ANDY THOMAS BIDS MIR FAREWELL

AMSAT News Service 165.02, 14 June, 1998 - NASA, the ARRL and Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI

US astronaut Andy Thomas, KD5CHF, said good-bye to Mir on June 8th as he left for home aboard the shuttle Discovery after spending 130 days in space. Before he left the aging Russian space outpost, Thomas broadcast a general "thank you" to the worldwide amateur community via the R0MIR packet system. "I am leaving Mir today, and this will be my last message," he said. "Thank you all for your interest in the mission and your messages." Thomas again apologized for not being able to give individual replies. "I wish you all every success. Good-bye and good luck."

The day after Discovery docked with Mir, Thomas engaged in a last-minute flurry of random Amateur Radio contacts on 2-meter FM simplex. Al Lark, KD4SFF, in Greenville, South Carolina, was one of the lucky stations to talk with Andy. Thomas told Lark that "a decent hot shower is going to be the first order of business" on Earth. Following his chat with Lark, Thomas also worked WA6LR and AA2DR. "You guys have given me a lot of pleasure during my time up here," Thomas told AA2DR.

Australian Peter Ellis, VK1KEP, also spoke with Thomas and found himself thrust into celebrity status as a result. Thomas, a native of Australia who also holds the call sign VK5MIR, told Ellis that he was the first VK1 he'd ever worked. Ellis soon wound up in the midst of a media frenzy -- on local radio twice, the front page of the Canberra Times, on TV in Canberra and Sydney, and on ABC Radio nationwide. The entire story is available at the following URL:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/5796/vk1kep.htm.

During his Mir stay, Thomas spoke frequently with his family via Amateur Radio, sometimes with Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, serving as the Earth station. Hutchison also set up phone patches with Thomas' father, Adrian, who lives in Adelaide. Hutchison also provided the elder Thomas with a computer to track Mir and a receiver so he could listen to his son's conversations.

[ANS thanks NASA, the ARRL and Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, for this information]