SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0617 * SpaceNews 17-Jun-96 * BID: $SPC0617 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY JUNE 17, 1996 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * HOUSTON AMSAT NET NEWS * ========================== The Houston AMSAT Net returns on Tuesday to North America at 8pm Central over the W0KIE Network on KU Band Satellite, SBS 6, Transponder 13B, audio UP. The satellite is located at 74 degrees next to Galaxy 6. The video is of the holy bingo network and during the day one can find a continuous news feed. Andy (WA5ZIB), Marty (WD5DZC), and Bruce (KK5DO) look forward to once again bringing the latest in satellite, ATV, and balloon launch information to the ham community. They are also looking to a real audio feed so that it can be listened to outside the satellite's footprint. [Info via Bruce Paige, KK5DO] * SEDSAT NEWS * =============== As of 13-Jun-96, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Small Expendable Deployer System will not be a part of the SEDS/SEDSAT mission on STS-85 slated for launch on July 17, 1997. This is a result of difficulties the Marshall Center was having in assuring the safety of the Shuttle due to the tether during the deployment. The SEDSAT Project Team at UAH remains committed to the launch of SEDSAT on STS-85 and will be working with the Goddard Space Flight Center to assure this result. The satellite is ready to advance to the Phase II safety process at the Johnson Space Flight Center and no technical issues have been raised that would preclude the flight of SEDSAT. This is the recommendation of the Goddard mission manager which we concur with. The unfortunate result of this is that the lifetime of SEDSAT will be reduced from three years to only several months. However, this is preferable to no lifetime at all. All research goals of the satellite not directly related to the tether mission will be accomplished in an abbreviated form due to the reduction in lifetime. The UAH SEDSAT 1 Team wishes to express their appreciation to NASA and NASA MSFC for their continuing support of their student project and look forward to their flight on STS-85 next year. Dennis Ray Wingo KD4ETA SEDSAT 1 Project Manager * STS-78/SAREX NEWS * ===================== The next Space Shuttle Mission, STS-78, is scheduled for liftoff at 14:49 UTC on 20-Jun-96. The primary goal of this long duration (16 day) mission is to conduct microgravity research using the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) payload. STS-78 will also carry the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX). SAREX provides school groups and ham radio operators an opportunity to talk directly with Space Shuttle Astronauts as they circle the Earth. SAREX will be flown in Configuration C on this mission; 2 meter voice and packet. Three of the seven crew members are licensed radio amateurs: Payload Commander Susan Helms, KC7NHZ who is making her third Shuttle flight, Mission Specialist Chuck Brady, Jr., N4BQW and Canadian Payload Specialist Robert Thirsk, VA3CSA. Brady and Thirsk are both making their first flight. The SAREX working group expects the Amateur Radio Station of the Shuttle to be activated approximately 24 hours after liftoff. Those who have subscribed to the amsat.org SAREX e-mail exploder will obtain the latest bulletins pertaining to the STS-78 SAREX mission. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listserv@amsat.org and request a subscription to the SAREX bulletins. During the flight, the shuttle astronauts have scheduled contacts with 11 schools from around the world. A detailed fact sheet for SAREX on the STS-78 mission follows: Mission: STS-78 Space Shuttle Columbia Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) payload Launch: June 20, 1996 at 1449 UTC Landing: July 6, 1996 at 1246 UTC at the Kennedy Space Center Orbit: 39 degree inclination Crew: CDR Col. Terence T. (Tom) Henricks, Commander PLT Kevin R. Kregel, Pilot MS1 Lt. Col. Susan J. Helms, Payload Commander, Flight Engineer, KC7NHZ MS2 Richard M. Linnehan, DVM, Mission Specialist MS3 Dr. Charles E. Brady, Jr., Mission Specialist, N4BQW PS1 Dr. Jean-Jacques Favier, Payload Specialist PS2 Dr. Robert (Bob) Brent Thirsk, Payload Specialist, VA3CSA Modes: FM Voice Callsigns: KC7NHZ, N4BQW, VA3CSA Packet Radio Callsign: W5RRR-1 Frequencies: All operations in split mode. DO NOT TRANSMIT ON THE DOWNLINK FREQUENCY. The following frequencies are used for two-way voice communications with the Shuttle astronauts. Please note that THESE HAVE CHANGED SINCE THE LAST MISSION. Downlink: 145.55 MHz Worldwide Voice Uplinks: 144.91, 144.93, 144.95, 144.97, 144.99 MHz (Except Europe) 144.70, 144.75, 144.80 (Europe Only) Packet Uplink: 144.49 MHz Worldwide Note: The crew will not favor any specific uplink frequency, so your ability to communicate with SAREX will be the "luck of the draw." For all operations, Earth stations should listen to the downlink frequency and transmit only when the Shuttle is in range and the astronauts are on the air. Info: Goddard Amateur Radio Club, WA3NAN, Greenbelt Maryland, SAREX Bulletins and Shuttle Retransmissions 3860 KHz, 7185 KHz, 14,295 KHz, 21,395 KHz, 28,650 KHz and 147.45 MHz (FM) ARRL Amateur Radio Station, W1AW, Newington, CT SAREX News Bulletins 3990, 7290, 14,290, 18,160, 21,390, and 28,590 KHz and 147.555 MHz (FM) NASA Spacelink computer information system, Phone: (205) 895-0028 or via Internet: spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov, ARRL BBS (203) 666-0578 JSC ARC BBS (713) 244-5625, 9600 baud or less. GSFC ARC BBS on internet: wa3nan.gsfc.nasa.gov WWW Home Pages: SAREX: http://www.nasa.gov/sarex/sarex_mainpage.html ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/ AMSAT: http://www.amsat.org Spacelink: http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov Shuttle: http://shuttle.nasa.gov Goddard ARC: http://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/www/garc-home-page.html Keplerian Elements: STS-78 1 99978U 96172.67461119 .00151561 00000-0 28023-3 0 103 2 99978 39.0091 9.5805 0010198 336.2868 23.7631 15.98430480 24 QSL Cards: Send reports and QSLs to ARRL EAD, STS-78 QSL, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494, USA. Include the following information in your QSL or report: STS-78, date, time in UTC, frequency and mode. In addition, you must also include a SASE using a large, business-sized envelope if you wish to receive a card. "The Net" in Anacortes, Washington has generously volunteered to manage the cards for this mission. Frank H. Bauer Head, Guidance & Control Branch NASA GSFC E:Mail frank.bauer@gsfc.nasa.gov * FTP ARCHIVE DELETED * ======================= The SpaceNews archive that was available at ftp.njin.net was deleted without warning by system administrators. ftp.njin.net, formally known as pilot.njin.net, carried archives of SpaceNews in both English and Spanish, satellite software, general satellite information files, and recent issues of Education News. 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