ARRLWeb: Civilian Space Traveler May Get on the Air from NA1SS for Casual Contacts

NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 3, 2005--A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the International Space Station's Expedition 12 crew and an American civilian space traveler docked with the orbiting laboratory early today. Onboard were Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, Russian Cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, and civilian Greg Olsen, KC2ONX, the third private citizen in space. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) said today there's a chance that Olsen may make some casual Amateur Radio contacts from space if he can find time in his very busy schedule, and it provided a schedule of possible passes for various parts of the world.

"Please keep in mind, depending on the hours he is doing his science experiments, Greg may or may not have time for any of these passes," said ARISS International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. "But if he happens to have no experiments to take care of at these times, he may decide to pick up the ARISS microphone to talk to hams."

(L-R) US spaceflight participant Greg Olsen, KC2ONX, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Valery Tokarev, and Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. [NASA Photo]

Olsen, who will spend a little more than a week in space, is scheduled to conduct ARISS school group contacts October 5 with Princeton High School, Princeton, New Jersey; October 6 with Ft Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, New York, and October 7 with Ridgefield Park High School in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Olsen resides in Princeton. If he gets on the air from space outside of those scheduled Amateur Radio activities, Olsen would use the ARISS call sign NA1SS, and operation would most likely be on 2 meters.

The ARISS FM voice downlink frequency worldwide is 145.800 MHz. The FM voice uplink for Region 2 and Region 3 (the Americas and the Pacific) is 144.49 MHz. The FM voice uplink for Region 1 (Europe, Central Asia and Africa) is 145.20 MHz. All frequencies are subject to Doppler shift.

Expedition 11 and 12 crewmembers gather in the ISS Zvezda Service Module for a quick welcome ceremony. (L-R) Civilian space traveler Greg Olsen, KC2ONX, Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, Expedition 12 Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, Expedition 11 Flight Engineer and Science Officer John Phillips, KE5DRY, and Expedition 12 Commander William McArthur, KC5ACR. [NASA TV]

Olsen's ISS visit is being arranged with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation by Space Adventures. Like Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth before him, he's 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 announced his pending voyage this past summer.

While in space, he'll also conduct scientific experiments on the station before returning to Earth with the Expedition 11 crew of Commander Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips, KE5DRY. Krikalev and Phillips have been aboard the ISS since April.

NASA says hatches between the arriving Soyuz and the ISS were opened at 0836 UTC. After hugs and greetings with the traditional bread and salt, the new crew members got a safety briefing from the Expedition 11 crew. In extensive handover briefings during their eight days together, they will get training on systems and experiments on the station and on the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

A retired US Army colonel, McArthur, 54, is a veteran of three shuttle flights, including one to the ISS and one to the Russian Mir space station. A Russian Air Force colonel, Tokarev, 52, has logged one flight to the ISS aboard a US space shuttle.

ARISS is an international educational outreach, with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA

General Contact Passes for Greg Olsen, KC2ONX
(Times are approximate)

Western US
10/03 1422-1437 UTC
10/04 1311-1329 UTC
10/05 1824-1843 UTC
10/06 1226-1243 UTC
10/07 1251-1307 UTC
10/08 1140-1157 UTC
10/09 1206-1221 UTC
10/10 1056-1114 UTC

Central US
10/03 1247-1305 UTC
10/04 1138-1157 UTC
10/05 1202-1220 UTC
10/06 1053-1109 UTC
10/07 1116-1133 UTC
10/07 1739-1758 UTC
10/08 1007-1024 UTC
10/09 1031-1049 UTC
10/09 1653-1715 UTC
10/10 0922-0939 UTC

Eastern US
10/03 1115-1132 UTC
10/04 1800-1819 UTC
10/05 1030-1047 UTC
10/06 1716-1733 UTC
10/07 0944-1001 UTC
10/08 1631-1648 UTC
10/09 0859-0916 UTC
10/10 1547-1603 UTC

Western Australia
10/03 0855-0909 UTC
10/04 1723-1740 UTC
10/05 0810-0824 UTC
10/06 1638-1655 UTC
10/08 1552-1609 UTC
10/10 1508-1523 UTC

Central Australia
10/03 1701-1717 UTC
10/04 0745-0803 UTC
10/05 1615-1631 UTC
10/07 1528-1546 UTC
10/09 1442-1501 UTC

Eastern Australia
10/03 1527-1541 UTC
10/04 1552-1605 UTC
10/05 1441-1455 UTC
10/06 1506-1521 UTC
10/08 1420-1435 UTC
10/09 1310-1324 UTC
10/10 1335-1349 UTC

Europe
10/03 1131-1148 UTC
10/04 1021-1038 UTC
10/05 0911-0928 UTC
10/06 0936-0954 UTC
10/07 0826-0842 UTC
10/08 0850-0908 UTC
10/09 0740-0758 UTC
10/10 0940-0955 UTC

Canada
10/03 1559-1620 UTC
10/04 1623-1644 UTC
10/05 1513-1534 UTC
10/06 1538-1557 UTC
10/07 1427-1448 UTC
10/08 1452-1512 UTC
10/09 1517-1537 UTC

Japan
10/06 1829-1842 UTC
10/07 1853-1907 UTC
10/08 1743-1756 UTC
10/09 1808-1822 UTC
10/10 1838-1847 UTC

South Africa
10/03 1502-1513 UTC
10/04 1527-1538 UTC
10/05 1417-1428 UTC
10/06 1441-1453 UTC
10/07 1331-1343 UTC
10/08 1356-1407 UTC
10/09 1246-1257 UTC
10/10 1310-1322 UTC
10/11 1159-1211 UTC