SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.01 MORE ABOUT LAUNCH FAILURE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 098.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD APRIL 8, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-098.01 MORE ON THE LAUNCH FAILURE OF TECHSAT-1 AND UNAMSAT-1 >From Richard Limebear G3RWL ANS has obtained further information about the TECHSAT/UNAMSAT launch failure. Apparently the failure was because the fourth stage did not burn completely so the fifth stage was not triggered; the fourth stage quenched 12 seconds before it was supposed to be exhausted. It is also understood that the debris fell on land, not in the sea, and the landing site is known but, even if salvage is attempted, the components would not be re-usable. According to G3RWL, the third payload on the mission WAS a dummy. He reports that he has a photographs and that it shows "a plain cylinder". Launch was reportedly from a (fixed) mobile launcher tube which, apparently, erects hydraulically from horizontal to vertical in about 13 seconds; the launch vehicle is then lifted vertically in the same fashion before main motor ignition. G3RWL states that he understands that the Israelis are already building two more TECHSAT-1 class spacecraft; more or less copies of the first one. There is no definite indication of a replacement launch at this time, however. Some of this information was obtained from 4X1AS who is understood to be in London. [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank Richard Limebear (G3RWL) and AMSAT-UK the information used in the preparation of this bulletin.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.02 MESSAGE FROM XE1TU ABOUT UNAMSAT-1 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 098.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD APRIL 8, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-098.02 ANS Has The Following From David Liberman (XE1TU) Of The UNAMSAT Team "I have just returned to my laboratory and started reading my mail. By now I know everyone knows what happened to UNAMSAT and TECHSAT. It is a very sad story. To all of you (little by little) I will reply all your messages but there is also something I want to say. My students and myself have decided to work very hard and to make the ground-based second satellite a flying one and we expect to find a launch this same year. All your support is not only welcome but we thank you for your sympathy demonstrations. We have lost a battle but we are far from loosing the war.... The sadness is that we had a very good satellite. All the test done show a very robust satellite. But we will do it again. Fortunately we have all the support of UNAM [Autonomous University of Mexico] to do it. I was in Plesetsk and integrated the satellite to the rocket that was a modified SS-25 (TOPOL) with five stages. The integration went perfect and >From removing the satellite from its special box to being installed and umbilical tested it only took 35 min. All the Russian technicians were very well impressed of the quality and precision of our sat. A few days latter a Russian mechanical model was integrated and on Friday morning TECHSAT was integrated also in a very clean way. On Wednesday 28 of March we went very early by bus (0.5 m of snow in the fields) to the airport to wait for the guests planes and then continue to the launch pad. We saw the rocket in horizontal position ready for launch. Then we traveled again for 15 minutes to a location about 5 Km of the pad were we observed the launch. It was exactly 13:00 local (Moscow time) when we saw the rocket swinging very fast to vertical position and in two seconds being launched. The local PA system was giving the altitude at each staging till the fourth staging when it went silent. We were not told what happened, only that there was a telemetry problem and nothing else. We returned to the airport and some visitors left. The rest of us continued to Plesetsk were a banquet was served but I could see there were few people eating (or drinking). At 23:00 local I took the train and went back to Moscow. It only takes 18 hours to travel the 859 Km to Moscow and that was a very long long trip. When I arrived to Moscow University I went to the shack hoping that they had acquired or al least received some signal from either UNAMSAT or TECHSAT and found that nothing had been heard. Some negotiations started immediately to allocate another launch. We will keep you posted. We hope we will have a reposition in orbit of our sat this year, and to all of you, it is nice to belong to an association like AMSAT. You get to know your friends when in trouble. Thank you very very much. To you all. David Liberman XE1TU. UNAMSAT-1." The Following Was Prepared By Bill Tynan (W3XO) President AMSAT-NA "Speaking for all of the Amateur Radio Space enthusiasts around the world, I extend to both the UNAMSAT and TECHSAT teams our sympathy over their losses. It goes without saying that everyone is heartened by the resolve of both groups to rebuild and try again." [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank David Liberman (XE1TU) for his account of the launch attempt and subsequent events.