ISS crew congratulate SpaceShipOne

The International Space Station (ISS) crew this week congratulated the SpaceShipOne team on its third successful flight of a private human spacecraft and for winning the $10 million X Prize competition.

NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, and Russian Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, noted that for a few moments Monday morning, they were joined in space by SpaceShipOne pilot Brian Binnie.

"From Gennady and myself and the International Space Station team, congratulations on a job well done, and we're really glad SpaceShipOne returned safely," Fincke said.
He also discussed the private space flight during an earlier news teleconference called to sum up their stay in space, which is fast drawing to a close.

"For the most part," Fincke told reporters, "Gennady and I are pretty lonely up here - just the two of us - and when somebody else comes up here, even if it's 100 km, that still brings another person off of the planet, and that's special, and we believe in the space program."

Fincke said he and Padalka were "really impressed" when they got to see uplinked video of last week's successful SpaceShipOne flight to the edge of space by test pilot Mike Melvill.

The news teleconference October 4 came as the Expedition 9 crew is wrapping up its six-month stay aboard the ISS and getting ready to turn over the reins to a new crew. Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, and Flight Engineer and cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov are scheduled to
launch on October 13 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They'll arrive at the ISS two days later to begin their own tour of duty.

On other topics, Fincke and Padalka expressed confidence in the Russian Elektron oxygen-generating system aboard the ISS. The system has experienced some problems in recent weeks, but Fincke said he and Padalka are optimistic that the repairs will hold. The ISS has spare oxygen on board and "plenty of margin," Fincke added, if the Elektron were to
malfunction again. The system works by extracting oxygen from water and venting off the hydrogen.

The Expedition 9 crew members also agreed that while efforts to make the ISS work environment a lot quieter, they continue to wear hearing protection to preserve their hearing from the constant thrum of equipment and air circulation fans. "In the future, though, we should build quieter spacecraft," Fincke recommended. Padalka allowed that the ISS is "definitely more quiet than Mir," the former Russian space station on which he served a duty tour in the 1990s.

Padalka this week attained a milestone of sorts by racking up a total of one year in space. He's been aboard the ISS for 169 days. That time, coupled with his Mir mission, put him over the 365-day mark.

Fincke said his family "is the reason why I'm returning to the planet" later this month. He said the first thing on his agenda once he's back on Earth will be to spend some time alone with his wife and son and an infant daughter born while he was in space and whom he's never met. "My family
and I are going to go on another kind of ship," he said, suggesting an ocean cruise was in the offing.

Fincke also said he and Padalka were looking forward to the arrival of the Expedition 10 crew. They'll depart the ISS and return to Earth October 23, accompanied by Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin, who will travel to the ISS with the Expedition 10 crew.

After the news conference, Fincke called on ground controllers to help him identify what he called an "unidentified floating object" aboard the ISS.
The piece - apparently a machined block of metal with rounded edges on both sides and two protruding pins - was found in a plastic bag and lacks any identifying marks.

"It's up to you guys to make it an IFO - an identified floating object," Fincke told the ground crew as he allowed the object to float within view of the ISS camera.

Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The American Radio Relay League

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