SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0513 * SpaceNews 13-May-96 * BID: $SPC0513 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MAY 13, 1996 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * STS-77 NEWS * =============== NASA managers set May 19, 1996 as the official launch date for the agency's next Space Shuttle mission, designated STS-77. The original target date of May 16 was not available on the Eastern Range schedule. NASA's fourth Shuttle mission of 1996 will involve Shuttle Endeavour and a six-person crew performing microgravity research aboard the commercially owned and operated SPACEHAB Module. The crew also will deploy and retrieve a research satellite and perform rendezvous operations with a test satellite. Launch of Endeavour on May 19 is scheduled for 6:30 AM EDT (1030 UTC) at the opening of a 2-1/2 hour available launch window. The STS-77 mission is forecast to last just over 10 days. Mission Control in Houston will be closely monitoring power consumption and cryogenic fuel reserves associated with the Shuttle's power system during the flight. Mission managers will have an option of shortening the mission one day if necessary. An on-time launch and nominal mission duration would result in a landing on May 29 a little after 7:00 AM EDT (1100 UTC) at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. The STS-77 crew is commanded by John Casper, making his fourth Shuttle flight. The pilot for the mission, Curt Brown, is making his third flight. There are four mission specialists assigned to the flight. Andrew Thomas, serving as Mission Specialist-1, is making his first flight. Mission Specialist-2 is Dan Bursch who is making his third flight. Mario Runco, serving as Mission Specialist-3, also is making his third flight. Mission Specialist-4 is Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau, who is flying in space for the second time. STS-77 will be the 11th flight of Endeavour and the 77th mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program in 1981. There will be no SAREX activity on this mission. [Info via NASA / WD8LAQ] * STS-77 ELEMENT SET * ====================== STS-77 1 99977U 96140.46798995 .00003995 00000-0 89987-5 0 25 2 99977 39.0081 273.3005 0008171 270.3851 295.4207 15.96521956 16 Satellite: STS-77 Catalog number: 99977 Epoch time: 96140.46798995 Element set: 2 Inclination: 39.0081 deg RA of node: 273.3005 deg Eccentricity: 0.0008171 Arg of perigee: 270.3851 deg Mean anomaly: 295.4207 deg Mean motion: 15.96521956 rev/day Decay rate: 3.99534e-05 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 1 For information about the Shuttle Elements Mailing List, Tracking, Observing, Keplerian Elements, Tracking Software and more see the web pages at Gary Morris/KK6YB Email: garym@cts.com San Diego, CA, USA URL: * AMSAT-UK COLLOQUIUM NEWS * ============================ AMSAT-UK Colloquium application forms are being sent automatically to anyone who attended last year (1995) or in 1994. Anyone else who would like a form should contact the AMSAT-UK office with full mailing address. Travel information is included with these forms; the first mailing will probably be about 16 May. The lecture program is still being assembled and papers are still needed (for the "Proceedings" book) to arrive by 15 June. Organizers can also give a platform to speakers, on amateur-satellite matters, who do not intend to publish a paper (but organizers will help you, and try to twist your arm, to write one). PLEASE contact Richard, G3RWL, if you would like to speak. Lectures already known (or in an advanced state of arm-twisting) are: various UoS talks; IARU; microwave beginners; laser communications; specific projects (P3D, Sunsat etc); low-cost Mode-S; passive satellites; EME; WISP. 73 Richard G3RWL Packet: @ GB7HSN.#32.GBR.EU Internet: g3rwl@amsat.org Mail: ok in callbooks Telephone: +44 (0)181 366 4297 (utc evenings) * MICROSAT NEWS * ================= AMSAT-OSCAR-16 and LUSAT-OSCAR-19 continue to perform well in pacsat service. AO-16 is operating on software that was last uploaded to the spacecraft over 600 days ago. Work continues on reloading the operating software to WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18. WO-18 is currently transmitting telemetry, computer status information, and beacon text information. The digipeater is currently OFF. Since the original software crash several weeks ago, the quality of the downlink signal has improved in that the BPSK carrier suppression is much higher than it was before. This makes its downlink signal easier to copy at lower signal levels than it was before. * GALILEO NEWS * ================ Galileo continues normal operations in orbit around Jupiter, transmitting science and engineering telemetry at 16 bits per second, while the flight team at JPL analyzes the flight path adjusted by a recent maneuver and the health and performance of the spacecraft. The orbit trim maneuver performed on 03-May-96 slightly changed the spacecraft's arrival time and geometry for the Ganymede encounter on 27-Jun-96, as planned. This was the first trajectory correction using the small 10-newton thrusters since late August 1995. There is an opportunity for another trim maneuver in June if it is needed. The celestial mechanics radioscience team, which uses perturbations in the spacecraft flight path as it flies by planets and other bodies to analyze their mass properties, published a report Friday, 03-May-96, in Science magazine that they found Jupiter's moon Io to have a large dense iron core. Galileo flew close to Io on 07-Dec-95, as it approached Jupiter, gaining a gravity boost from the moon that allowed it to be captured in orbit around Jupiter. Other observations of unexpected magnetic field changes and of interplanetary dust made at about the same time are being analyzed and prepared for future publication. On 13-May-96, the Galileo team will begin installation of massive new flight software in the spacecraft, transmitting the computer code in installments over a period of 10 days to two weeks. This will almost double the software used by the main spacecraft computers in the command and data subsystem. At its present distance from the earth, each digital bit of the flight software going to the spacecraft takes a little less than 39 minutes to reach the spacecraft. [Info via NASA / JPL] * SOFTWARE SQPSK MODEM DEVELOPMENT * ==================================== Phil Karn, KA9Q, has been making good progress on an experimental 1200 bps packet modem designed mainly for linear satellite transponder use. It uses SQPSK (staggered quadrature phase shift keying) and strong forward error correction to achieve reliable operation at very low signal to noise ratios, and in no more bandwidth than that currently used by uncoded 1200 BPSK. (i.e. it will still fit in ordinary SSB transceiver bandwidths.) Phil has a prototype running in test mode (running within test programs with artificially generated noise) and it's performing quite well. He has written some notes on the design and included them on his web page. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Phil's modem web page may be accessed at the following URL: http://www.qualcomm.com/people/pkarn/modem_memo.html [Info via Phil Karn, KA9Q] * NASDA HOME PAGE * =================== Toyoshige Kamei, JA3SGR, reminds us that the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) has a world wide web page accessible through the Internet at the following URL: http://www.nasda.go.jp/ * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all who sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews, especially: AA1JM N2JUX JA3SGR W4OWA YV5AMW * SpaceNews AVAILABILITY * ========================== SpaceNews is available regularly on Usenet in the rec.radio.info, rec.radio.amateur.misc, and sci.space.news newsgroups, and on packet radio BBSs worldwide as well as the AMSAT-OSCAR-16 Pacsat satellite. It may also be retrieved using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) at pilot.njin.net (128.6.7.38) from the /pub/SpaceNews subdirectory. Internet users may also "finger magliaco@pilot.njin.net" for a copy of the latest issue, or access it via the World Wide Web at: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/finger/pilot.njin.net/magliaco/w. * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> /EX