SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0427 * SpaceNews 27-Apr-98 * BID: $SPC0427 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY APRIL 27, 1998 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * AMSAT-OSCAR-10 NEWS * ======================= Stacey Mills, W4SM, reports that AMSAT-OSCAR-10's solar illumination appears to be extremely low, and the satellite is "nearly comatose" as a result. Stacey reports hearing the beacon with FM'ing as well as his own downlink with some FM'ing as well, but the signals are very, very weak. This is in keeping with his best guess regarding the spacecraft's attitude, which shows less than 50% illumination at the moment. Given the aging solar panels, that's probably enough to cause significant performance degradation. Things will probably continue to get worse for the next month and may not be any better by the time of field day. However, they should improve again later in the summer and peak in August. If this cycle produces a complete "loss of signal", Stacey may be able to more closely estimate the ALAT/ALON of the satellite and improve the illumination predictions. [Info via Stacey Mills, W4SM] * TECHSAT LAUNCH NEWS * ======================= Assi Friedman, 4X1KX/KK7KX reports that a 1998-Jun-23 to 1998-Jun-24 launch date has been confirmed for the TecSat-1b satellite by the Techsat team. A telemetry decoding program for use with Techsat is expected to be released soon. TechSat-1b will be very similar to the TechSat-1a satellite (lost shortly after launch) in the communications modes. It will use 9600 Baud FSK (like UO-22/KO-23/KO-25) and have VHF/L-band uplinks, with the downlinks in the UHF band. Users of the current fleet of 9600 baud satellites should have no problem accessing TechSat-1b after its launch. * SHUTTLE TRACKING WEB PAGE * ============================= Dr. Tom Clark, W3IWI, reports that an Internet Web page is available to those wishing to track the current Space Shuttle mission. The URL for this page is: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/ftpwmap/wmap.gif The page reloads every 5 minutes with updated tracking data. Visitors may need to hit the [RELOAD] button on their browsers to receive updates. The top line shows the , followed by the , and . The shuttle.nasa.gov site has a description of the display available at: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/demos/worldmap.html * WHY IS THE SKY DARK AT NIGHT? * ================================= An Internet Web page that attempts to explain why the sky is dark at night is available at the following URL: http://www.arachnoid.com/sky/index.html The answer may not be as obvious as one might think! :-) * 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, KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> <<=- Serving the planet for 10 years -=>> /EX