With Houston's Mission Control Center (MCC) back in operation, the
deliberate power up of the International Space Station is proceeding as
planned.

ISS astronaut Susan Helms,kc7nhz,who was very active on ham radio from the International Space Station, has left NASA and returned to her primary job as an Air Force Colonel.

The German amateur satellite organization, AMSAT-DL, has proposed sending an amateur radio satellite to Mars!

As envisioned, the satellite would be a "mother ship" for launching smaller probes that would transmit back information about the Martian atmosphere and surface,as well as a repeater that would beam that information back to earth.

For more information, see the AMSAT-DL website at http://www.amsat-dl.org/p5a/p5a-to-mars.pdf

I just talked with Valery Korzun and he says the Shuttle launch will occur on Monday and all is going well and no problem.

Mission Control had been shut down earlier in the week due to the potential threat from Hurricane Lili but it is ready to support countdown activities Sunday.