This section is dedicated to manned Amateur Radio missions in Space Ships and Space Stations. Many thanks to all the Astronauts and Cosmonauts who spend part of their free time in space operating the Amateur Radio equipment and thus provide us here on Earth so much excitement and fun !
W5LFL, Dr. Owen Garriott, in Spacelab-1 Columbia STS-9 operated the world's first Amateur Radio Station from space. He was followed 25 years later by his son Richard Gariott (see further below). Recorded and commented on Dec 4th 1983 by Alois DL3PD (SK).
Horst DL9MH managed to get recorded on the tape recorder of W5LFL during the very same pass over Europe dated December 4th 1983 at 15:24 UTC. Horst used 40 Watts and a 5 element Yagi antenna to transmit his signal on 2m. Together with a QSL card from W5LFL he received enclosed recording which he kindly provided to me.
The German astronaut Dr. Ulf Merbold (ham radio callsign DB1KM) was also part of this Spacelab-1 mission (lower picture to the left).
Challenger's number 1 main engine shut itself down premature after the launch and thus STS-51-F did not reach its target orbit. Yet the mission was continued. The QSO on 2m of AA3O and Dr. Tony England (W0ORE) was recorded by Jim N4ST.
Also commander Gordon Fullerton operated SAREX using the callsign W0ORE during this flight. He was recorded by John KD2BD.
STS-51-F carried beside Spacelab-2 also the experiment SAREX(1). This allowed SSTV (slow scan television) transmissions from the Space Ship on its 2m downlink. Enclosed the CW identification and beginning of a SSTV transmission recorded by N4ST.
These two SSTV recordings were done on Aug 5th 1985 in the 2m band from Greg Roberts ZS1BI in Cape Town.
This is a record of the communications between the station manager "Jack" at the BOTSWANA ground station and Challenger. Unfortunately only the downlink on either 259.7 or 296.8 MHz can be heard. In the file longer pauses were cut out. At start it sounds like Shuttle was being relayed to Houston and in the second transmission "Jack" may be heard. Recorded on Aug 6th 1985 by Greg ZS1BI.
Spacelab D-1 mission inculding 2 German Astronauts Prof. Dr. Reinhard Furrer (DD6CF) and Dr. Ernst Messerschmid (DG2KM). Prof. Dr. Furrer died during an airplane accident on September 9th 1995. The record is comprised of several parts including CW beacon transmissions "CQ DP0SL record on tape k", taped voice message transmissions and a live contact. (file 2 MByte large). Recorded by Peter DF2JB.
This recording includes two of the first random contacts of DP0SL (operator DD6CF) which were with DJ7Z? and DB2FB. Recorded and kindly by Eyke DD1EK.
Dr. Ernst Messerschmid DP0SL in contact with Horst DL9MH operating the club station DK0SG on Sunday November 3rd 1985. Recorded on the downlink frequency of 145.575 MHz in FM by Alois DL3PD (SK).
The very same contact on November 3rd 1985 between DP0SL and DL9MH at DK0SG was also recorded by Horst. Accordingly his recording includes his own uplink signal. Horst Ellgering was the trainer of Ernst Messerschmidt during the preparation of this mission. Recording kindly provided by Horst DL9MH.
Many radio amateurs around the world were listening to DP0SL. When the crew was not at the ham radio station a CW message was transmitted and the voice calls from people on Earth were recorded on a tape recorder. The beacon "CQ DP0SL record on tape k" was recorded by Jochen DL4IE.
Also the club station DF0VR of DFVLR in Oberpfaffenhofen transmitted on 3695 kHz in SSB reports on the mission such as the enclosed interview with Ulf Merbold. Ulf Merbold was not in space during this 10 min. interview but gave interesting insight in he D1-mission. Recorded and commented on Sunday November 3rd by Jochen DL4IE.
The main mission goal of STS-37 using Space Shuttle Atlantis was to release the Gamma-Ray-Observatory GRO. All 5 Astronauts on this mission held a Ham Radio license. Mission commander Steven R. Nagel N5RAW (SK) had quite some contacts. Also Ben Crnojacki VK3KBCin Melbourne had a successful FM contact with Steve N5RAW during a pass over Australia on April 8th 1991 at 21:48 AEST. Ben used an uplink frequency of 144.950 MHz (20 Watts into a 9 element Yagi) and a downlink frequency of 145.550 MHz. Recorded and kindly provided by by Ben VK3KBC.
