Richard Garriott launches to space

On Sunday, October 12, Richard Garriott, W5KWQ began his journey to the International Space Station (ISS) when he blasted-off into space at 0701 UTC aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which is scheduled to dock with the ISS two days later. He will spend 10 days in space, returning to Earth on Thursday, October 23. Richard, the sixth private citizen to be accepted by the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA) for a short-term mission on the ISS, is the son of Owen Garriott, W5LFL. In 1983, Owen was the first ham to make QSOs from space. Richard said he plans to build on his father's legacy by also making QSOs from the ISS: He plans to perform several school contacts and downlink slow scan television images during his flight, as well as contact the general ham community in his free time and perform random scout contacts during... [read full story]