SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-349.01
AMSAT SPECIAL BULLETIN

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 349.01 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, DECEMBER 14, 2000
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-349.01

AMSAT-DL President (and P3D Project leader) Dr. Karl Meinzer,
DJ4ZC, and AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH,
informed ANS of the current status of AMSAT OSCAR-40:

AO-40 TELEMETRY TRANSMISSIONS STOP
DEVELOPMENT TEAM INVESTIGATING

Early Wednesday, December 13th, telemetry transmissions from AO-40
stopped while work on the 400 N propulsion system was in progress. An
investigation by the AO-40 development team has begun. They are now
waiting for certain on-board software events to occur on Saturday
afternoon, December 16th. These are programmed to start a spacecraft
emergency routine called 'command-assist' which attempts to
re-establish communications. This offers the best chance of recovering
evidence of the incident which made the telemetry transmissions stop.
When more information becomes available, we will pass it along.

Signed,

Dr. Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC  (and)   Robin Haighton, VE3FRH
 President AMSAT-DL                  President AMSAT-NA

Stay tuned to ANS for additional bulletins from AMSAT, the
official source for information on AMSAT OSCAR-40.

[ANS thanks AMSAT-NA and AMSAT-DL for this information]

/EX