Helen Patricia Sharman was the first female British Astronaut. She visited MIR in 1991 conducting the scientific space mission Juno, which was mostly dedicated to school contacts using Ham Radio and the callsign GB1MIR. She had been handed over her Ham Radio license by Richard Horton G3XWH a month before launch. Helen had several school contacts using the frequency 145.550 MHz.
Using the callsign, GB0JUNO, six licenced pupils at the Harrogate Ladies’ College established the initial contact with Helen on May 21st 1991 and then passed transmission to the other eight schools involved in the experiment. Katy G7NST asked Helen the first question: “If you had no clock on board Mir, what would give you sense of time in space?”. After her return to Earth Helen Sharman visited the Harrogate Ladies’ College club station used for GB0JUNO. From left to right are Anna-Karin G7IRR, Helen Sharman GB1MIR, Richard Horton G3XWH and Katy G7NST. Recorded and kindly provided by Richard Horton G3XWH.
Another contact with GB1MIR was made the second day of the mission, on May 23rd 1991 between Helen and GB0JUNO. Recorded and kindly provided by Richard Horton G3XWH.
Finally a 3rd short contact with GB1MIR was made the 3rd day of the mission, on May 24th 1991 between Helen and GB0JUNO. Recorded and kindly provided by Richard Horton G3XWH.
David G8XHW in Durham City IO94FU received and recorded GB1MIR multiple times on 145.800 MHz. He was using a horizontally polarized 6 element quad-antenna and a YAESU FT-290R portable transceiver. David's current callsign is M0BPM. Pauses in the recordings have been shortened. Recordings kindly forwarded by John G7HIA (SK).
From March 17th to March 25th 1992 Klaus-Dietrich Flade DL1MIR participated in the "Euromir 92" mission. He brought a digital voice recorder up to MIR. He had a few amateur radio contacts using the callsign DP1MIR with his Astronaut colleagues on Earth Hans Schlegel DG1KIH as well as with Ulrich Walter DG1KIM. The contact of DL1MIR with Hans Schlegel operating the station of Horst DL9MH was recorded on March 23rd 1992 and kindly provided by Horst DL9MH.
Also Horst DL9MH, who was during this time a leading member of DLR, had a contact with DL1MIR. Enclosed audio file is a an interview of Horst with the broadcaster "Süddeutscher Rundfunk" and was kindly provided by DL9MH.
The Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX) was used to talk with students in 17 schools in the USA, Belgium, Canada, England, Norway, Germany and Wales. Three of the STS-45 crewmembers were even successful in making random contact with amateur radio operators on all seven Earth's continents. During the 8 day flight, they had over 1000 QSO's with hams and students groups.
Dr. Kathryn Sullivan N5YYV was using the callsign N5WQN while operating SAFEX. Enclosed you can hear her calling CQ and confirming QSOs.
Dirk D. Frimout ON1AFD was also operating with the callsign N5WQC. Enclosed you can hear him calling CQ and confirming QSOs.
The file enclosed was recorded during the contact with "Richard" of Ostfield Regional College in Halden, Norway.
One of the schools-contacts was conducted by David (Dave) Leestma using the callsign N5WQW. The contact with Harrogate Ladies’ College (HLC) who used the callsign GB2HC was managed by Richard Horton. Recorded and kindly provided by Richard G3XWH.
German astronauts on this mission were Hans Schlegel DG1KIH and Ulrich Walter DG1KIM. As the low inclination of this shuttle mission did not allow to receive the signals in Europe a ham radio ground station in Nauakchott/Mauretania was established. In total 14 school contacts were conducted.
Euromir was an international space programme between the Russian Federal Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA). From October 4th until November 3rd 1994 Dr. Ulf Merbold (DB1KM) stayed 4 weeks onboard the space station MIR participating in the "Euromir 94" mission. Ulf Merbold used the callsign DP3MIR and various contacts with radio amateurs.
In the evening of October 16th 1994 I had a short contact with him DP3MIR on 145.550 MHz. Recorded by DD1US.
For some reason I received a QSL card, which was interestingly only confirming a reception report instead of confirming our contact.
Several years later in summer 2018 I met Ulf Merbold in person. We talked about this mission and his Ham Radio activities. He wrote some greetings on my QSL card as you can see on the right.
On October 28th 1994 during orbit 49682 Ulf DP3MIR had a long contact with Horst DL9MH on an alternative frequency in the 2m ham radio band. Enclosed recording was kindly provided by DL9MH.
