ISS Amateur Radio Status: November 20, 2002

Leonid Meteor Shower:
Shuttle Dates:
New ISS crew:
Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD on voice:

By Miles Mann WF1F,
MAREX-NA (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division)

On Monday evening the ISS crew enjoyed some of natures natural
fireworks.  The Leonids Meteor shower was clearly visible to the ISS
crew.  The Space Station has a few windows, which the crew can use for
observing.  Unfortunately the windows do not always line up with the
place you want to see.  The ISS were able to see approximately 50-60
meteors during a 10-minute period.  See the Amateur Radio email below.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_719_1.asp

When I realized that this mission would extended into the time of the
Leonids Meteor shower asked commander Valery Korzun, if he would like to
some information on the Meteor shower.  Of course, he was very
interested in observing the Meteor shower for many reasons. So, I began
a crash course in leaning all I could about the Leonid meteor shower and
how to plot an observation theory for the International Space Station. 
I would like to thank Alan MacRobert of Sky & Telescope for providing me
with some good web links.  With information from the web and some number
crunching with two satellite tracking program (STSPLUS and InstaTrack),
I was able to calculate a few good meteor observations time schedules. 
I then sent the information to the International Space Station the day
before the Leonid Meteor Shower, which peaked between the hours of 0300
- 1200 UTC November 19, 2002.

[I received this message from the ISS commander Krozun a few hours
before the meteor shower began.]

To : WF1F 
>From : RS0ISS 
Stat : PR 
Posted : 00/00/00 00:07
To : WF1F 
>From : RS0ISS 
@ BBS : 
xID : 

Subject: LEONID

DEAR MILES, THANKS A LOT FOR INFO.
WE WILL BE NEAR WINDOWS AT THAT TIME. 
IT'S VERY GOOD DIRECTION.
I'LL USE DICTAPHONE END FIRST MESSAGE I'LL SEND TO YOU.
THANKS MY FRIEND!.73.VALERY.

[This message was sent by the ISS commander during the Leonid meteor
shower.]

Stat   : PR    
Posted : 02/11/19 08:42
To     : WF1F   
From   : RS0ISS 
@ BBS  :        
xID    : 

Subject: LEONIDS
MILES, 
YOU WAS [the] FIRST WHO SEND METEOR SHOWER'S DATA ON ISS. 
THE CALCULATING WAS EXCELLENT. 
WE HAVE NICE TIME TO OBSERVE LEONIDS ATTACK. 
I CALCULATED ABOUT 50-60 METEORS FOR 7-10 MINUTES NOT TOO MUCH BUT WE
DIDN'T HAVE 
GOOD VIEW THROUGH WINDOWS.
NO VIDEO, NO PICTURES IT'S VERY DIFFICULT TO DO IT. 
THANKS A LOT FOR COOPERATION!


73.VALERY.

CMD(B/H/J/K/KM/L/M/R/S/SB/SP/ST/SR/V/?)>

Shuttle Night launch Visible:
The Shuttle STS-113 will be launched to the International Space Station
some time after November 21.  The launch will be a Night launch and will
be visible in the evening sky. The Glow from the Solid Rocket boosters
and the Liquid fuel engines has been seen as far north as Maine on past
missions.  The shuttle has been delayed for some minor repairs, please
check the NASA web pages for current launch schedules.  
 
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/

The day after the shuttle launches, it will again be visible in the
early morning hours as it chases the ISS for a docking a few days later
(North America). If you do not have a tracking program, please check the
NASA web pages for tracking and Visibility data.  The NASA pages have a
visibility chart for hundreds of cities around the world. There have
been several good reports of very bright reflections from ISS.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/index.html

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/SightingData/sighting_index.html

New ISS crew:
This shuttle will bring a new replacement crew to ISS this week.  The
departing crew is crew #5 and the arriving crew will be crew #6.  It
will be sad to see Valery Korzun leave ISS.  It has been a lot of fun to
have him in Space.  He has been a very active Ammeter Radio operator and
has brought joy to many Amateur Radio stations around with world with
his frequent random voice orbits.  Valery has also done a great job
keeping the ISS Packet Station running.
The new ISS crew will contain at least one experienced Amateur Radio
operator.  Nikolai Budarin is an experienced ham from his Mir missions
in 1998.  Nikolai helped install he MAREX modem upgrade project on Mir. 
The old tnc was replaced by a new Kantronics KPC-9612 TNC, which was
connected to a Kenwood TM-733 on Mir in 1998.

ISS Expedition 5 crew:
Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD
Sergei Treschev RZ3FU
Valeri Korzun RZ3FK

ISS Expedition 6 crew:
Kenneth Bowersox KD5JBP
Nikolai Budarin RV3FB
Donald Pettit KD5MDT
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp6/index.html

Happy landings ISS Expedition 5 crew:


Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD on voice:
On November 17 at 03:58 UTC ISS astronaut Peggy Whinston KC5ZTD was
heard making a few random contacts on 145.800 / 144.490.  She was heard
talking to Steve WU3I and Miles WF1F and others.


www.marex-na.org

Copyright 2002 Miles Mann, All Rights Reserved.  This document may be
freely
distributed via the following means - Email (including listservers),
Usenet,
and World-Wide-Web.  It may not be reproduced for profit including, but
not
limited to, CD ROMs, books, and/or other commercial outlets without
prior
written consent from the author.

Until we meet again

DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F