Space station crew 'hams' it up ahead of cargo ship visit

The International Space Station

By Richard Stenger
CNN.com Writer

(CNN) -- The first residents of the International Space Station enjoyed a few days rest before preparing for the arrival of a Russian spacecraft crammed with tons of supplies. During their down time they hooked up a ham radio and spoke with people more than 200 miles (320 km) below on Earth.

The crew of two cosmonauts and one astronaut over the weekend successfully fired up their new ham radio equipment in Zarya, one of three modules currently comprising the orbiting outpost, NASA said.

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The agency said the trio would use the radio to talk with school children and ham radio operators throughout the world. But a NASA spokesman at Mission Control in Houston said Monday he did not know who the crew spoke with during their first ham radio conversations.

Earlier, astronaut Bill Shepherd, the station commander, and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev prepared their floating home for an upcoming rendezvous with an unmanned Progress supply ship.

They hooked up cables and other hardware to enable the station's control system to automatically reactivate its jet thrusters after docking with a Progress or a manned Soyuz vehicle.

The jets are usually disabled right before docking to prevent accidental jet firings, which could damage solar panels on the arriving space vehicles.

The crew last week also made some headway in hooking up computers and cables for the onboard laptop computer network.

The first crew of the space station, from left: Sergei Krikalev, Yuri Gidzenko and Bill Shepherd

A Progress carrying more than two tons of food, supplies and spare parts is scheduled to lift from Earth on November 15 at 8:32 p.m. EST. The crew will spend about two weeks unloading the spacecraft after it docks on November 17 at 10:07 p.m. EST.

The Expedition 1 crew arrived November 2 for a four-month stay aboard the space station, which they unofficially christened "Alpha."

One of the most ambitious engineering projects ever, the station involves contributions from 16 nations and could eventually cost more than $60 billion.

The modular complex is designed to ensure continuous human habitation of space for more than a decade. When completed, perhaps as early as 2005, the station will spread over almost an acre and include as much pressurized living space as a Boeing 747.

Crew sets up shop on space station 'Alpha'
November 2, 2000
First space station residents speed toward new home
October 31, 2000
First space station crew hours from liftoff
October 30, 2000
First residents of space station raring to go
October 27, 2000

HSF - International Space Station
NASA
Boeing: Zarya: The Control Module

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