Astronauts Andy Thomas, VK5MIR/ex-KD5CHF, and Dave Leestma, N5WQC, have announced their retirements from NASA. Both operated on ham radio from space, and Thomas, as the last US astronaut to complete a duty tour onboard the Russian Mir space station, conducted several contacts with students on Earth as part of the SAREX program, the predecessor to ARISS.
A native of Australia, Thomas, 62, became …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Japanese Astronaut Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA, served as the host for a successful final commissioning pass April 13 for the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) “Ham Video” transmitter and camera. Operating as OR4ISS from the ISS Columbus module, Wakata transmitted digital video and audio, as ground stations in France and Italy tracked the station. The Earth stations received cl…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
After spending 143 days in space, Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford, KF5GPP, Russian Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and Russian Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin (both of the Russian Federal Space Agency) will begin their voyage home to Earth on Thursday, March 14, marking the end of Expedition 34 on board the International Space Station (ISS). The trio will undock their Soyuz spacecraft at 8:30…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
On Friday, February 1 — the 10th anniversary of the Columbia accident — NASA will pay tribute to the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia with a Day of Remembrance. Flags across the agency will be flown at half-staff in their memory.
On January 27, 1967, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were killed in the Apollo 1 fire during a launch pad test. On Ja…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources