SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0125 * SpaceNews 25-Jan-99 * BID: $SPC0125 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY JANUARY 25, 1999 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * MICROSAT BIRTHDAY * ===================== Amateur Radio's first Microsat satellites celebrated their 9th birthday on 1999-Jan-22. AMSAT-OSCAR-16, DOVE-OSCAR-17, WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18, and LUSAT-OSCAR-19 were all launched together on 1990-Jan-22 from Kourou, French Guiana. AMSAT-OSCAR-16 is the only satellite of the group that continues to perform well. Functioning as a digital store-and-forward communications satellite, AO-16 has been operating for over 1590 days since its last on-board computer re-load. The remaining satellites are not in full operation. DOVE-OSCAR-17 experienced a hardware malfunction after launch that has made it nearly impossible for controllers to upload operating software to the satellite. WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18's primary function was to take digital color images of the earth, but it also contains all the electronics necessary to function as a store-and-forward digital communications transponder. LUSAT-OSCAR-19 also contains a digital transponder, however it has not been active since the satellite experienced an OBC software crash last year. * SUNSAT LAUNCH DELAYS * ======================== Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR/W6HDO reports that the launch of SUNSAT has been postponed for eight times. Most of the postponments were due to upper air wind conditions that violated launch criteria despite the surperb surface conditions at the launch site. Four South Africans have left the US as a result of the launch delays, and only two remain for just one more launch attempt. If this attempt is not successful, then SUNSAT will have to be turned on from South Africa resulting in a much later availability than the first few orbits. The latest information is that the next attempt is postponed until Monday night/Tuesday morning the 25th. Of course this may change but apparently the Delta rocket will have to be defuelled at this time. * TMSAT NEWS * ============== Chris Jackson, G7UPN, reports that the TMSAT OBC186 flight software crashed on the afternoon of 1999-Jan-21. To in an effort to find the cause of the crash, controllers performed a memory dump of the OBC186 computer program memory late last week. OBC186 flight software was expected to be loaded after the memory dump was complete. * FUJI-OSCAR-29 NEWS * ====================== FUJI-OSCAR-29 users have reported that the satellite has recently been switched between analog and digital transponder mode. No official word has been received from spacecraft controllers. * AMSAT-OSCAR-10 NEWS * ======================= The following AO-10 Keplerian elements are based on a "best fit" of over 300 range measurements taken by W4SM and G3RUH: Satellite: AO-10 Catalog number: 14129 Epoch time: 99020.76950000 Element set: 005 Inclination: 26.927 deg RA of node: 46.982 deg Eccentricity: 0.60084 Arg of perigee: 284.293 deg Mean anomaly: 119.137 deg Mean motion: 2.05867845 rev/day Decay rate: 0.0 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 11735 Checksum: 256 AO-10 1 14129U 00 0 0 99020.76950000 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 0052 2 14129 026.9270 046.9820 6008400 284.2930 119.1370 02.05867845117354 * LIFE EXTENSION FOR MIR * ========================== Several news reports have indicated that the Russian space station Mir may get a three year life extension if private investors can be found to pay the expenses necessary to keep the spacecraft in operation. Details are expected to be worked out in the next three months. It costs an estimated $250 million a year to keep the Mir space station in operation. * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all who recently sent messages of appreciation for SpaceNews, especially: N1ORC G3AAJ KA3HDO ZR5JRS F6HCC GM7RQK * 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