Public can send greetings to ISS crew

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- NASA says it's providing a way for the public to send holiday greetings to the crew of the International Space Station.

In addition, season's greetings will be offered by International Space Station Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Max Suraev in a special video message airing this week on NASA Television and the NASA Web site.

The greetings are telecast as part of the daily NASA Video File telecast at noon EST weekdays. NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information is available at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

The public can send its personal holiday greetings to the station crew by using the NASA Web site or Twitter. To send a personalized message to the crew via the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/postcard/ or, to send a holiday "Tweet," visit http://twitter.com/NASA_Astronauts.

NASA said the next space station crew members -- U.S. astronaut T.J. Creamer, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov -- will arrive at the orbital laboratory next week aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. The new ISS residents are also looking forward to receiving holiday greetings, or "tweetings," the space agency said.

They are scheduled to launch Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and dock with the station Tuesday.