Dale Cupido - April 23, 2002: Space luggage - Greetings all!

Only two days to blast-off!

I had an early start to the day making preparations to finalise Mark's final payload to be taken onboard the Soyuz . His space luggage includes all the necessary items needed for star travel... micro drives, hard drives and personal items from family and friends!

After making sure that everything was organised, I left Baikonur for Tsup (Moscow Mission Control) , where all video & audio communications between the International Space Station and Earth were finalised as well as Mark's daily onboard activities.

Being present in Tsup will be exciting, as we will be in daily contact with Mark and will be able to listen to ground-to-ISS comms throughout the mission.

Tomorrow I will be testing our communications infrastructure in our Tsup support room, as well as testing our direct telephone link from SA to the Tsup Mission Control Room.

It is all systems go from here... watch this space!