Re: [amsat-bb] FW: And on a different subject

["Don Woodward" <dbwoodw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Nothing on OIG about this - and my access still works.

73's

Don Woodward
KD4APP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Branda" wrote ...
To: <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 10:30
Subject: [amsat-bb] FW: And on a different subject


This popped up on another mail list. Anyone know anything about this?



Mike


"Just for those that don't know the USAF have been pushing for some time to
take over NASA's responsibility for disseminating orbital data - a lot
of which has been made available for the public to access over many years on
the NASA OIG site - and from there many sites such as Celestrak and Heavens
Above have also made use of it.

In December (haven't got the exact date to hand) the Senate made it law for
the USAF to get their way and currently the USAF has assigned a company
called Aerospace Corp to set up a pilot project for distributing orbital
data and this should be up and running by April. As of now Aerospace Corp,
the USAF and others are deciding who gets access to the data - and we are
not talking Joe Public here - it's being aimed at aerospace industries and
other professional bodies associated with the designing or operating of
satellites. It's almost certain that companies invited to participate in the
project will have to pay for the service that Aerospace Corp will provide -
in other words pay for TLE and a whole lot more.

What isn't clear is whether the OIG site will continue to operate once the
pilot project is running - but as concerns have already been expressed by
various individuals within the Senate about national security issues
relating to orbital data and that future public access should be stopped the
general consensus of opinion currently is that the OIG site will either
close down or any data that might be made available to the public will be
severely restricted. Exactly what the restrictions might be if it goes that
way remains to be seen but it doesn't look good as of now.

So that's the story to date - more info should be available by the end of
the month.

I would suggest that all those interested in continuing there hobby get
clued up and discuss ways of getting data if the worst happens - ..........

Things are changing and TLE may become a thing of the past - so wake up Rig
members and be aware that you may not have a hobby soon.

Colin"



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