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 Previous: QRP Community: QRP Contesting (Part 1 of 2) |  Next: Talk by Hiram Percy Maxim's Grandson Enthralls Hams |
 Taking a lunch break during an ARISS meeting in Houston in 2000 were (L-R) Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE, and his wife, Gaby. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 10, 2002--Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE, of Wessling, Germany, died October 8. It's believed Kieselbach was in his late 60s or early 70s. Kieselbach was among the founders and early supporters of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program and a ham radio-in-space pioneer. He served as technical director for ARISS-Europe and represented Europe on the ARISS Technical Committee. In that role, he was directly involved in developing a Phase 2 ARISS project for the ISS.
"On behalf of the ARISS International Team, I would like to express my sadness in the loss of a true friend and outstanding technical ham," said ARISS Board Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. "As one of the founding delegates of ARISS, he challenged our team to push the technical limits of Amateur Radio in space." Bauer also expressed condolences to Kieselbach's wife, Gaby, and to his family.
According to ARISS Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, Kieselbach was sailing in the Aegean Sea with his wife when he suffered a fatal heart attack. His wife managed to steer the yacht safely to harbor, Bertels said.
Retired from an engineering career in the space industry, Kieselbach's Amateur Radio activities centered on satellites and manned space flight. He managed the German SAFEX (Space Amateur Funk EXperiment) ham repeater-in-space program aboard the Russian Mir spacecraft and participated in founding ARISS.
After suffering a heart attack while participating in an ARISS International Team meeting in the Netherlands in March 2000, Kieselbach was forced to reduce his activities. Earlier this year, he requested that ARISS gradually phase out his role as ARISS technical director. Florio Della Vedova, IW2NMB, subsequently was named to assist Kieselbach.
"ARISS has lost a prominent member and a dear friend," Bertels said. "To his wife Gaby and to his family, we extend our condolences. We feel very near to them in these days of grief."
Bauer said he first became acquainted with Kieselbach's outstanding technical abilities in 1985 during the STS-61-A German Spacelab-D1 space shuttle flight. "During this mission, he flew the first set of German Amateur Radio hardware on a human spaceflight," Bauer said, referring to the first SAFEX system, which Kieselbach had personally constructed.
"One of the most impressive parts of this system was the external antenna that was mounted on the outside of the Spacelab module," Bauer recalled. "Only Thomas, with his intense drive, could break through the human spaceflight barriers to get an antenna feedthrough. He was the first to fly an external antenna on a human spaceflight program."
Kieselbach's work "blazed a trail for Mir and ISS," Bauer said. Kieselbach's "Digitalker" digital voice recorder aboard Mir was used to transmit holiday messages from space in 1996. Bauer also cited Kieselbach's role in the STS-55 German Spacelab-D2 space shuttle flight in 1993 that was the first to include US and German-built ham gear.
"We thank him for his technical ideas and vision," Bauer said. "His vision to have a full-duplex radio system that transmits both the radio uplinks and downlinks to the ground will be on ISS in the future."
ARISS Board Chair Roy Neal, K6DUE, said he would miss Kieselbach's "ready laugh and his sheer delight" at getting the devices he'd designed, built and working for the Space Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX) and, later, ARISS, programs. "He was there at the beginning and will be sorely missed as we move on," Neal said.
Fellow German ARISS team member Jörg Hahn, DL3LUM--who described Kieselbach as his best friend--expressed shock at learning of Kieselbach's death. "In many nice and sometimes heated discussions we learned to deal with each other," Hahn recalled. "He had always the spirit of a pioneer with regard to new technology. I will really miss him."
Hahn and Neal suggested that a future space
project be named in Kieselbach's memory.
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