[FPSPACE] Chris van den Berg

[cmvdberg at planet.nl]

Dear all,
On behalf of the family we thank you all for your sympathy
and so with us, we will miss a mate forever.
 
Chris van den Berg Jr.
chrisvdberg at online.nl

________________________________

Van: fpspace-bounces at www.friends-partners.org namens Geert Sassen
Verzonden: ma 30-5-2011 2:08
Aan: fpspace at www.friends-partners.org
Onderwerp: Re: [FPSPACE] Chris van den Berg



This is very sad news indeed.

Chris has been an enormous source of information, and indeed his
enthusiasm was infectious. His name will not be forgotten.

My condolences to his wife and family.

Geert.

On Sun, 2011-05-29 at 14:46 +0200, Bart Hendrickx wrote:
> It is with deep regret that I have to inform the list about the death
> of Dutch space watcher Chris van den Berg.  Chris, who was 83 , passed
> away in hospital last night after having suffered a stroke earlier in
> the evening. Chris joined the Dutch Royal Navy after the Second World
> War and learned Russian while working there as a wireless operator.
>  In 1953 he left the Navy to join the Dutch air traffic control
> service. His expertise in radio systems and his knowledge of the
> Russian language enabled him to monitor air-to-ground communications
> from Soviet manned spacecraft from the very beginning of the space
> age. After retiring in 1985, Chris was able to spend much more time on
> his hobby, avidly following conversations between Mir crews and
> Mission Control on an almost daily basis. Many are the nights that he
> sacrificed sleep to monitor nighttime dockings and EVAs. His
> enthusiasm was infectious for anyone who knew him, including me.  He
> regularly appeared on Dutch radio to provide updates on Mir activities
> and many will remember him for his regular Mir  mission reports, which
> he also posted on this list. On several occasions, Chris was able to
> glean information from his monitoring work and include it in his
> reports long before it became available through official channels,
> especially in the weeks following the collision of a Progress cargo
> ship with Mir in 1997. Chris also had the opportunity to travel to
> several Russian space facilities and was on hand at Baikonur to
> witness the launch of three Soyuz vehicles (Soyuz TM-12 in 1991, Soyuz
> TM-14 in 1992 and Soyuz TMA-4 with his fellow countryman André Kuipers
> in 2004).  He was also at Cape Canaveral to see the launch of the
> first Shuttle-Mir docking mission (STS-71) in 1995.  Chris had begun
> writing his autobiography, which you can read on his website :
>
> http://www.chrisvandenberg.com/index.html
>
> 
>
> Chris leaves a wife,  two sons  and many grandchildren and even
> great-grandchildren.  Our thoughts are with them.  He will be dearly
> missed. 
>
> 
>
> Bart Hendrickx
>
>
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