. He began programming on a bulky Soviet computer called Ural-2 as a teenager in Hungary. He then traveled to Denmark to work as a programmer and moved to the United States in 1968, where he worked at Microsoft developing Microsoft Word and Excel and eventually founded his own software company. He said his friend Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was excited about Simonyi's adventure. "I am in contact with Bill and he is very happy that I am doing this." While at the space station, Simonyi will be conducting a number of experiments, including measuring radiation levels and studying biological organisms inside the lab. He will also be writing a blog that he hopes will inspire others, especially children, to get interested in space exploration. "There is an element of hope. We don't quite know what we are going to find, but we have to go and see and find it," Simonyi said. - Simonyi's blog: http://www.charlesinspace.com/

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ARISS event - Fairborn, OH , USA, Thursday, (12 Apr) 19:00 UTC
by Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR] 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

An International Space Station ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Fairborn High School in Fairborn, OH on 12 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 19:00 UTC. The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and VK4KHZ. The contact should be audible in portions of eastern and central Australia. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Additional listening options are listed below. _________________________________ 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: 6734529 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. _________________________________ The Fairborn City School district is located in Fairborn, Ohio. Fairborn City Schools also serves the children from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Fairborn Primary School serves grades Pre-K-3; Fairborn Intermediate School serves grades 4-5; Baker Middle School serves grades 6, 7, and 8. Fairborn High School serves grades 9-12. Fairborn offers excellent special education, gifted, and college prep classes. Fairborn works closely with Wright State University and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to enhance the educational opportunities for our students and staff. We are approximately 15 miles from the city of Dayton and approximately 60 miles from Columbus, Ohio. Fairborn has an outstanding teaching staff which includes 12 National Board Certified teachers and the Ohio Teacher of the Year, Mr. Eric Combs. Fairborn High School is currently rated "Effective" on the Ohio Department of Education Report Card and our district is in Continuous Improvement. We offer an excellent educational environment supported by an outstanding staff and administration! Fairborn offers small hometown values with caring teachers and parents. Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. How do you communicate with the crew? 2. If you were in space and get hurt or ill what actions can you take ? 3. When you have free time while in space, what is your favorite thing to do? 4. How many g forces did you pull when leaving Earth? How did it feel? 5. How do you combat the effects of radiation or solar flares in space? 6. Does long term exposure to zero gravity have any effect on you once you return to Earth? 7. What are the effects on your body when reentering the Earth's atmosphere? 8. Do you feel lightheaded or a feeling that all the blood is rushing from your head during liftoff? 9. Is it fun when there is no gravity? 10. Was the training to go into space for a civilian any different from the training of an experienced astronaut? 11. What would make you want to go into space in the first place? 12. Did you ever think that you would travel in space? 13. What's the affect on your body when you're in space? 14. What is your secret to success; for example, how did you get where you are today? 15. What made you want to go into space? 16. Will you be put in a decompression chamber after your voyage? If so, for how long? 17. Do you listen to music in space? 18. What do you think you will gain by going in space? 19. What is keeping you in orbit? 20. How fast do you travel in space and does it have a relativity effect? 21. What kind of prevention measures are taken to make sure that fires will not happen on the ship and it they do what do you do then? 22. How many g's do you pull when entering the earth's atmosphere? 23. Is it easy or harder to hear sound? 24. Do you like the food? If yes, what does it taste like? 25. When you entered space was there anything abnormal you personally experienced? 26. Why did you not go with the NASA astronauts and how did it feel entering outer space? 27. What is it like being in space? 28. How does your body react when you get back to Earth? 29. How and where do I start if I wanted to pursue the same path you have taken? 30. Is space what you imagined it would be? 31. Where and when are you going to land? 32. Are you on the day side or the night side of the planet? 33. Were you able to move in your seat during launch? Please note, the amateur equipment on the ISS is not 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): Puskas Tivadar Tavkozlesi Technikum, Budapest, Hungary, Thu 2007-04-12 23:15 UTC Redmond High School, Redmond, WA Mon 2007-04-16 21:17 UTC via ON4ISS University of Kursk, Kursk, Russia Tue 2007-04-17 18:33 UTC Cedar Points Elementary, Bristow, VA Tue 2007-04-17 19:05 UTC via VK5ZAI 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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Expedition 15 Arrives at Station
by Arthur Rowe 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 *Expedition 15 Arrives at Station* Image above: Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin passes through the hatch from the Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA TV TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Expedition 15 arrived at the International Space Station at 3:10 p.m. EDT Monday. They greeted the Expedition 14 crew shortly after opening their hatches at 4:30 p.m. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi docked in their Soyuz spacecraft two days after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. + Read more about the docking <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/exp15_la…> Simonyi, an American who is flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return home with Expedition 14 on April 20. Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin have been living in space since Sept. 18. Flight Enigneer Sunita Williams, who rode Space Shuttle Discovery to the station in December, will stay onboard and join Expedition 15.

