Satgen 109  Project Juno and Glasgow Shuttle  by GM4IHJ    29th April 91

Project Juno Cosmonaut Helen Sharman should launch to the Mir space
station in a Soyuz T, in the late afternoon of 18th May. She will arrive
at Mir 50 hours later, on 20th May and could well be heard in UK via VHF
radio during the approach and docking ( Soyuz 121.75MHz , Mir 143.625MHz
both FM voice). This docking orbit passes along the UK south east horizon.
      Later orbits on 20th will be closer to UK, and because of the 6 day
postponement from the original launch date of 12th, the orbit window for
that and subsequent days will be 6 x 24 minutes earlier , ie 1500 to 2300
ut on 20th and drifting 24 minutes earlier each day to be about 1230 to
2030 by 26th May the last day of the visit. Actual Orbit timings in range
UK on successive days, will get about 34 minutes later each day. 
      A whole series of contacts with schools amateur radio stations are
planned. Please do not interupt these contacts. Lets give the schools a
clear frequency. If you have'nt already got one there are two Mir booklets
to chose from . Project Juno have adopted the GM4IHJ Mir Manual and will
be distributing it to schools ( individuals can get it from GM4IHJ QTHr),
and there is also a booklet from Amsat UK.

Space Shuttle Discovery's 23 April mission overflying Glasgow was called
off at the last minute because of a Shuttle engine problem. It was put off
for 6 days and launched shortly after 1130 utc on Sunday 28th April,
passing overhead Glasgow about 22 minutes latter. This is an SDI Star Wars
mission testing devices which will be used for detecting inter continental
and shorter range ballistic missile mid course manouevres. The flight is
due to last till 6 May and will include several firings of the shuttle's
engines with consequent orbit changes. Mean orbit period is likely to be
about 89.7 minutes, with inclination 57 degrees and RAAN of about 260
degrees and orbital increment of 22.5 degrees approx producing 6 passes
over UK each day with orbit times coming 5 or 6 minutes earlier each
successive day,( engine firings could alter this considerably)

At the NEC this weekend the RSGB released the SPACE RADIO HANDBOOK a book
designed for anyone interested in any part of the broad field of Space
Radio. Its contents include reviews of all types of sats, their orbits and
function. How to find them and use them for experiment and communications.
Also reported are visual tracking, photography and lots of experiments,
plus amateur radio astronomy, moon bounce , comets and meteors. Please
contact GM4IHJ at any of the forthcoming Scottish rallies ( Kelso 5 May,
Mid Lanark 9 June, 25 August Galashiels, and the big Scottish rally at
Bonnie Dundee in September), to discuss these topics.

SPARK Strathclyde Park Amateur Radio Club are discussing an interesting
proposal to put a reasonable size astronomical telescope at a sheltered
country site ( no light pollution ). Fitted with a CCD detector it could
relay excellent armchair astronomy via FSTV or SSTV by amateur radio to a
large section of the Scottish amateur radio community.Some excellent DIY
guides on this (CCD) subject are available. 73 de John GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN