Satgen 596 Sat Information 2 by GM4IHJ (BID SGEN596) 2000-08-26 In satgen 595 reference was made to the Celestrak www.celestrak.com internet source for keplerian orbital elements. Which is fine once the satellite you want is launched , behaving itself and likely to stay operational for sometime. But there is also a need for a source which reports pre launch preparations, actual launch data, variations in position once launched, and ,eventually near the end of life, information giving anticipated re entry and destruction or landing details. Such a source is Jonathan McDowells electronic news letter at URL http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html This has feeds to :- JSR STOP PRESS - draft of next bulletin, updated frequently GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE LOG LAUNCH LOG and TABLE SATELLITE CATALOGUE CURRENT SHUTTLE PROCESSING STATUS JONATHANs SPACE REPORT DESCRIPTION OF RECENT LAUNCHES TABLE OF RECENT LAUNCH DATA In addition to the above Jonathan regularly provides archival information regarding certain satellite types or groups/ formations. This has recently included a list of the oldest satellites still up there. Some are status unknown, but there are some still being reported which went up 29 years ago. If you are interested in antiques/survivors. Back issues of Jonathans reports are available , and you can arrange to receive the report free each week via email. In addition to which Jonathan has a somewhat different column called " Mission Update " which appears every month in SKY & TELESCOPE magazine. Overal these two sources give a broad view of what is going on. Which is adequate for most people. Using Celestrak and Jonathans News Letter, you should be able to keep up to date regarding the doings of almost all civil, commercial and some military satellites. Although it has to be said that a lot of military hardware which goes aloft these days, is simply not reported at all. Equally important , apart from orbital elements these two sources will not tell you much about the amateur radio satellites. To follow some of what is going on in Amateur satellite circles, the best source is AMSAT NEWS BULLETINS which appear on amateur terrestrial packet radio networks and digisats. In addition you can if you are a member get quite a lot of data from AMSAT NA JOURNAL which appears every 2 months. But if none of this satisfies your thirst for knowledge . You need to look at some of the professional journals, which will be reviewed in the next satgen 597.