We had just received this message from Frank Bauer, KA3HDO - ARISS Chairman and ISS FanClub Staff extends his condolences to Thomas's family and his wife Gaby. Sure we have lost an important Technical ManagerOn behalf of the ARISS International team, I would like to express my sadness in the loss of a true friend and outstanding technical ham, Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE. I have included an e-mail I received from Gaston Bertels, ON4WF announcing Thomas' passing.

Personally, I first learned of Thomas' outstanding technical abilities in 1985 during the STS-61-A German Spacelab-D1 space shuttle flight. During this mission, he flew the first set of German amateur radio hardware on a human spaceflight. The Germans called this system SAFEX. This was a system he personally built and it had outstanding capabilities. One of the

most impressive parts of this system was the external antenna that was mounted on the outside of the spacelab module. Only Thomas, with his intense drive, could break through the human spaceflight barriers to get an antenna feedthrough. He was the first to fly an external antenna on a human spaceflight program. Through his efforts, he blazed a trail for Mir and ISS.

He then extended his work to the first Shuttle flight to have U.S. built and German built amateur radio hardware on-board. This was the STS-55 German Spacelab-D2 space shuttle flight in 1993.

As one of the founding delegates of ARISS--Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, he challenged our team to push the technical limits of amateur radio in space. We thank him for his technical ideas and vision. His vision to have a full-duplex radio system that transmits both

the radio uplinks and downlinks to the ground will be on ISS in the future.

To all Thomas' friends and family and especially his wife Gaby, we extend our condolences.

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO

ARISS Chairman

10.10.2002

Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE silent key

We have sadly to report the passing away of Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE October 8th, 2002.

Thomas was sailing on his yacht with his wife Gaby, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. They were in the Aegean, near the island Kos. Gaby managed to steer the yacht safely to harbour.

Thomas Kieselbach was retired from an engineering carreer in the space industry. His amateur radio activities were centered on satellites and manned space flight. He managed SAFEX in the days of MIR and participated to the foundation of ARISS.

Within ARISS Europe, Thomas was Technical Director and he was the delegate

for Europe in the ARISS Technical Committee. Thomas developed a project for phase 2 of the ARISS station, supporting basic functionalities for its

further implementation.

Having been struck by a heart attack while participating to the ARISS meeting at ESTEC, in the Netherlands March 2000, Thomas had been forced to reduce his activities. March 2002, he asked to be gradually discharged from his task as Technical Manager. Consequently, Florio Della Vedova, IW2NMB, on request of the delegates participating to the ARISS-Europe meeting at ESTEC, accepted to assist him.

ARISS has lost a prominent member and a dear friend. To his wife Gaby, and to his family, we extend our condolences. We feel very near to them in these days of grief.

73

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS Vice chairman