SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0104 * SpaceNews 04-Jan-99 * BID: $SPC0104 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY JANUARY 4, 1999 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * SEDSAT NEWS * =============== Dennis Wingo reports that SEDSAT is continuing to perform as it has since launch, meaning that it is transmitting telemetry until the batteries die and then goes into safe mode for ten hours and repeats the process. The orbital geometry is such that controllers have had as much as 120 hours of continuous operation from the bird before the batteries die. Controllers still have several chances to recover the satellite and bring it into an operational state. It turns out that one of the two receivers on the satellite was disabled before launch. (Don't ask why). The second receiver may or may not have been working before launch. This fact is in some dispute which in and of itself is not good. However, controllers have a method of testing the receiver/receivers on the satellite. In the next week or so, controller are expected to send up a reset command to the bird. This is a hard reset that does not require the intervention of the on board computer to function. Doing this, controllers hope to determine if either of the receivers on the satellite are working. If they are, then there are some things controllers can do to overcome a software bug that has recently been discovered. [Info via Dennis Ray Wingo, KD4ETA] * RS-13 NEWS * ============== Several reports have been received indicating that the RS-13 satellite has recently been switched into Mode A operation to the delight of many Mode A satellite users. * OSCAR-10 NEWS * ================= Since NORAD still has not re-acquired AO-10, and the old keps from 1998 day 207 are now quite out of date, Stacey Mills has generated a new set of Keplerian orbital data for OSCAR-10: Satellite: AO-10 Catalog number: 14129 Epoch time: 99001.27000000 Element set: 001 Inclination: 27.020 deg RA of node: 50.903 deg Eccentricity: 0.60042 Arg of perigee: 278.381 deg Mean anomaly: 67.554 deg Mean motion: 2.05837582 rev/day Decay rate: 0.0 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 11695 Checksum: 206 AO-10 1 14129U 99 1.27000000 0.00000000 00000-0 0 7 2 14129 27.0200 50.9030 6004200 278.3810 67.5540 2.05837582116957 [Info via Stacey Mills, W4SM] * OSCAR-16 WOD DATA * ===================== Miguel Menendez, EA1BCU, reports that a complete collection of OSCAR-16 whole orbit telemetry data for 1998 may be accessed via the Internet at the following URL: http://www.ctv.es/USERS/ea1bcu/wod1998.zip * KO-23 NEWS * ============== Several reports have been received indicating that the KITSAT-OSCAR-23 satellite has gone silent. No official word from spacecraft controllers has yet been received. * SKN NOMINATIONS DUE * ======================= Ray Soifer, W2RS, thanks all who participated in OSCAR SKN 99. Some nominations for "Best Fist" have already been received by Ray. If you haven't yet sent yours in, please take a moment to nominate someone you worked. To submit a "Best Fist" nomination, please address it via packet radio to W2RS @ WA2SNA.NJ.USA.NA or W2RS @ GB7HSN.#32.GBR.EU (whichever is closest to you), via the Internet to , or via "snail-mail" to W2RS' callbook address. Those nominated will be featured in a bulletin sent to Amateur Radio publications and posted to ANS, packet radio and the Internet in early February. [Info via Ray Soifer, W2RS] * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all who recently sent messages of appreciation for SpaceNews, especially: N4SQV F5INL All the best wishes to everyone for a great 1999! * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> <<=- Serving the planet (and beyond) since 1987 -=>> /EX