Hello, I have prepared as always a page with information and images about the incoming Shuttle mission STS-112. Countdown and other can be found here at SpaceOnLine Satellite News

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.

I have a 4 element Yagi beam installed on a tripod in my balcony. This is the antenna I use for VHF communications. It's a fix mount, so I can't rotate or elevate the antenna. I have pointed towards North and aproximately about 5 degrees elevation.

Estimated STS-112 launch time calculated with DOS Program "STS2ISS" Ver. 0.2 01.06.2002 author Udo, DL7OL

Oct 7th earliest STS-112 will launch. Hurricane Threat to Mission Control Forces Launch Delay.The potential threat of Hurricane Lili to the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, forced Space Shuttle Program managers to push the launch of STS-112 back to Monday.

Info from Frank H. Bauer and Miles Mann.
A1 - B1 - B6 ? How many channels ?
Frank:"The Ericsson MP-A radios have a bank of 64 discrete frequency channels.
Four zones (A-D) with 16 frequencies in each zone".

So we finally have a winner: KC7QYR Michael from Seattle is the lucky winner of the IFC gift.

To pick is name up we used a computer program wich generated a random number between 1 and 130 (the range of numbers where the first 100 valid subscribers where located).

We a valid number (101) at first try.

Michael wins a wonderful picture of the ISS crew#1 signed by Krikalev and Gidzenko at the Iss Forum 2001 in Berlin.

Congratulations Michael !