AMSAT News Service

March 24, 2002

• RS-21 On the Air
• ARISS Contacts Continue
• ANS in Brief
• Weekly Satellite Report

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RS-21 On the Air

Radio Sport 21, also known as the Kolibri-2000 satellite - is operating from orbit, after being remotely launched on March 20, 2002 from a Russian Progress M-1-7 launcher.

The launch of RS-21 took place after the Progress ship un-docked from the International Space Station.

The satellite's formal name is the Russian-Australian Scientific and Educational Microsatellite Kolibri-2000. The main satellite design was done by the Special Workshop of Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences. The team used previous RS satellite designs as the basis for RS-21, under the direction of Alexander Papkov, UA3XBU.

Alex Zaitzev, RW3DZ, the director of the Microsat Office of the Russian Space Research Institute, told ANS that RS-21 is a non-government, non-commercial project, built with cooperation from students in Russia and Australia. "While falling into the atmosphere during the late winter and spring months," said RW3DZ, "it will send down telemetry data and digitally recorded voice messages."

RS-21 is in a circular orbit just over 200 miles above the Earth. Downlink frequencies are listed as 145.825 and 435.335 MHz, using both CW and FSK.

Reception confirmations of RS-21 may be sent to Alex, at microsat@iki.rssi.ru

More information about the satellite can be found at http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2001/12/16/1/

[ANS thanks Alex Zaitzev, RW3DZ, and the ARRL for RS-21 information]

ARISS Contacts Continue

On March 21, 2002, Astronaut Dan Bursch, KD5PNU, fielded 20 student questions radioed to him aboard the International Space Station, with two of the questions coming from his own children! The questions came from students who attend the St. Thomas Episcopal School in Nassau Bay, Texas, a few miles southeast of Houston.

In addition to the St. Thomas contact, students and staff of the Zeehan Primary School in Tasmania were overwhelmed with excitement after their contact with the ISS. Astronaut Carl Walz, KC5TIE, answered all 13 questions, allowing the students enough time to applaud the ISS crew before LOS. Zeehan is the first Australian school to speak with ISS.

ARISS is an international project, with U.S. participation by the ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.

[ANS thanks the ARISS group for this information]

ANS in Brief

ANS news in brief this week includes the following:

• The AMSAT-NA Net in the Boston area recently completed its 300th net during its 6-year history. First started by George, W1ME, the next net milestone is coming up (in fact it should happen on the March 28th net) with check-in number 5000!
  -Ernie, K1ELA
• Thanks to recent NASA research, digital pictures taken from a remotely piloted, solar-powered airplane will help growers harvest better coffee and provide support during future natural disasters.
  -SpaceDaily
• The 2001 AMSAT Symposium awards included a presentation to Freddy de Guchteneire, ON6UG, for his generous contribution of time and effort during the Phase 3D launch campaign. His willingness to sacrifice personal time for this endeavor is greatly appreciated by hams all over the world.
  -ANS
• During the recently completed Olympics, security personnel in Utah relied on satellites to monitor the locations of more than 400 vans carrying athletes to and from venues at the recently completed winter games.
  -SpaceDaily
• The ARRL says the large number of comments filed by amateurs in opposition to SAVI Technology's plans to operate RF identification tags on 70-cm support the League's position. "There were approximately 132 comments filed in this proceeding," the ARRL pointed out, "all of which are opposed to the proposal to allow RFID tags and interrogators in the weak-signal portion of the most popular and heavily-occupied UHF amateur band."
  -ARRL
• The third crew rotation of the Mars Desert Research Station has begun. During this time, the crew will continue the program of sustained field exploration of the Utah desert while operating under many of the same constraints that a human crew would in an expedition to Mars.
  -SpaceDaily
• An unpiloted Russian Progress resupply craft has delivered food, fuel and supplies to the residents on board ISS, with docking of the craft (successfully) completed as this edition of ANS was broadcast.
  -NASA
• NASA researchers have found strong relationships between El Nino episodes and changes in climate and sea ice cover around Antarctica. Identifying these relationships is important because it provides new insights into the changing characteristics of the Antarctic region and their role in Earth's climate system.
  -SpaceDaily
• The ARRL is reporting that the FCC has opened a proceeding regarding orbital debris. "Minimization of orbital debris will help maximize the usefulness of space for satellite communications and other services," the Commission said in a statement. The Notice proposes to adopt a requirement that all FCC-licensed satellite systems submit information concerning plans to mitigate orbital debris. AMSAT-NA will file comments with the Commission.
  -ARRL/ANS
• Miles, WF1F, reminded ANS that the Russian space station Mir was retired on March 23, 2001 - one year ago this week.
  -ANS

Weekly Satellite Report

Link to the weekly report on satellite ...

All Satellites
ISS . RS-12 . RS-13 . RS-15 . AO-10 . UO-11 . UO-14 . AO-16 . DO-17 . WO-18 . LO-19 . FO-20 . UO-22 . KO-23 . KO-25 . IO-26 . AO-27 . FO-29 . TO-31 . GO-32 . SO-33 . PO-34 . SO-35 . UO-36 . AO-40 . SO-41 . SO-42 . NO-44 . MO-46

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to the ANS Editors at ans-editor@amsat.org, or to ANS Editor Dan James, NN0DJ, at nn0dj@amsat.org.

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This week's AMSAT News Service bulletins were edited by AMSAT  News Service editor Dan James, NN0DJ.