SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-273.01 ARIANE 5 LAUNCH SCHEDULE SLIP HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 273.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD SEPTEMBER 30, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-273.01 Ariane 5 Launch Schedule Slip In a Joint ESA/CNES press release dated 26 September, 1995, a "revised Ariane-5 launch timetable" was announced. The press release reads as follows: "Tests on the launcher's cryogenic main stage have been under way in Kourou for a year and were to have ended in the third quarter of 1995 with the subassembly's qualification. Many positive results were obtained over the summer but it was not possible to achieve some of the objectives set for that period and a number of malfunctions disrupted the tests, mainly as a result of problems encountered with operation of the ground facilities. In addition, a leak in the oxygen feed line in the upper part of the stage and a hydrogen leak at thrustframe level made it necessary to improve the leak-tightness devices in a number of circuits. Lastly, an incident on 1 September affecting the actuator system in the Vulcan cryogenic engine led the board set up to analyze the problem to conclude that the fault lay in the high-pressure oil distribution system, which was subject to a water-hammer effect. Measures were immediately taken to reinforce the circuit and repair work on the Vulcain engine was completed. An overall verification test without a firing will be carried out early in October to validate the changes made to the stage. It will also provide an opportunity to check that the test systems are operating properly. A detailed review of the time schedule has been carried out to take account of the qualification objectives that have already been met and those that remain for the launcher as a whole (systems, stages, subassemblies and ground facilities). All this work means that the start of the 501 campaign is now planned for early February 1996 with a view to the 501 flight taking place in late April and the 502 flight in September. The European Space Agency has delegated the management of its Ariane-5 programme to CNES, the French space agency." It is the Ariane 502 flight on which Phase 3D is manifested. That flight was previously scheduled for April 3rd and more recently rescheduled to May 29th. Thus the ESA/CNES release confirms that Phase 3D will not be launched before September of next year. AMSAT-NA President, Bill Tynan W3XO expressed disappointment at the news, but noted that these things can often be expected in any development program and, he added, "Ariane 5 is a very ambitious development program, but one which I am confident will result in great success for ESA - both technically and from the commercial standpoint". Bill also noted that the extra time will be used to good advantage by the Phase 3D Team to construct an even better and more thoroughly tested spacecraft. He noted, in addition, the fact that with any stretched out schedule comes even greater expenses. "This is no time", he said, "to conclude that we have done all we should". [ANS would like to thank Peter Guelzow DB2OS for forwarding this ESA/CNES press release to ANS] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-273.02 AMSAT-NA SPACE SYMPOSIUM HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 273.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD SEPTEMBER 30, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-273.02 NATIONAL AMATEUR SATELLITE SYMPOSIUM MEETING IN FLORIDA Orlando, Florida - AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, will hold its thirteenth annual Space Symposium in Orlando Florida from October 6th to 8th, 1995. The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn, located on SR-436 next to Orlando International Airport. Some of the Sympium's highlights include: Steven Bible, N7HPR, will explain his innovative development of a World Wide Web Ground Station that monitors digital satellites. * David Liberman, XE1TU, will describe UNAMSAT (Mexico) future activities. Bruce Paige, KK5DO, will discuss the Houston AMSAT Net re-transmission by commercial satellites. Peter Vekinis, KC1QF/EI4GV/SV4GV, will propose an interesting concept for future amateur satellites, he calls "Picosats". As major feature of the Symposium will be Saturday morning's panel presentation on the Phase 3D project. Dr. Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, who serves as the Project Leader for the international effort, will be a member of this panel. Many volunteers from countries around the world are contributing to the Phase 3D Project including: Germany, the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Finland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary, Russia, and South Africa. Phase 3D is the largest and most sophisticated spacecraft ever built by and for amateur radio operators, and probably the largest ever built by a group not connected to a government commercial organization or university. Information on Phase 3D and other AMSAT activities is available on Internet at AMSAT's WorldWideWeb site: http://www.amsat.org/amsat /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-273.03 LIVE FEED FROM AMSAT-NA SYMPOSIUM HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 273.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD SEPTEMBER 30, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-273.03 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium Live Feed The Houston AMSAT Net will be providing a live feed from the AMSAT Symposium in Orlando on Friday, October 6 from 6:30-7:50PM (Eastern Time) and on Saturday, October 7 from 6:30-7:50PM (Eastern Time). It will be available via commercial satellite to many repeaters across the country. Bruce Paige KK5DO says, "Since the exact schedule has not been confirmed it will pot luck as to what will be transmitted. We will do our best to keep you informed prior to the convention. Several of us, K1MON, AJ1R, WA5ZIB, and I will have to pull this thing off basically at the spur of the moment since we cannot do any setup until we get there. Preliminary equipment looks like a phone patch with an HT, a roving HT and away we go. If all goes well, we will pull it off. The happy hour and dinner should be from 6-7PM each day so we will be able to have interviews with program presenters and Board of Directors members. When the seminars resume we will provide all we can up to the cutoff time for the next show on the satellite." This may very well be one of those times we all say "wish you were here".Bruce concluded. ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO for this information. He can be reached at paigecom@phoenix.net or via packet at kk5do@ke5iv.#setx.tx.usa.noam. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-273.04 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 273.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD SEPTEMBER 30, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-273.04 Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 30-SEP-95 AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule: QST *** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE *** 1995 Jul 31 - Oct 30 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 140 | Mode-BS : MA 140 to MA 240 | Mode-B : MA 240 to MA 256 | Alon/Alat 228/-1 Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140 | Move to attitude 180/0, Oct 30 [G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR] RS-12: WA6ARA checked RS-12 28-SEP-95 and he reports that "it's up and operating fine." He had a QSO with AA7VG at 2029 UTC with a 449 report. The radios that he uses are QRP, a HW-9 on 15M with about 3.5 watts output and a Ten Tec Argonaut 509 for receive on 10M. The antennas WA6ARA uses are a dipole on 15 and a turnstile on 10. [WA6ARA] MIR: As the passes over Europe fall in the working hours of the MIR crew there will not be much HAM activity of DP0MIR in this region now. This will change in some weeks. However DP0MIR was heard and worked over the USA together with his Russian colleagues of R0MIR on 145.550 MHz simplex. Thomas, DL2MDE, and Joerg, DL3LUM, of the German Miion Control's (DLR) Ham Radio Group ask all who had a QSO to send the details (call, report, date, time, remarks) to their club station DF0VR via packet or E-mail to make sure the data are in the log correctly for QSLing. The address is: Packet: DF0VR @ DB0AAB.#BAY.DEU.EU and INTERNET: hams.df0vr@dlr.de On 21-SEP-95 there was a first school contact with DP0MIR. Students of the Dr. Engel Relaschule in Esslingen, Germany, had a 6 minutes voice QSO with Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, DP0MIR. The contact on 2M was very good and Thomas answered a lot of questions and filled the class with enthusiasm. [DF5DP] AO-27: VE6ITV reports that he works AO-27 almost everyday. He has logged 24 states. He is using a FM 2M/70CM mobile radio. [VE6ITV] The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) NEEDS YOUR HELP! The ANS looking for volunteers 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