Contact: Katherine Trinidad, 202-358-1100, katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov; Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, Johnson Space Center, 281-483-5111, nicole.cloutier-1@nasa.gov; both with NASA

HOUSTON, Dec. 12 /Standard Newswire/ -- Soaring high above the Earth, the crew of the International Space Station has beamed down season's greetings that will air on NASA Television starting Friday, Dec. 12. The public can return the extraterrestrial good will and send greetings to the crew by visiting: www.nasa.gov/externalflash/postcard

The e-mailed greetings can be sent through Jan. 5, 2009. Last year, thousands of messages were sent to the Expedition 16 crew from throughout the world.

The current station crew, Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineers Sandra Magnus and Yury Lonchakov, will celebrate this holiday season 220 miles above Earth. Fincke and Lonchakov have been on the station since Oct. 14, and Magnus joined the crew Nov. 16. The main focus of their mission is to prepare the station to house six crew members for long-duration missions beginning in May 2009.

The station crew's greetings will air on NASA TV as part of the daily Video File, beginning at 11 a.m. CST, Friday, Dec. 12. The video also will be broadcast in high definition on the NASA TV HD channel on Dec. 15-17 at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit: www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space station and the Expedition 18 mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/station