NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 4, 2004--Four years ago this week, the Expedition 1 crew
arrived aboard the International Space Station, home of the first permanent
Amateur Radio station in space. Just weeks earlier, the FCC granted the
station's distinctive NA1SS call sign. By the time William Shepherd, KD5GSL,
Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, and Yuri Gidzenko arrived on November 2, 2000, the
Phase 1 or "initial station" Amateur Radio on the International Space
Station (ARISS) gear was already on board for the crew to install. Crew
increments comprised of US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have rotated
duty tours continuously ever since, and ham radio has played a role in each
crew's routine. With NASA's shuttle fleet now grounded, crew increments have
shrunk to two people, while duty tours have stretched from four to six
months. Despite fewer hands on deck, NASA says the two-person crews
sometimes have been able to do more with less--often improvising.

"Every challenge for the International Space Station crews, flight control
teams and management adds to the knowledge base we need to develop longer
spaceflight missions to places like the moon and Mars," said International
Space Station Program Manager Bill Gerstenmaier. "The work we're doing on
station is directly connected to future exploration missions." ARISS
International currently is mulling Amateur Radio's role in NASA's "Moon,
Mars and Beyond" initiative.
Nine Expeditions Later . . .

The Expedition 10 crew of Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, and ISS Flight
Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, arrived at the ISS just last month--aboard a
Russian Soyuz vehicle, just as the Expedition 1 crew did, although other
crews traveled via the shuttle. Over the years, in addition to visiting
space shuttle crews, there have even been a couple of paying "space
tourists" and other short-term visitors, several of whom took advantage of
the ARISS gear. Space tourists US businessman Dennis Tito, KG6FZX, and South
African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth both used the ARISS gear to speak
with schools, family and friends on Earth. More recently, Russian Space
Forces Test Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin--who arrived with the Expedition 10
crew--completed two ARISS school group contacts.

The Expedition 10 crew is not expected to begin its own series of school
group contacts until the week of November 15 at the earliest. Unscheduled
ham radio activity by crew members typically is suspended during crew
changeover periods. As of November 4, the NA1SS FM voice repeater remained
off and the ARISS Phase 2 equipment was back in packet mode under the RS0ISS
call sign.
Closer International Cooperation

Expedition 4 crew members Yuri Onufrienko, RK3DUO, and Carl Walz, KC5TIE,
installed ARISS antennas during a 2002 space walk. NASA says international
cooperation has tightened over the past year, especially in the planning and
execution of space walks. Last February, Expedition 8 crew members Mike
Foale, KB5UAC, and Flight Engineer Alexander "Sasha" Kaleri, U8MIR,
conducted the first space walk by a two-person ISS crew without a crew
member left inside, demonstrating that such activities can be both
successful and safe.

Expedition 9's Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, ended up
conducting three space walks. On the fly they worked out procedures to swap
out Russian spacesuits for the US gear after a problem arose with Fincke's
US suit. During one excursion, Padalka and Fincke successfully repaired a
gyroscope control unit. In the past, a space shuttle would have delivered a
new control unit or space suit.

"The crews have shown repairing hardware in space with few supplies and
equipment is possible," Gerstenmaier said. "Missions far from Earth will
benefit from their work."

Milestones
This week also marked another first when Chiao cast his vote in the November
2 presidential election while orbiting 230 miles above Earth. A law the
Texas State Legislature passed in 1997 allows astronauts to vote
electronically from space. Chiao submitted his electronic ballot to his
county clerk's office via e-mail.

An additional milestone in spaceflight was reached earlier this year when
Foale accumulated more time in space than any other US astronaut. Counting
his time aboard the ISS and previous missions, he logged 374 days, 11 hours
and 19 minutes.

More ARISS Stats
Since the Expedition 1 crew carried out the first successful ARISS school
group contact--with Luther Burbank Elementary School near Chicago on
December 21, 2000--ISS crews have racked up 151 similar Amateur Radio
contacts. Approximately two-thirds of them have been direct, 2-meter QSOs,
while the rest were carried out via "telebridge" stations, where two-way
audio was teleconferenced to the school via an Earth station convenient to
QSO NA1SS directly.

The crew holding the record for the most ARISS school group contacts was
Expedition 3. Commander Frank Culbertson, KD5OPQ, answered questions via ham
radio posed by students at 22 different schools. Culbertson also activated
NA1SS during the 2001 Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) scouting event.
ARISS Progress in 2004

During the past year, ARISS has installed, tested and put into service its
Phase 2 ham equipment--a second Amateur Radio station located in the crew's
quarters. The ARISS Phase 2 station, a modified Kenwood TM-D700E, was used
for the last three ARISS school group contacts. More recently, that
equipment has served as the RS0ISS packet station and, occasionally, as a
Mode V/U FM voice repeater. A multiband, multimode Yaesu FT-100D transceiver
and a slow-scan TV system are expected to be launched to the ISS within the
next year.

Shuttle Return to Flight will Impact ARISS
NASA recently announced that after an extensive review, it's planning its
return-to-flight shuttle mission, STS-114, for a launch window that opens
next May. ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, says PCSat 2--an
externally mounted ham radio payload--is expected to fly on that shuttle
flight, which also will mark the return of three-person ISS crews. "We will
also be able to better negotiate the delivery of our computer, which is
essential for the SSTV system," Bauer added.--some information from NASA

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