SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0701 * SpaceNews 01-Jul-96 * BID: $SPC0701 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY JULY 1, 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-78/SAREX NEWS * ===================== The Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment carried on Space Shuttle "Columbia" has been making many successful scheduled radio contacts with schools and relatives, as well as plenty of random contacts with hams on the ground. The packet radio ROBOT has been active, and Mission Specialist Chuck Brady, N4BQW was copied on a number of passes in range of KD2BD in New Jersey, and even contacted on voice just prior to LOS at 16:21 UTC on 27-Jun-96. Due to the high atmospheric drag being experienced by the Space Shuttle, accurate orbital predictions demand frequent Keplerian data orbital element set updates. The following is a fairly recent Keplerian data element set for STS-78: STS-78 1 23931U 96036A 96178.72367356 .00118242 00000-0 20691-3 0 9092 2 23931 39.0147 329.0657 0006999 312.4350 47.6036 16.01748976 990 Columbia is scheduled to land on 06-Jul-96 at 12:46 UTC at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but efforts to conserve power are being observed so the mission may be extended another day, breaking the all-time record for U.S. Space Shuttle mission duration. The orbiter is performing well, with no major problems being reported. SAREX reception reports and QSL cards should be sent to: ARRL EAD STS-78 QSL 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111-1494i USA Include the following information in your QSL or report: STS-78, date, time in UTC, frequency and mode. In addition, an SASE using a large, business-sized envelope must be included if you wish to receive a card. "The Net" in Anacortes, Washington has generously volunteered to manage the cards for this mission. * JAS-2 LAUNCH DATE * ===================== Mark your calendars! The scheduled launch date for the JAS-2 Amateur satellite is 17-Aug-96. * OSCAR-11 NEWS * ================= Reports have surfaced lately indicating that the UoSAT-OSCAR-11 satellite has gone silent. UoSAT-OSCAR-11 carries a hardware watch-dog timer that shuts off the 2-meter beacon transmitter if instructions from the command station are not received for five days. Therefore, if no commands are uploaded to the satellite in five days, the beacon transmitter shuts down. This is not necessarily an indication that there is a problem with the spacecraft. * WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 NEWS * ========================== WEBERSAT (WO-18) has experienced many software crashes recently. Efforts are underway by the command team to identify the cause, and make the appropriate corrections. Controllers all hope that WO-18 will be operational again very soon sending telemetry, photos, weekly whole orbit data (WOD), and light spectra of the Sun or Earth. [Info via Tom Davis, Education News #85] * SORRY! * ========== Sorry, but there was no SpaceNews released last week (24-Jun-96). Recovery from foot surgery and the re-creation of software lost in a freak floppy disk accident are the cause for the lack of SpaceNews last week. * 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