Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC

In a remote, hostile, totally alien environment, every life-sustaining resource is precious. In space, other than air, none is more precious than water.

Improving the careful use of that critical resource is the goal of the Vapor Compression Distillation Flight Experiment, which is undergoing tests during the STS-107 Space Shuttle mission launched January 16.

Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC

Expedition Six Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit talked with STS-107 crewmembers Monday morning. At the start of the conversation, which was about 11:34 a.m. CST (1734 GMT), the station was flying.....

Field School Park Ridge, Illinois

Contact is for 2003-01-31 18:59 UTC telebridge via VK5ZAI

Hochwald-Gymnasium, Wadern, Germany, Direct via DN1TA

Contact is for 2003-02-06 15:45 UTC

Successfully delivered into orbit by the Pegasus launch vehicle, the SORCE spacecraft continues to operate flawlessly. All planned contacts with SORCE have been successful, and spacecraft commissioning activities are proceeding as planned and on schedule.

During the upcoming week 27 jan, the crew will prepare for the departure of the Progress 9 cargo ship, which is slated to undock from the station Feb. 1. Progress 9 will be filled with trash and other unneeded items, and its departure will make room for the arrival of the Progress 10 cargo ship. The new Progress is slated to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Feb. 2 and arrive at the station Feb. 4

Space shuttle Columbia's astronauts completed an experiment studying the activity of bone cells in microgravity and began final tests with a technology demonstration designed to investigate the behavior of capillary-pumped loops in space as the 16-day international science mission completed Flight Day 10.

1999 was the 30th anniversary of Mankind's most spectacular and technically-miraculous exploration event since, perhaps, the 15th Century.

Today 1/24/03 at aprox. 14:06UTC.

The interview with the ISS crew and KRQE-TV in New Mexico, and WTSP-TV in Florida, went well. There was a problem with comms. During the WTSP-TV portion, however Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit kept the interview going and completed it with FLAIR.

I will be posting the interview as soon as I transcribe it from my recording. Also, I hope that before the end of the week I will be able to post the recordings in Wav format on my site. Check my site for the recordings. http://www.n9oew.com/ifc.htm

73's to all de N9OEW

Field School Park Ridge, Illinois

Contact is 2003-01-23 14:37 UTC, telebridge via ZS6BTD

Contact failed and is being rescheduled.

Hochwald-Gymnasium, Wadern, Germany, Direct via DN1TA

TBD 2003-02

Launch window: 2010-2108 GMT (1510-1608 EST)

Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

An Orbital Sciences air-launched Pegasus XL rocket will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite into orbit to make precise measurements of total solar irradiance, which is the main source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere.

more info :

http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/index.html