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KP4IG > SAT 26.10.03 11:52l 72 Lines 3232 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS-299.05
Read: DB0FHN GUEST
Subj: Five Hams on ISS
Path: DB0FHN<DB0THA<DB0ERF<DB0FBB<DB0GOS<ON0AR<ON0AR<ON0BEL<KP4IG
Sent: 031025/2034Z @:KP4IG.#JD.PR.USA.NA #:59951 WFBB7.00i $:ANS-299.05
From: KP4IG@KP4IG.#JD.PR.USA.NA
To : SAT@AMSAT
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 299.05 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. October 26, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-299.05
The contingent of space travelers now aboard the International Space
Station (ISS) expanded to five early Monday, October 20, with the
arrival of the Expedition 8 crew and a European Space Agency (ESA)
astronaut who accompanied them into space. Expedition 8 Commander and
NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Foale, KB5UAC, and Russian Cosmonaut and
ISS Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri, U8MIR, and ESA Astronaut Pedro
Duque, KC5RGG, joined Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP,
and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, after their Soyuz TMA-3
transporter docked with the ISS above Russia.
The Expedition 8 crew, which left Earth from Russia October 18, will
spend the next six months on the ISS. NASA says the two teams will
conduct crew hand-over activities during their eight days of joint
operations. The formal change of command takes place October 24. The
Expedition 7 team of Malenchenko and Lu has been aboard the ISS since
April.
Duque, who's flying under a commercial agreement between the Russian
space agency Rosaviakosmos and the ESA, will spend the week conducting
a series of scientific studies before returning to Earth with the
Expedition 7 crew. He's also scheduled to conduct two Amateur Radio on
the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts with school groups in
his native Spain.
ARISS Vice Chair Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, credits the Union de
Radioaficionados Espanoles (URE)--Spain's International Amateur Radio
Union (IARU) member-society--with working to obtain the special call
sign--ED4ISS--assigned for Duque to use. The ESA launched a competition
among all of Spain's schools, and winners will get the chance to
interview Duque via ham radio. Bertels says the ESA has established a
special Web site (in Spanish) to document Duque's ARISS activities.
This mission mark Duque's second space flight, following his mission on
the shuttle Discovery on the STS-95 mission in 1998.
Malenchenko, Lu and Duque are scheduled to depart for Earth October 27
aboard the Soyuz vehicle now attached to the ISS. During his duty tour,
Malenchenko was married by proxy to Ekaterina Dmitriev, a native of
Ukraine who now lives in Texas. Upon his return, the couple reportedly
plans a church wedding in Russia followed by a honeymoon in Australia.
Malenchenko is 41; Dmitriev, who lives in the Houston area, is 26.
The Soyuz, which carries a crew of three, will remain the prime crew
transport system. Russian Progress rockets will transport needed
supplies.
Foale, 46, is a veteran of five space flights and has spent a total of
nearly 180 days in space--including more than four months on the
Russian Mir space station in 1997. During his Mir stay, Foale found ham
radio a valuable supplement to conventional Russian and NASA
communication systems after the station was damaged in a collision with
an unmanned Progress cargo rocket. Kaleri, 47, flew on three Mir
missions and has logged 416 days in space.
(Information provided by NASA was used in this report.)
[ANS thanks ARRL for the above information.]
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