Next ISS "Space Tourist" Gets Amateur Radio Ticket

Examination mission accomplished: (L-R) Olsen with ARRL VE Team David Kozinn, K2DBK, Paul Elder, W2PWE, and ARRL Hudson Division Vice Director Joyce Birmingham, KA2ANF. [George Sabbi, KC2GLG, Photo]

NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 18, 2005--The next "space tourist" to visit the International Space Station is, once again, an Amateur Radio licensee. The FCC issued the call sign KC2ONX to Greg Olsen of Princeton, New Jersey, on August 16. Thanks to three volunteer examiners from the 10-70 Repeater Association in Northern New Jersey, Olsen--who held a ham ticket many years ago--was able to take and pass his Technician examination during a brief vacation window in his busy pre-flight training schedule. VE team member (and ARRL Hudson Division Vice Director) Joyce Birmingham, KA2ANF, says extra-heavy summertime traffic slowed the team's journey to Princeton, and the August 12 exam session, scheduled for 5 PM, almost didn't happen.

"Dr. Olsen suggested that due to the volume of traffic we were in, that we move the location of the meeting," she said, recounting a desperate cell phone conversation with Olsen as the traffic jam tightened further. With cell coverage crashing, however, the team members, traveling in two vehicles, regrouped via a local ham radio repeater, arranged to meet Olsen at a Princeton hotel that was closer and announced the location change to comply with FCC regulations. The test would take place in the hotel's lobby.

Next space tourist: Greg Olsen, KC2ONX, is now undergoing training in Russia to be the next Space Adventures "space explorer." [Space Adventures Photo]

"I have been working with testing folks for over 12 years now, and I thought I had done testing just about everywhere, but I believe this is a first for me," Birmingham said. But, she continued, Olsen was calm and collected and seemingly not troubled by the lack of privacy most ham radio exam takers enjoy. "I explained the testing procedure, got him registered and handed him the test," she said. "After about 10 minutes, he was finished."

Mission accomplished! Olsen has indicated he'd like to conduct some Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school group contacts from NA1SS. Having his ham radio license was the first step to making that happen.

The day Olsen took his test was his last in the US until after his space mission. He took off the next day for Russia to undergo further cosmonaut training for his approximately 10-day ISS visit, which is being arranged with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA) by Space Adventures. Like Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth before him, Olsen is believed to be paying in the vicinity of $20 million for the privilege of being the third civilian "space explorer," as Space Adventures called Olsen when it recently announced his pending voyage of a lifetime.

"I have been committed to this orbital mission ever since Space Adventures announced my candidacy last year," Olsen is quoted as saying in the Space Adventures announcement. "Since then, I have completed over 500 hours of cosmonaut training at Star City and am excited to finish my preparations."

In training: Olsen in a Russian Sokol space suit. [Space Adventures Photo]

Olsen, who's co-founder and chairman of the board of Sensors Unlimited Inc in Princeton, says he's also looking forward to finalizing the components of his remote sensing and astronomy research projects he plans to conduct while in space.

Current plans call for Olsen to fly to the ISS aboard a Soyuz spacecraft October 1 with Expedition 12 crew members Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, and Valery Tokarev from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A third Expedition 12 crew member, Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, was to have launched aboard the shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-121 on September 22. NASA announced this week, however, the shuttle fleet will remain grounded at least until next March.

Olsen had been accepted as a space explorer candidate in 2004, but several weeks into his training, a routine medical evaluation turned up a health issue--since remedied--that kept him from continuing his training, Space Adventures says. Following a reevaluation, Olsen got clearance last May to resume his training.

The ARRL VEC orchestrated the last-minute examination session for Olsen. After Olsen passed his Technician examination, Birmingham says, the VE team gave him a copy of QST along with his Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination. "We also presented Dr Olsen with a copy of the ARRL Handbook and ON4UN's Low Band DXing."

According to Space Adventures, Olsen, 60, is a native of Brooklyn, New York and holds a PhD in materials science from the University of Virginia. He founded Sensors Unlimited in 1991 and sold it five years ago for $700 million.

Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, Space Adventures is the only company to have launched private space explorers to the ISS. Several former NASA astronauts serve on the company's advisory board.

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