Going back to December 1990 when I started communicating with Musa Manarov on Mir and carried on bridging for the space shuttles, I have always had the pleasure and the honour to communicate with and for the Cosmonauts and Astronauts.
This is now 16 years and without distracting from the dedication, expertise and friendship of all those involved, I am so impressed by the polished, warm, efficient and so much to the point, of Sunita Williams' - KD5PLB, conduct of her ARISS sessions, that I feel very strongly that she deserves some sort of unique recognition from AMSAT, for her outstanding, dedicated and polished performance.
Such expertise must result in influencing some of her young listenenrs to enter the field of Amateur Radio or Space Exploration.
I stress, again, that this does not detract from the sterling work done in this field, by all her predecessors - However, in every field, there is a star.
Vy 73
Gerald Klatzko - zs6btd