STS-128 Commander Rick Sturckow was joined on the mission by Pilot Kevin Ford, Mission Specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas and European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang. NASA astronaut Nicole Stott flew to the complex aboard Discovery to begin a nearly three-month mission as a station resident, replacing Tim Kopra, who returned home on Discovery.
Weather concerns prevented the crew from returning to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the primary end-of-mission landing site. In 7-10 days, Discovery will be transported approximately 2,500 miles from California to Florida on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet. Once at Kennedy, Discovery will be separated from the aircraft to begin processing for its next flight, targeted for March 2010.
A welcome ceremony for the crew’s return to Houston was held yesterday at Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar.
In addition to carrying a new station crew member, Discovery and the crew also delivered a new sleeping compartment, an air purification system and a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert. The mission included three spacewalks that replaced experiments outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory and an empty ammonia storage tank. Ammonia is needed to move excess heat from inside the station to the radiators located outside.
Disney’s toy astronaut Buzz Lightyear also returned from the space station aboard Discovery. He flew to the station in May 2008 on shuttle Discovery’s STS-124 mission 
and served as the longest tenured “crew member” in space. While on the station, Buzz supported NASA’s education outreach by creating a series of online educational outreach programs.
Advances in the fight against food poisoning, new methods for delivering medicine to cancer cells, and better materials for future spacecraft are among the results just published in a NASA report detailing scientific research accomplishments made aboard the International Space Station during its first eight years. The results include more than 100 science experiments, ranging from bone studies to materials research
NASA’s research activities on the space station span several scientific areas, including exploration technology development; microgravity research in the physical and biological sciences; human physiology research; Earth science; and education. The report details 22 different technology demonstrations; 33 physical science experiments; 27 biological experiments; 32 experiments focused on the human body; Earth observations and educational activities. In addition to science important to long-duration human spaceflights, most findings also offer new understanding of methods or applications relevant to life on Earth.
Keep your eye out for the ISS now we approach Winter. Early darkness means we will see more of the Station than through the summer although since the ISS nears completion, reports are common of it being visible during daylight (approaching dusk) in recent months. This final photo shows a view of Heathrow Airport, London, taken by the ISS Crew in a recent pass over the Capital.
73 de Charles
stores them. All you have to do is to enter your (or any) callsign into the system and within seconds it will tell you how many areas you have worked (and/or are verified). It produces them in the form of an excel sheet which is seen in the example here to the right. 
The smaller table (to the right of them both) actually informs you of which Award you have currently achieved and is displayed in ‘
is sent a GCR List, you yourself will receive the same GCR list in your email box and in the message, all the details of cost and who/how you need to make your payment to – ‘simples’ as the ‘Meerkats’ say!
There she lay, right across the (new) garage roof belonging to my neighbour. On examination, the steel wires had all snapped and although the mast had held secure in its wall bracket, it had bent like a piece of plastic at a 90 degree angle, amazing! The antenna was itself not too badly damaged although a couple of the elements were like bananas, other than that all in reasonable order and not damaged beyond repair at all. In fact the antenna went back in to service soon afterwards and worked very well given the condition.
transport chaos and damage which would run to millions of pounds. Locally to me The M1 and M18 motorways in South Yorkshire were closed after dozens of lorries were blown over. Most of the fatalities that day were caused by falling trees, collapsing walls or vehicles crashing in high winds. Two other people died in Cheshire, two in Greater Manchester, one in North Yorkshire, one in Berkshire, one in Shropshire and one in Humberside. 
Two schoolboys in Merseyside were badly injured after being crushed under trees. There were heavy downpours too and winds there reached 90mph across many parts of the country brought heavy snowfall in northern areas. Roads, 
Another lorry driver was killed in North Yorkshire when his vehicle left the road and overturned in high winds on the A629 Skipton western bypass. In the Midlands, the managing director of Birmingham airport, Richard Heard, 54, was killed on his way to work when a large branch smashed into his car windscreen on the B4373 near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, at 5.45am. Further south, in Streatley, west Berkshire, a passenger in a Ford Fiesta died shortly after midday when a tree fell on to the car, police said. British Airways cancelled 130 flights on domestic and short-haul routes in and out of Heathrow and Manchester airports. At the main line station at London Bridge, part of the forecourt roof collapsed. There were no injuries but part of the main concourse was blocked, disrupting services. The Met Office warned that the severe conditions had disrupted travel across the UK for most the day, while the Environment Agency issued 36 flood warnings for England and Wales. Peak gusts of 99mph were recorded on the Isle of Wight. Forecasters said other gusts could hit 80mph on high ground and in coastal areas, and up to 70mph across the rest of the UK…..(too late now!) Channel crossings, the M25 Dartford bridge and the M2, M6 and M20 motorways were all hit by the stormy weather, police said. Scottish Power said around 30,000 homes were without electricity in Cheshire and mid and north Wales. The gales led to the port of Dover being closed to ships. P&O Ferries, which operates services between the Kent port and Calais, advised passengers due to sail not to travel at all. In Scotland, the A9 was shut after storms brought the first major snowfall of the year and two lorries jackknifed between Dalwhinnie and Blair Atholl in the Highlands. Snow also fell on the Pennines stretch of the M62 in Yorkshire.
to get my cards was to sort the whole lot out so we made several trips by car and brought all the cards back to our house. 
October I was off to Bahia Inglesa (English Bay) with the group to operate CE1W in the CQWW contest. We made 4000 QSOs over the weekend helped with Chilean wine of course. The group will activate CE1W again this year. I also help out the local radio club in contests – we usually operate as CE2LS and the club has a good record in contests. In December I applied to Telecomunicaciones in Santiago to change my licence for a 2 letter call. This involved providing evidence of publications – luckily I had written an article some years ago in Practical Wireless – and at least 25 years operation as a ham. The application was processed quickly and when we rang Santiago to ask on its progress we were advised that I had been granted the callsign CE2WZ which was much better for contest work.
and I have been considering joining 10-10 International. I just love it when 10 metres opens up and I can make QSOs to Europe and North America. 
4
and traps has clearly been an exercise in diminishing returns. 
Teflon blended thermo- plastics, high conductivity copper-beryllium (Photo – right) and extremely reliable stepper motors has allowed the SteppIR to be a commercially feasible product. There are questions on how it will survive the test of time, extreme cold temperatures and other variables but these cannot be answered with certainty, it would be wrong to do so. Some also 
question how they will stand up to the conventional trapped beams due to how many moveable parts there are involved in the design. Again it would be wrong to second guess the designers but they are highly confident all will be good in the future years.