December 26, 2007—Merry Christmas and happy birthday! Both occasions will be better late than never for the three crewmembers of the International Space Station. A Russian robot cargo craft docked today with holiday gifts for Astronauts Peggy Whitson and Dan Tani, and Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. The Russian member of the crew also turned forty six years old last Saturday, and the load aboard the Progress vehicle will also include items to mark his birthday.

With Space Shuttle Atlantis stuck on the launch pad loaded with fresh supplies for the Station, the outpost’s crew had to scramble to put together Christmas dinner. They scrounged through the Station’s pantry to put together a menu of smoked turkey and sweet potatoes. One food item aboard the Progress cargo ship is something often in short supply on the orbiting complex—fresh fruit. Russian mission managers included oranges and grapefruit for the crew.

On another subject, many thanks to everyone who stopped by to say "hi" and get a copy of "Final Countdown" signed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors’ Center on the Saturday before Christmas. The group included Scott from Kissimmee, pictured at the left. One other person who left a big impression was twelve year old Adriadna. It seems like a lot of kids want to be Astronauts and ride rockets. Adriadna stated point-blank that she wants to be an engineer, and other kids can wear space helmets.

One last note. With great respect to everyone from Illinois and USC, there’s something else on afternoon television on New Years’ Day besides the Rose Bowl. The folks at C-SPAN sent a video crew to tape my talk about "Final Countdown" before the Orlando Rotary Club earlier this month. The program airs this coming Tuesday at 4:15 on C-SPAN’s BookTV program. You can get updated information by clicking here…

http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=8985&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No

If you're a football fan--you can always TIVO C-SPAN ;)

See you then—more to come.