And They're Off! All-Ham Crew is ISS-Bound

NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 31, 2000--Right on schedule, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the all-ham International Space Station Expedition 1 crew blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this morning. Amateur Radio operation from the ISS is expected to debut by mid-month. The crew will spend four months aboard the ISS.
[RA audio file of launch.]

The ISS Expedition 1 crew: Left to right, Krikalev, Gidzenko, and Shepherd. [NASA Photo]

On board the Soyuz when it lifted off at 0753 UTC were US astronaut and Expedition 1 Commander William "Shep" Shepherd, KD5GSL, and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko--the Soyuz commander--and Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR. The Soyuz is expected to dock with the ISS on November 2.

"Give us a fast ship," Shepherd--a Navy captain--was quoted as saying. Shepherd, 51, is only the second US astronaut to go into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle. The Soyuz lifted off from the same launch pad where the space race began 43 years ago this month with the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite.

An artist's conception of the Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz will remain attached to the ISS to provide an emergency crew return vehicle. [view larger image]

In a NASA interview, Shepherd said the ISS will give humans "unique access to the space environment where we hope we can do very interesting and productive research." But he and the other Expedition 1 crew members also view the ISS as a stepping stone on the pathway to human habitation of space.

"If we don't have this progress with this space station, it means that humans in space are pretty much destined to stay close to the Earth, and I don't think that's what humans are about," Shepherd said.

Krikalev described the multinational ISS project as "joint exploration of the universe," while Gidzenko predicted that mankind "has to develop and will continue to develop in exploring space."

"You could even fantasize and say that for the future, man may have problems of overpopulation, problems with water and food and maybe we're going to have to develop some, explore some new planets, or regions in space," Gidzenko concluded.

The initial ARISS station in the ISS's Functional Cargo Block (Zarya) will look like this. [NASA Photo]

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station--or ARISS--initial station gear already is aboard the space station. It will be installed temporarily in the Zarya Functional Cargo Block of the ISS and will permit operation only on 2 meters--FM voice and packet. Tentative operating frequencies are: Worldwide downlink for voice and packet, 145.80 MHz; worldwide packet uplink, 145.99 MHz; Region 1 (Europe) voice uplink: 145.20 MHz; Region 2 and 3 voice uplink, 144.49 MHz. An ARISS operating schedule will depend on the crew's work schedules.

The Expedition 1 crew's primary mission will be to flight test the new space station and to assist with critical assembly activities on board in anticipation of the arrival of the station's first science laboratory early next year. However, ARISS spokesman Will Marchant, KC6ROL, says the crew has expressed a lot of interest in getting on ham radio early in the mission. Crew members may use their personal call signs or one of the "club station" call signs issued for ISS use--NA1SS, RZ3DZR, or DL0ISS.

QSLs and SWL reports will be processed via the ARRL or Radio Amateurs of Canada.

Cloud cover permitting, the continental United States will enjoy visible passes of the ISS for the next few days. Visit the Heavens Above site for more information.

For ARISS information and updates, visit the ARISS Web site.

For a Visual Reality tour of the ISS visit, http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/vtour/.

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