ISSCOM 12 June 2003 (036)

ProgressM1-10: Fully according to plan and flawlessly the operations were performed with this for the wellbeing of the ISS crew and the continuation of the ISS herself badly needed freighter. PrM1-10 started from Baykonur on 8.06.03 at 1034UTC.
Usually such a flight to the ISS lasts 2 days, but this time the Russians decided to use 3 days. In the first place to economize fuel consumption and secondly to enable controllers to do some extra tests on the approach systems.
This due to the use of the Pirs docking port instead of the one on the Zvezda module.
Communications PrM1-10: On 8.06.03 the Telemetry transmitters of the ship worked on 166.125 mc during the following passes for the Netherlands: Orb. 3: 1508-1513UTC Orb. 4: 1642-1647UTC Orb. 5: 1814-1817UTC On 9.06.03: Orb. 18: 1345-135013UTC Orb. 19: 1520-152535UTC For me it was always possible to use the beacon and telemetry frequency on 922.755 mc for the accurate determination of the AOS, TCA and LOS times of Progresses and Soyuzy. Nowadays a strong local data transmitter fully blocks the full segment of the 922 mc. I am now trying to find if those ships use more channels in the 900 mc band (for instance 926.060 or 925.240 mc) and of course hoping that sooner or later the intruding data transmissions will move to another channel.
Docking of PrM1-10 at the Pirs: Just before the docking the first pass within the range of the Netherlands during the IRS orbit 26011 (PrM1-10 orb. 49), between 1102-1106UTC, the elevation for the Netherlands was 2 degrees. In the short window TORU and Kurs system signals could be heard on 121.750 mc and 130.165 mc.
Via VHF-1 (143.625mc) Malenchenko reported that all was going well. The docking in the automatic regime took place on 11.06.03 at 1115UTC.
Voice communications after my last report: The passes for the Netherlands gradually shifted from the night to the evening hours. During communications with TsUP-Moscow Malenchenko referred to technical matters, maintenance of the life support systems. The crew also spoke about training and checks of space suits for eventual EVA's . There were problems with the water system in the space suit of Lu. Malenchenko and TsUP-M regularly check the so called form 14 (6 figure time groups representing the times for departure by the Soyuz-TMA in case of emergency).
A short time after the launch of PrM1-10 TsUP-M told Malenchenko that all was going well. Malenchenko said the the crew was very happy with this message and that they would give the freighter a warm welcome on 11.06.03.
On 7.06.03 it seemed as if good old times came back. During 2 passes there were voice communications via 143.625 mc between the ISS and the tracking ship Kosmonavt Viktor Patsayev. The signal from KVP to ISS was very strong, KVP had reception problems. (I regretted it very much that I was not on board KVP to help the operator adjusting his receiver and/or correctly aiming his reception antenna). The man on board KVP stated that they had still 2 ships, i.e. this one and the Kosmonavt Georgiy Dobrovolksiy.

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