Ham radio has role in five years of continuous ISS human habitation. Five years ago this week, the International Space Station Expedition 1 crew of US astronaut and Expedition 1 Commander William ''Shep'' Shepherd, KD5GSL, and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, became the first humans to live aboard the ISS. A Russian
Soyuz transporter carrying the space pioneers blasted off October 31, 2000, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docked with the ISS November 2. At the time, Shepherd was only the second US astronaut to go into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle. Krikalev went on to serve as commander of the ISS Expedition 11 crew. The initial Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (
ARISS) station gear was already aboard the space station by the time the first crew launched. Later in the month, the Expedition 1 team installed and activated the VHF gear on FM voice and packet under the US call sign NA1SS and the Russian call sign RS0ISS. Each of the 12 crews that have lived on the ISS to conduct assembly and research activities has included at least one US radio amateur. The Expedition 12 crew Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev will remain on the ISS until next April. Over the years, crew members have conducted nearly 200 ARISS school group contacts and numerous casual QSOs. NASA has been marking the fifth anniversary of continuous ISS human occupancy with special activities and has set up a
special Web site to mark the anniversary. The largest and most complex spacecraft ever built, the ISS is the result of a 16-nation partnership led by the US. More ISS information and photos are on NASA's
Space Station page. ARISS is an international educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
--some information from NASA 