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NASA Announces ISS News Conference
by Arthur Rowe 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 > April 9, 2007 > > Allard Beutel > Headquarters, Washington > 202-358-4769 > > Lynnette Madison > Johnson Space Center, Houston > 281-483-5111 > > MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-038 > > NASA ANNOUNCES SPACE STATION NEWS CONFERENCE > > HOUSTON - Expeditions 14 and 15 crew members, along with U.S. > spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, will discuss their missions > during a news conference from aboard the International Space Station > at 4:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday, April 10. > > The 30-minute conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television. It > will include questions from media at NASA's Johnson Space Center, > Houston; Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; and NASA Headquarters in > Washington. > > The Expedition 14 crew is handing over operation of the orbiting > laboratory to the Expedition 15 crew this week. NASA astronaut and > Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer > Mikhail Tyurin are near the end of their six-month flight. > > The Expedition 15 crew, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight > Engineer Oleg Kotov, and U.S. businessman Charles Simonyi launched > Saturday and docked to the station Monday. Simonyi will stay for > 10-days under a Russian commercial agreement. > > NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Suni Williams, who has been on the > station since December 2006, will remain aboard and transition from > Expedition 14 to Expedition 15. Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin and Simonyi > will return to Earth April 20 in a Soyuz spacecraft. > > For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: > > > http://www.nasa.gov/ntv > > > > For information about the Space Station and Expedition crews on the > Internet, visit: > > http://www.nasa.gov/station > > > -end- > > >

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ISS SCIENCE Status Report: SS07-19
by Arthur Rowe 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC P0 AMSAT A/C #31468 > April 9, 2007 > > John Yembrick > Headquarters, Washington > 202-358-0602 > > John Ira Petty > Johnson Space Center, Houston > 281-483-4934 > > STATUS REPORT: SS07-19 > > INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS07-19 > > HOUSTON - Two Expedition 15 cosmonauts and a spaceflight participant > aboard a Soyuz spacecraft docked with the Earth-facing port on the > International Space Station's Zarya module at 2:10 p.m. CDT Monday. > > After the hatch opens, which is scheduled for a little before 4 p.m., > Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg > Kotov, and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. > businessman, will be greeted by the station's current crew, > Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers > Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams. > > Williams, who has served as an Expedition 14 crew member since > December, will remain on the station providing Expedition 15 with an > experienced flight engineer for the early part of its mission. She is > scheduled to return home aboard space shuttle Endeavour this summer. > > Yurchikhin is making his second flight into space. He was crew member > on space shuttle Atlantis' STS-112 mission to the station in October > 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and was named a > cosmonaut-candidate in 1997. Kotov is making his first spaceflight. > He graduated from the Moscow Medical Academy in 1988, and was named a > cosmonaut-candidate in 1996. > > Astronaut Clay Anderson is scheduled to replace Williams during > Expedition 15. Two Expedition 16 crew members are expected to arrive > next fall to replace Yurchikhin and Kotov. > > Simonyi, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, > will return to Earth on April 20 with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, who > have been aboard the station since September 2006. > > Information on the crew's activities aboard the space station, future > launch dates, and station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the > Earth, is available at: > > http://www.nasa.gov/station > > > -end- > > > > > >