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.03 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 098.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD APRIL 8, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-098.03 G0SYX Provides Insight To RS-15 Eclipse Times In response to reports of anomalistic RS-15 operations, using an element set from Day #82, G0SYX has taken a look at the current RS-15 eclipse re- gime. The regime that RS-15 experiences is very similar to that experienced by Kitsat-OSCAR-23 and S80/T, a spacecraft G0SYX operates from the Univer- sity of Surrey. As a result, he has some software tools available to him to study these types of the eclipse regimes. As it turns out, the first week of April is a period of deepest eclipse periods. Eclipse periods for April 1st, for instance, ran 34.6 minutes per orbit. These periods will lengthen to a span of over 35 minutes per orbit until around the 7th of April at which time the eclipse periods will begin to shorten in dur- ation. It should be pointed out however that eclipse periods for the entire month of April will exceed 20 minutes per orbit. G0SYX is looking forward to May, when we will see that the shortest eclipse period for this cycle, 13.4 minutes, which will occur around the 8th of May at which time the eclipse periods will once again begin to lengthen. G0SYX hopes this information is useful to those of you operating Mode-A via RS-15. He further hopes to be QRV at home in the next month or so he invites all RS-15 users to join everyone up on the bird. [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank Doug Loughmiller (G0SYX/KO5I) for this bulletin item.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.04 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 098.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD APRIL 8, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-098.04 Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 04-APR-95 AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule: The Mode Schedule from 20-FEB-95 until 22-MAY-95 will be: Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 190 |Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140 Mode-BS : MA 190 to MA 218 | Mode-S : MA 218 to MA 220 |<- S beacon only Mode-S : MA 220 to MA 230 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF Mode-B : MA 230 to MA 256 | Blon/Blat 230/0 Note: The Mode-B beacon is ON during the Mode-S transponder operations only. Please do NOT uplink to the B transponder during Mode S only, as it inter- feres with Mode-S operations. [G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR] AO-10: On 01-APR-95 XE1KK worked VP9MU and EA6SA with good signals. [XE1KK] RS-12: On 06-APR-95, on evening passes, HI8ROX and XE1J were working many stations. This satellite is working very well. XE1J was calling a station in northeastern Mexico but the station didn't show up. [XE1KK] FO-20: It is working great but very few stations -- it's a pity! [XE1KK] AO-27: NM1K reports lots of activity this past week. He worked 3 stations in one pass. [NM1K] RS-15: XE1KK reports that RS-15 is good, as is usual. Also, NM1K says that he has worked the following outstanding DX stations on RS-15: OH1AYQ (Finland), OZ1MY (Denmark), DG0AGX (Germany), G1RST (England) DK3VN (Germany), and VE4AMU (Canada). [XE1KK & NM1K] AO-27: Working well, few pirates (a company called "Cablevideo", probably in central Mexico) calling on their mobile units. [XE1KK] MIR: No packet on lately, but Norman is active on voice at the end of his day 7 or 8 P.M. Moscow Time. [XE1KK] AO-13: Noisy and few stations compared to a year ago. XE1KK has made a crossband QSO with DH9FAT, he was on AO-13 with a strong signal and then XE1KK move to AO-10 since they both were quite close. The AO-13 beacon was also strong on AO-10 and call him. He answered at XE1KK first call. He was about 57 in AO-13 and 51 in AO-10. The QSO was made without trouble. [XE1KK] The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) NEEDS YOUR HELP! The ANS looking for volun- teers to contribute weekly OSCAR status reports. If you have a favorite OSCAR which you work on a regular basis and would like to contribute to this weekly bulletin, please send your observations to WD0HHU at his CompuServe address of 70524,2272, on INTERNET at wd0hhu@amsat.org, or to his local packet BBS in the Denver, CO area, WD0HHU @ N0QCU. Also, if you find that the current set of orbital elements are not generating the correct AOS/LOS times at your QTH, PLEASE INCLUDE THAT INFORMATION AS WELL. The information you provide will be of value to all OSCAR enthusiasts. /EX