Hello Earth, the messages

[Wieland Willker <willker@chemie.uni-bremen.de>]

Hello all, 
IED writes:
>IED hates to be anticlimactic here, but he must recommend that Wieland and
>Graham give this part a fresh listen.
>The astronaut (speaking as though through a radio 
>connection from space to NASA) is clearly repeating
>"Hello Earth!" right after Kate (2x).  It's very low-key, but
>IED hears it clear as a bell. 

Okay, if you all agree on this one, I give in, but I still hear something like 
"Hello urge" or "departure", something with a "tsh"-sound here.

I can think of two reasons for this distortion.  
1. KaTe switched off the message a tick too early.  
2. Early "Deep Space" communication used a very narrow frequency 
   bandwidth leading to various distortions.

Just in case you're interested: 
The "Hello Earth" opening message:
(by IED, Kevin Carosso and me)

1. voice: "Well, we're now at nine times the speed of sound." 
2. voice: "Roger that, Dan, I've got a solid TACAN * locked on, uh,
           TACAN two and three." 
3. voice: "The, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned 
           trajectory are all one line on the block"  
4. voice: "Show your block decode..."

* As you probably all know :-), the TACAN system is a military
  navigational system, also used by the shuttle. 

Best wishes
    Wieland

PS: She's a witch, she's a witch!
    Yes! "Pyewackett" means "a witch's familiar"!!!
"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" 

("Roger that, Dan, I'm locked on, my witch-o-meter is in the red...")