News Release from AMSAT(r)
The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NUMBER 97-03
JULY 29, 1997

PHASE 3-D LAUNCH UPDATE

MARBURG, GERMANY (AMSAT News Service)  On Wednesday July 16, 1997 a meeting
was held in Marburg, Germany among Dr. Karl Meinzer DJ4ZC, Phase 3-D Project
Leader and AMSAT-DL President; Werner Haas DJ5KQ, AMSAT-DL Vice President;
and officials of the European Space Agency (ESA).  The purpose of the meeting
was to discuss the launch schedule for Ariane 502, on which the Phase 3-D
spacecraft is scheduled to fly.

At this meeting, the ESA officials re-iterated their intent to launch
Ariane 502 at the end of September and said that the launch campaign for this
flight has already begun.  They also stated that, as part of this launch
campaign, the Phase 3-D spacecraft must arrive at ESA's Launch Center in
Kourou, French Guyana by August 10th.

Earlier, ESA had informed AMSAT that, following analysis of data from the
Ariane 501 flight, they had significantly increased their estimates for the
acceleration and vibration environment which spacecraft riding on Ariane 502
are expected to encounter.  As a result of this new information, AMSAT has
been re-evaluating the structural capabilities of the Phase 3-D spaceframe.

As a part of this effort, an independent structural engineer was brought in
to review the spacecraft's design and construction.  His conclusions were
recently presented to Dr. Meinzer and AMSAT-NA people.  His report stated
that, in order to be confident of P3-D surviving the stresses from this
increased launch environment, a number of modifications must be made to the
spacecraft. Since that report was presented, substantial effort has been
taking place at the Phase 3-D Integration Laboratory in Orlando, Florida to
manufacture and install the recommended structural parts necessary to increase
the spacecraft's vibration and acceleration capabilities.

At the Marburg meeting, Dr. Meinzer made it clear to ESA officials that this
work, made necessary by ESA's new environmental information, would prevent
AMSAT from delivering the spacecraft to Kourou by the specified August 10th
date. Thus, it was the conclusion of the meeting that, as a result of these
ESA specification changes, the Phase 3-D schedule and that of ESA for
Ariane 502 are not currently compatible.   That is, unless something changes
(a situation which ESA does not presently contemplate) Phase 3-D will not be
able to launch on Ariane 502.

Furthermore, in order to maintain the planned mass characteristics of the
Ariane 502 vehicle, AMSAT must now also supply ESA with a mass simulator
representing the (possibly absent) Phase 3-D spacecraft to be sent aloft
on the flight.  This simulator must be in Kourou by September 5th.

Despite this very bad news, Dr. Meinzer and other AMSAT officials expressed
some degree of confidence that Phase 3D may yet fly on Ariane 502.  This
confidence is based on a number of activities taking place in the preparation
of the launch vehicle that AMSAT officials believe could cause a slip in the
currently published ESA schedule.

ESA officials attending the Marburg meeting said that if such a slip should
occur (again, a situation which ESA does not currently contemplate) and the
slip results in the two schedules becoming compatible once more, efforts would
be made to substitute the Phase 3-D spacecraft for the mass simulator.
Therefore, AMSAT is continuing work on completing the necessary structural
modifications to the Phase 3-D spacecraft as well as conducting environmental
testing.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT US ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB AT:

"http://www.amsat.org"

OR CONTACT:

In North America:					

AMSAT-North America		
Keith Baker, KB1SF; Executive Vice President
1324 Fairgrounds Road
Xenia, Ohio 45385-9514 USA
Phone/Fax:  937-429-5325
Internet: "kb1sf@amsat.org"

In Europe:

AMSAT-Germany
Werner Haas, DJ5KQ; Vice President
Holderstrauch 10
D-35041 Marburg, Germany
Phone: (06421) 283551
Fax: (06421) 285665
Internet: "dj5kq@amsat.org"

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