On October 29th 1994 both DP3MIR and DL9MH had another contact. Enclosed recording was kindly provided by DL9MH.
Oscar DJ0MY recorded several passes of DP3MIR. Among the callsigns confirmed by DP3MIR in his recordings are Thomas DL9YEY, Karl DG5OAF, Heinz Werner DC6LN, Michael DB6VH, DL9GKA, Mart DL6UAA, Dorothea DK7EB, Herrmann DL2GKH and Hermann DG3SAA. Recordings kindly compiled and provided by Oscar DJ0MY.
In 1995 STS-67 carried the ASTRO-2 payload into space. Ron Parise WA4SIR (+ May 9th 2008) was a payload specialist and in his spare time also made contacts on 2m in FM with radio amateurs. WD8BYA Gedas talked to him and his daughter Marlorraine thanked Ron for a signed picture which she had previously received from him. Recorded by Gedas W8BYA.
On March 14th 1995 astronaut Dr. Norman Taggart started his journey to the MIR space station with a launch on the russian Sojus TM-21 rocket. He was the fist american astronaut riding into space in a Russian rocket and was part of the 18th MIR team (MIR EO-18). He conducted 28 experiments during his 115 day stay aboard MIR and also operated the Ham Radio equipment. On July 7th 1995 he landed with the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-71) at Kennedy Space Center.
Norm Thagard talking to Jay Apt (N5QWL), an Astronaut who was at that time in Johnson Space Center. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
Norm Thagard also made many random contact with Radio Amateurs. In this recording he is replying to N2CQR/HI8. Received and recorded by Bill Meara N2CQR during Bill's stay in HI8 (Dominican Republic).
On April 22nd 1995 at 15:49 UTC Bill N2CQR/HI8 made his 4th contact with Norm Thagard oboard the Mir Station. The were talking about the movie "The right stuff" and Bill told him "Godspeed Norm Thagard!" Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
This is another contact between Norm Thagard and Bill N2CQR/HI8. They were wishing a good night to each other. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
Norm Thagard explaining probably to school children about watching lightning from the MIR space station. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
Norm Thagard explaining probably to school children about sleeping in zero gravity. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8
Norm Thagard describes rearrangement of MIR's modules. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
Norm Thagard talking about staying up late waiting for a resupply ship to arrive at MIR. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
In this recording Norm Thagard mentions that he will have to take another breath sample in 3 minutes. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
In this recording Norm Thagard is talking ot trying to contact Radio Amateurs in Cuba. Received and recorded by Bill N2CQR while he was in HI8.
Don Thomas was part of the Crew on STS-70 (Space Shuttle Discovery). On July 16th 1995 at 14:19 UTC Bill N2CQR/HI8 was taking advantage of the multiple opportunities afforded by his 18.5 degree N. latitude QTH in the Dominican Republic and a 28.5 degree inclination orbit of the Space Shuttle. He was able to contact Don Thomas KC5FCF aboard the Shuttle Discovery in FM voice. Don frequently put out CQ's on 145.55 MHz and Bill uplinked on 144.95 MHz. Signals were quite strong. Recording kindly provided by Bill N2CQR (www.gadgeteer.us).
As part of MIR Crew #20 Sergei Vasiliyevich Avdeyev served as a flight engineer. He arrived and departed the MIR space station with Soyuz TM-22.
Sergei Avdeyev also operated the Ham Radio Station using the callsign R0MIR. He was received and recorded by Bill Meara N2CQR during Bill's stay in HI8 (Dominican Republic).
During the mission "Euromir 95" Dr. Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, stayed 6 months in the space station MIR. During this time he was also active in Amateur Radio using the callsign DP0MIR. I had 4 voice contacts with Thomas using FM simplex mode in the 2m band (frequency 145.975MHz). I recorded this first audio file on October 4th 1995 around 06:00 UTC.
The second file was recorded during another long talk some days later. We discussed problems in the installation of the new radio transceiver. Recorded by DD1US.
Also Robert DL5GAC had a nice contact with Thomas DP0MIR on October 29th 2005 at 20:28 UTC on 145.800 MHz. Recorded by DL5GAC.
Thomas Reiter DP0MIR tried to contact WB9LUR. He was received and recorded by Bill Meara N2CQR during Bill's stay in HI8 (Dominican Republic).
SAFEX was built by Thomas Kieselbach DL2MDE. Thomas (shown on the picture to the right) passed away on Oct. 8th 2002.
