ISSCOM 18 April 2001 (009)

Communications: Gradually the ISS has begun to pass Western Europe during the afternoon and evening hours and this made it possible to be sure about the frequencies used.

As expected the crew switched over from VHF-2 (130.165 mc) to VHF-1 (143.625 mc) after the departure of Discovery. So after 1.04.2001 now and then traffic could be monitored on VHF-1. Mostly Usachov holds the mike, but I also heard Suzan Helms (only in English thus far) and in Russian Voss.
His routine in Russian is good.

On 16 and 17.04.2001 the crew was checking systems on board of their ship Soyuz-TM31 in preparation for their short autonomous flight to manoeuver this vehicle from the Zarya nadir docking port to the axial port of Zvezda on 18.04.2001.

During the checks on 16.04 they used the frequencies 121.750 and 130.165 mc. During the pass for Western Europe in orbit 13746, 1453UTC, they spoke about a malfunction, but I could not determine which system (possibly a transmitter). During the following passes the crew was on board of ISS and they did not discuss that problem any more.

On 17.04 I monitored some radio traffic during the first pass for my position (orbit 13761, 1352UTC) on 130.165 and 143.625 mc.
It was clear that the crew again checked the Soyuz-TM31.
The elevation was only 3 degrees and there was a strong interference caused by cross modulation from an air traffic control centre in Germany. (This phenomenon often was there during EVA's by MIR crews.) This time this interference hampered the communications of the ISS-2 crew.

Radio amateurs who can communicate with Packet Radio again have the possibility to work with that mode because during the last days the well-known P/R rattles were loud and clear on 145.800 and 145.990 mc.
It is worthwhile to check both channels during passes of ISS as one of them will be in use.

Progress-M44: This freighter undocked from ISS on 16.04.2001 at 07.47.47UTC and burnt up over the will known area of the Pacific the same day at 13.20.25UTC.
In this way the Zvezda axial docking port became available to receive the Soyuz-TM31 after during the re-docking operation on 18.04.2001.

The schedule for the re-docking of the S-TM31 was:

Closure of the exit hatch: 0815UTC

Separation of the ship: 1237UTC

Soft mate at Zvezda: 1303UTC

Opening of the exit hatch: approx. 1600UTC.

Meanwhile the operation was successfully executed. The actual times were:

Separation: 1237UTC, Soft mate: 13.00.55UTC.

During a communication session in orbit 13778 at 1605UTC, Usachov, using the call sign ":Alpha":, reported that the hatches to the Zvezda had been opened.

The re-docking was needed to enable Endeavour to dock at the American laboratory module Destiny and to park over there the Italian cargo module Raffaello.

The launch of Endeavour is scheduled on 19.04.2001 at 1841UTC.

And last but not least the launch from Baykonur of the Soyuz-TM32 with the crew Musabayev and Baturin, eventually together with the tourist Tito. The Russians seem to stick to the flight of Tito while the Western partners in the ISS-project still strongly reject this plan.

Soyuz-TM32 launch on 28.04.2001 at 07.31.01UTC

Estimated docking on 30.04.2001 at 09.10.30UTC.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202