Malaysian Amateur Radio News

Sunday, May 17, 2009

EUROPEAN HAM TO BECOME ISS COMMANDER Frank De Winne, ON1DWN

From the Newsline.....
HAM RADIO IN SPACE: EUROPEAN HAM TO BECOME ISS COMMANDER Frank De Winne, ON1DWN, is set to become the first European Space Agency astronaut to oversee the International Space Station. De Winne is currently at Russia's cosmonaut training center outside of Moscow. He will leave there later this week and fly to neighboring Kazakhstan, where a Soyuz rocket is being prepared to carry him, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, VA3CSA, to the orbiting space outpost. That launch is currently scheduled for May 27 . The arrival of these three space adventurers which will bring the total number of crew on the I-S-S to six for the first time. For the first four months De Winne, who is from Belgium, will be a Flight Engineer as a member of the Expedition 20 Crew. With the next crew rotation ON1DWN will take over as Commander of Expedition 21 and will serve in that position until his return to Earth in November. This will mark the first time that someone other than a Russian or an American has held that post. More is on-line at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8037431.stm and at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/november2008/frank_de_winne

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