ISSCOM 6 May 2001 (013)

Landing Soyuz-TM31: S-TM31 with on board the crew of the EP-1 (1st visiting expedition) consisting of Musabayev, Baturin and the tourist Dennis Tito, executed a flawless landing at 82 KM-s North East of the town Arkalyk in Kazakhstan on 6 May 2001 at 05.41.23UTC.

(5 seconds earlier than the estimated landing time, so an excellent publicity for space tourism!)

Re-docking Soyuz-TM32: This ship, docked at the nadir port of the Zarya module, will remain there for the time being. At short notice there is no autonomous flight to the axial port of the Zvezda module scheduled.

Next Progess-freighter: The launch of the next freighter can be expected on one of the last 10 days of May.

Communications: The crew of the ISS still uses for communications with TsUP-M VHF-1 (143.625 mc). Mainly Usachov can be heard there. The topics of the conversations are technical matters, mainly the life support systems, like the Elektron oxygen generator, the Vozdukh CO2 scrubber, the water management, regenerations of condensation, waste water, etc. and the checks of the times for the 'ugli posadki' (descent angles). These are given in 6-figure groups. During conversations checks take place to be sure that all radiograms transmitted via Packet Radio channels have been received, like the work schedules in the Forms 23 and 24 and the 'ugli posadki' in Form 14. These transmissions take place via the Regul (Kvant) system, downlink 922.760 and uplink 768.975 mc. The frequencies came from an official source but thus far I did not receive anything on 922.750 mc.
The use of this system means that there is no Packet Radio traffic any more via the VHF-1 or 2.

Packet Radio for radio amateurs takes place via 145.800 mc (downlink) and 145.990 mc (uplink). Gradually these activities increase when ISS is within range. We are still waiting for voice traffic via these channels.

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