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ARISS event - Salt Creek Primary School, Salt Creek, Australia, Thursday, (12 Apr) 03:10 UTC
by Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR] 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

An International Space Station Expedition 14 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at Salt Creek Primary School, Salt Creek, Australia on 12 April. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 03:10 UTC. The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible in portions of western and central North America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. Additional listening options are listed below. _________________________________ 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: 6734469 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. _________________________________ Salt Creek Primary School is a tiny school with 20 students and 3 staff located 80 km north of Kingston on Highway 1 in South. Australia . With the 20 questions for you to answer the whole school is involved! Salt Creek consists of a Roadhouse, School, a Parks & Wild Life Headquarters and half dozen houses. The school caters for isolated sheep and cattle farmers in the area. When the children reach high school age they either come to Kingston or go to boarding school. Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. In space are you weightless?. 2. How far away are you from earth? 3. What do you eat? 4. Do you run in to any asteroids? 5. How long does it take to orbit around the earth? 6. When was the space station made? 7. Have you ever seen a black hole and if you have what does it look like? 8. What does the sun look like? 9. Have you seen any U.F.OS? 10. What jobs do you have in space? 11. How do you get food up there? 12. What do you do up in space? 13. What do you do in your space time? 14. Where do you go if you get hurt? 15. Do you have children and how long till you see them again? 16. What does it feel like when you blast off? 17. How do you breathe on the space station? 18. How does the rocket go? 19. What is the best part of being an astronaut? 20. How big is the space station? Please note, the amateur equipment on the ISS is not 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): Fairborn High School, Fairborn, OH Thu 2007-04-12 19:00 UTC via VK4KHZ Puskas Tivadar Tavkozlesi Technikum, Budapest, Hungary, Thu 2007-04-12 23:15 UTC Redmond High School, Redmond, WA Mon 2007-04-16 21:17 UTC via ON4ISS University of Kursk, Kursk, Russia Tue 2007-04-17 18:33 UTC Cedar Points Elementary, Bristow, VA Tue 2007-04-17 19:05 UTC via VK5ZAI 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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ET-117 Arrived at Kennedy
by Arthur Rowe 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 *ET-117 Arrived at Kennedy* Image above: The barge carrying external tank 117 is maneuvered toward the dock by a tug boat in the turn basin of Kennedy's Launch Complex 39 area. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Phaller TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html + View Hi-res Image <http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/170421main_barge.jpg> + View Hail Damage to External Tank <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/multimedia/117_gallery-hail.html> *04.06.07 * NASA's Pegasus barge with external fuel tank 117 aboard arrived at Kennedy Space Center today. Shuttle program managers will meet on or about April 10 to decide whether to use ET-124 or substitute it with ET-117 for the STS-117 mission to the International Space Station. Work continues to assess and repair hail damage to ET-124. Foam repairs on the liquid hydrogen tank, which is located on the bottom of the external tank, are complete and the focus is currently on repairs to the liquid oxygen tank. Shuttle program managers decided this week to inspect Atlantis and Endeavour's main propulsion system for contamination after a small amount of material was found during routine post-flight inspections in one engine that flew on the STS-116 mission of Discovery in December 2006 and one engine that flew on the STS-121 mission of Discovery in July 2006. The contaminant is a substance called RepliSet, which is a material used to make a mold of the flow liner surface. It is used to check for cracks and imperfections. The inspections can be accomplished within the time frame of the hail damage recovery effort, with no impact to the launch schedule for STS-117. During the STS-117's 11-day mission, the six-member crew will install a new truss segment, retract a set of solar arrays and unfold a new set on the starboard side of the station. Lessons learned from two previous missions will provide the astronauts with new techniques and tools to perform their duties. Atlantis Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault and Mission Specialists Jim Reilly, Patrick Forrester, Steven Swanson and John "Danny" Olivas will continue training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston as they await a new target launch date. *STS-117 Mission* + The Crew <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/index.html> + The Mission <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/mission_ov…> + The Integrated Truss Structure <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/its.html>

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