Satgen 40  3rd Jan 90   Pacsats ready to go, Salyut 7 in trouble.

Pacsats.  With a night launch (planned but not yet fully confirmed at,
0136ut 11 Jan 90), the microsats are already loaded aboard the rocket, on
the pad, ready to go. At launch NA Pacsat, Lusat and Webersat will already
be switched on, but their transmitters will not be activated until ordered
by ground control sometime after they separate from the launcher.
By contrast Uosat D and E,(downlinks are 435.07 and 435.12 respectively),
will switch on automatically as they separate from the launcher. By the
time the satellites come in range of Western Europe  ( anticipated at
roughly 0905 ut ) , they should be making receivable noises, but they will
not be operational until sometime later, after ground control has fully
tested them and has uploaded operational software.

Pacsat Data for Scotland    GM4IHJ-2 the Packet radio PMS of GM4IHJ will
be accessible 0800 to 2200 on 144.65 MHz 1200 baud FSK via Central
Scottish nodes MAC2 and MAC3. On accessing the PMS you should call for L 
list of bulletins available to ALL readers. You then indicate which
bulletins you want to read. Eg for Frequency and Mode Data call for R 67.
Bulletins giving access times and protocols will be added as this data
becomes available , and where possible this data will be updated daily.

Salyut 7     The Soviets  confirm that the space tug Cosmos 1686 is still
attached but it has no fuel left and control of Salyut's attitude and
stability has been lost. In normal operation Salyut's long axis was
pointed along its flight path, but with loss of control the long axis has
swung up through 90 degrees and is now perpendicular to the flight path.
This means that the surface area it presents to the upper atmosphere has
increased by a factor of at least six times. The immediate effect of this
,is that the nose of the space craft is slowly wobbling around a cone of
about 30 degrees, but much worse the long term effects of increased drag
will now quite quickly bring its orbit down. It is presently at about 400
kms height , so given that the solar wind will soon start reducing as we
pass beyond solar cycle maximum, the Soviets have perhaps 2 years at the
very most to do something. Being pessimistic , it is now likely that
Salyut will be abandonned or (much more difficult and expensive) be joined
by a new Progress tug which will use its engines to force Salyut to de
orbit safely over the oceans.Salyut will be a good visual target in the
evening sky around 15th Jan 90. Its 19955 kHz beacon was last heard on the
20th Dec , but not since then.  73 de John GM4IHJ@GB7MAC.