Shannon Lucid aboard MIR announced on the weekend July 13th/14th 1996 on the frequency 437.925 MHz:"Thanks for the Radio SAFEX, we just turned it on and the best wishes from the crew of MIR 21." Recorded by Ricardo PY3VHQ.
Another recording from Shannon Lucid was received shortly before MIR crew 22 launched on August 17th 1996. Kindly provided by Serg RV3DR.
During the "MIR97" mission (Feb. 10th 1997 until March 2nd 1997) Dr. Reinhold Ewald (Callsign DL2MIR) stayed onboard MIR and activated the SAFEX experiment using the callsign RR0DL. SAFEX was a repeater, digipeater and radio operating in the 70cm band (435 MHz). Enclosed a recorded voice message which was received by Thomas HB9SKA.
Dr. Reinhold Ewald DL2MIR also made random contacts with hams. The enclosed contact was recorded on February 20th 1997 while MIR was crossing Germany by Harald DH8HHA.
Another short SAFEX message was giving the callsign RR0DL and indicating QSO mode. Kindly provided by Serg RV3DR.
While the SAFEX Ham Radio equipment onboard the MIR space station was configured as a 70cm voice repeater I made several contacts using it. In repeater mode the downlink frequency was 437.950 MHz, the uplink 2.2 MHz lower thus 435.750 MHZ and a CTCSS-tone of 141.3 HZ had to be used on the uplink. Enclosed contact between Torsten DG7RO, who was operating the club station DL0TZ, and me (DD1US) was recorded on June 16th 1997 at 19:28 UTC. Recording kindly provided by Torsten DG7RO.
While Dr. Reinhold Ewald DL2MIR was visiting MIR Alexandr Kaleri (part of the 27th expedition to MIR with a 6 month stay) used the callsign U8MIR. Enclosed greeting he sent to all Hams around the world which were recorded by Ricardo PY3VHQ in Spring 1997.
On February 23rd 1997 (Reinhold Ewald was still onboard) a fire broke out in the MIR space station. Valery Korzun (also part of the 27th expedition to MIR) used the callsign U8MIR when reporting about this event a day later to Hams. Recorded on February 24th 1997 on 145.800 MHz (FM) by Harald DH8HHA.
Michael Foale (KB5UAC) spent four months on Mir in 1997 during the Mir 23 and Mir 24 missions. During his mission a Progress cargo ship collided with the space station. On June 21st 1997 he addressed wishes to contest participants in USA. Recorded and kindly provided by Mike N1JEZ.
Mike Foale made also contact with Richard Horton at Harrogate Ladies Collage (HLC) in UK, who was using the callsign GB2SR. They had an early morning contact on September 26th 1997 around 4 am. Recorded and kindly provided by Richard Horton G3XWH.
Sergej Awdejew stayed more than 1 year on the MIR space station During his stay he also operated the Ham Radio equipment using the callsign R0MIR. In December 1998 he made a school contact with Harrogate Ladies Collage (HLC) in UK using the callsign GX0HCA. Recorded and kindly provided by Richard Horton G3XWH.
Starting December 12th 1998 an Amateur Radion SSTV transmitter was activated in the Russian Space Station MIR. Here is an article describing how this came into existence. If you click on the picture to the left you can have a look at some pictures I received directly from the MIR space station in December 1998. The transmission was Slow Scan Television (SSTV, sub mode Robot). During the first two pictures the camera was directed out of the window showing part of the space station. The 3rd picture shows the crew operating the HAM radio equipment.
Jean-Pierre Haignere spent more than six months on Mir in 1999. During his mission he made various ham radio contacts including the one recorded enclosed with Mike N1JEZ. Recorded and kindly provided by Mike N1JEZ.
Mir (english peace), a Russian space station, was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space. Constructed from 1986 to 1996 using a modular design (core module launched February 20th 1986) the station was in operation for fifteen years before it was deliberately de-orbited and re-entered into the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean on March 23rd 2001. 10 years after its reentry I built a model of MIR which is now in my bookshelf and a nice reminiscence of the various contacts I had with people onboard MIR.
The crew #1 of the ISS was the team of Commander William M. Shepherd KD5GSL, Soyuz Pilot Yuri P. Gidzenko RK3DOG and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev U5MIR. They arrived on Nov. 2nd 2000 and stayed 136 days until STS-102 undocked on March 18th 2001. Please click on the picture to the very left to get the history and roadmap of ISS's assembly.
