The next private citizen to be flown to the International Space Station (ISS) by the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA), is Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, from Austin, TX. He will be taking ham radio into space just as his dad, Dr. Owen Garriott, W5LFL -- the very first ham to make QSOs from space -- did twenty-five years ago.
Richard is the sixth private citizen to be flown by the Russian space agency to the ISS; all other private citizens who have ventured to the ISS before him have also made ARISS QSOs. The 10-day trip is reportedly costing Garriott some $30 million; he made his fortune as a computer programmer of video games.
Garriott will launch October 12 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station on a Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Lonchakov. Docking with ISS is planned for October 14 and undocking: October 22. He will land with the two Russian members of the Expedition 17 crew on October 24. Fincke and Lonchakov will join NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, KD5PKZ, who has been on board the orbiting complex since June.
Early during the flight, Garriott expects to setup the Kenwood VC-H1 SSTV communicator system and autonomously transmit a new Earth image every 3 minutes. He hopes to have this system on a great deal of his flight. AMSAT is encouraging the ham community to bring SSTV equipment into schools and download these images in real-time.
Garriott will be speaking with hundreds of students while thousands more listen in during a series of ten-minute ham radio contacts. The locations for the worldwide student contacts include eight Challenger Learning Centers in the U.S., the Austin Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy in Austin, Texas, the Pinehurst School in Ashland, Oregon, the Budbrooke School in the U.K., and the National Space Challenge in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, the commander of Expedition 18, could assist with the QSOs. Garriott also plans to have random chats with scouts world-wide as part of the amateur radio "Jamboree on the Air" which is planned for October 18-19.
"Through his school and scout voice contacts, his SSTV image downlinks and his communications with the world-wide amateur radio community, we see his mission as being ‘action packed’ from an amateur radio perspective,” said Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, ARISS International Chairman and AMSAT Vice President for Human Spaceflight Programs.
Richard is the sixth private citizen to be flown by the Russian space agency to the ISS; all other private citizens who have ventured to the ISS before him have also made ARISS QSOs. The 10-day trip is reportedly costing Garriott some $30 million; he made his fortune as a computer programmer of video games.
Garriott will launch October 12 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station on a Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yuri Lonchakov. Docking with ISS is planned for October 14 and undocking: October 22. He will land with the two Russian members of the Expedition 17 crew on October 24. Fincke and Lonchakov will join NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, KD5PKZ, who has been on board the orbiting complex since June.
Early during the flight, Garriott expects to setup the Kenwood VC-H1 SSTV communicator system and autonomously transmit a new Earth image every 3 minutes. He hopes to have this system on a great deal of his flight. AMSAT is encouraging the ham community to bring SSTV equipment into schools and download these images in real-time.
Garriott will be speaking with hundreds of students while thousands more listen in during a series of ten-minute ham radio contacts. The locations for the worldwide student contacts include eight Challenger Learning Centers in the U.S., the Austin Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy in Austin, Texas, the Pinehurst School in Ashland, Oregon, the Budbrooke School in the U.K., and the National Space Challenge in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, the commander of Expedition 18, could assist with the QSOs. Garriott also plans to have random chats with scouts world-wide as part of the amateur radio "Jamboree on the Air" which is planned for October 18-19.
"Through his school and scout voice contacts, his SSTV image downlinks and his communications with the world-wide amateur radio community, we see his mission as being ‘action packed’ from an amateur radio perspective,” said Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, ARISS International Chairman and AMSAT Vice President for Human Spaceflight Programs.
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