ARISS (Amateur Radio on International Space Station): During her 163 days stay as part of Expedition #2 aboard ISS Susan Helms (KC7NHZ) also had a random contact with John Magliacane KD2BD who operated a "field day station". Recorded on June 23rd 2001 by John KD2BD.
As part of ISS crew #3 Frank Culbertson (KD5OPQ) stayed 129 days on ISS. He also operated the ham radio station using the callsign NA1SS. On October 19th 2001 John KD2BD had a very nice contact with him. Recording provided by KD2BD.
ARISS (Amateur Radio on International Space Station): Being part of crew #7 on June 14th 2003 at 17:30 UTC Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, had a contact with pupils of Ecole primaire de l'Apprenti-Sage, Quebec, Canada. You can hear him answering the following questions:
While being part of crew #8 On December 6th 2003 Mike Foale (KB5UAC) had a commemorative event contact dedicated to Roy Neal with KD2BD. Audio recording provided by John KD2BD.
On April 25th 2004 Dutch Astronaut Andre Kuipers PI9ISS had a contact with the University of Eindhoven PI4UTE. The contact had to be postponed by one orbit-pass due to conflicts with other scheduled tasks on ISS. Complete pass (9 minutes, 2MB) recorded by PA3GUO.
Mike Fincke KE5AIT was part of ISS crew #9. On July 31st 2004 at 14:50 UTC, while using the callsign NA1SS, he had a contact with Kevin VK3UKF. Kevin used a handheld transceiver and recorded the audio file.
As part of the STS-114 Discovery crew on August 5th 2005 Australian astronaut Dr. Andy Thomas KD5CHF/VK5MIR had a contact with his fellow countryman Kevin VK3UKF. Recorded and kindly provided by VK3UKF.
William S. McArthur KC5ACR, ISS expedition #12 commander, was one of the most active astronauts operating the ham radio station aboard ISS. His mission lasted 6 months from October 1st 2005 until April 8th 2006. He made 37 contacts with school children around the world. Enclosed contact with K4YHB, Pine Ridge Middle School in Naples/Florida, was recorded on Feb 8th 2006 15:24UTC by Don N4UJW.
On January 9th 2006 John KD2BD had a short random contact with Bill McArthur. Recording kindly provided by John KD2BD.
On January 21st 2006 Bill had a random contact with Mrs. Juliana Moser PY5JMJ in Brazil. Many thanks to her husband Fabiano PY5RX for providing the recording.
In spring 2006 also Juliana`s husband Fabiano PY5RX hand several random contacts with Bill McArthur. Thanks to Fabiano for providing the interesting recordings.
Marcos Pontes PY0AEB was part of the ISS Expedition #13 crew. During is stay on ISS from March 30th 2006 until April 8th 2006 he was also an active ham radio amateur. The enclosed contact with Fabriano PY5RX was recorded by Fabiano on April 3rd 2006 at 14:34 UTC.
In autumn 2006 Anousheh Ansari visited ISS as the first female space tourist. Besides conducting 4 scientific experiments for ESA she also operated the amateur radio station using the callsign RS0ISS. She had a random contact with Piraja PS8RF on September 27th 2006 at 15:42 UTC. Recorded and kindly provided by Piraja PS8RF.
Scheduled school contact of RS0ISS operated by Mikhail Tyurin (RZ3FT) with students at "Erweiterte Realschule Weiskirchen" in Germany (DN1ERW). Due to problems in the uplink from the school only a few questions could be answered in 2 consecutive passes. Recorded on Dec 8th 2006 at 22:15UTC & 23:50UTC by DD1US.
Scheduled school contact of NA1SS operated by Clayton Anderson (KD5PLA) with students at Isummasaqvik School in Quaqtaq, Quebec, Canada. The contact took place while ISS was over Europe with the help of ON4ISS in Belgium as a Telebridge Station. The students asked 20 questions (see attached text file). You can hear only the corresponding answers from NA1SS. Recorded on Oct 10th 2007 at 18:33 UTC on the downlink of 145.800MHz by DD1US.
On Dec 27th 2007 at 10:10 UTC Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP used the callsign RS0ISS and called ON4ISS for a scheduled ARISS contact. ON4ISS did not answer and the telebridge contact to a school in Moscow had to be rescheduled. Recorded on 145.800 MHz by DD1US.
If you have further recordings from space objects please let me know. I will be happy to add them to my homepage. Many thanks in advance.