SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.01 AMSAT BoD, Annual Meeting, and Eagle Satellite Team Meeting AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 2, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.01 Rick Hambly, W2GPS, AMSAT-NA President, reminds all members that the 2005 AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting will be held on Thursday, October 6th and ending at noon on Friday, October 7th. The AMSAT Annual Meeting will follow later on Friday. An Eagle satellite design team meeting will follow on Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, October 7th through the 9th. These are open meetings and all AMSAT members and guests are invited to attend. We are staying at the Wyndham Pittsburgh Airport Hotel located near the Pittsburgh International Airport. The phone number of the hotel is 412-788-8800. [ANS thanks Rick, W2GPS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.02 SSETI Launch Delay AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 2, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.02 Unfortunately, the SSETI team has learned this past week that they have an INDEFINITE launch delay. This is due to one of the spacecraft on the launch, "SINAH", having suffered a significant failure and not being ready to fly. Early indications suggest that a delay of at least one month may be expected, but this has not been confirmed at press time. The SSETI launch campaign team will make the spacecraft and the ground support equipment safe and then return to the UK. This is, of course, very unfortunate, but it is not critical! The spacecraft can easily wait for the new launch date without any significant problems, with the SSETI team looking forward to liftoff and orbit as soon as can be done. [ANS thanks Graham, UA/G3VZV for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.03 ARISS Status AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 2, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.03 ARISS Status September 30, 2005 1. Upcoming School Contacts with Space Tourist Space Tourist Greg Olsen will fly with the Expedition 12 crew slated to launch on October 1. He plans to make three ARISS contacts during his 8 day visit on board the ISS. The tentative dates and times for these contacts follow. On Wednesday, October 5 at 16:58 UTC, Olsen will speak to students at Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey. [Note change]-This contact will not be direct but will be a telebridge via NN1SS. Students from Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, New York will speak to the space traveler via the telebridge station,VK5ZAI, in Australia. The contact is scheduled for Thursday, October 6 at 15:07 UTC. Olsen will speak to the students at Ridgefield Park High School in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey via the telebridge station, ZS6BTD, in South Africa. The contact will take place on Friday, October 7 at 13:32 UTC. 2. SuitSat Video A video covering the SuitSat project is available on the AMSAT website. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/videoNews.php 3. AMSAT 2005 Meetings The 2005 AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting will be held on Thursday and Friday, October 6 – 7 at the Wyndham Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. This conference will be followed by both the AMSAT Annual Meeting, and the Eagle satellite team meeting which will be held on Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, October 7 – 9. 4. Astronaut Training Status Mission Specialist Bob Behnken completed two sessions of amateur radio training at JSC. He is currently preparing to take his technician’s exam. (ANS Thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for this information) SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.04 ARISS Status AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 27, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.04 ARISS Status September 27, 2005 This week, congrats go out to all of the following. Phillip Crawford, W9DQ, Satellite Communication Achievement Award #421 and South Africa AMSAT Satellite Communication Achievement Award #US90 To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com 73...bruce (ANS Thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, for this information) /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.05 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 30, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.05 ISS Status Report September 30, 2005 *International Space Station Status Report #05-46* *9 a.m. CDT Friday, Sept. 30, 2005* *Expedition 11 Crew* Preparations for arrival of the next crew of the space station, scientific activities and maintenance highlighted this week's activities aboard the orbiting laboratory. Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer John Phillips also spent some time packing up for their own return home, readying their launch and entry suits. They checked out the Soyuz spacecraft that brought them to the station April 16 to make sure it is ready to take them back to Earth. The 12th crew of the station, Commander and NASA Science Officer William McArthur and Valery Tokarev, flight engineer and Soyuz commander, are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan tonight at about 10:55 p.m. CDT. NASA Television coverage of the launch will begin at 10 p.m. The new crew is scheduled to dock with the station a little after 12:30 a.m. on Monday. NASA Television coverage of the docking will begin at 11p.m. Sunday. With the Expedition 12 crew will be spaceflight participant Gregory Olsen, an American businessman traveling to the station under a contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency. He will spend about eight days on the station and return to Earth with Krikalev and Phillips. Their landing is scheduled for about 8:10 p.m. CDT Oct. 10 on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Thursday managers at Mission Control Moscow said launch preparations were moving along flawlessly. Managers at Mission Control Houston said the station was ready to receive the new crew. McArthur and Tokarev will spend the eight days they will share with their predecessors aboard the station in intensive handover briefings, learning about the spacecraft's systems, processes, procedures, scientific experiments, the location of equipment and supplies. In short, they will be trying to learn all they still need to know before they begin their months in orbit alone. Krikalev and Phillips began the week with NASA flight controllers in Moscow exercising primary mission control. Mission Control Houston and the rest of Johnson Space Center were closed because of the threat of Hurricane Rita. Houston flight controllers resumed normal operations at 9 a.m. Monday. On Tuesday Krikalev and Phillips each spent more than an hour familiarizing themselves with Olsen's scientific experiments. On Wednesday they continued preparations for arrival of the new crew, and on Thursday did predocking tests and more preparation for their own departure. Phillips regenerated METOX carbon dioxide absorbing cartridges for U.S. spacesuits. McArthur and Tokarev have a spacewalk scheduled in those suits in November. Today's schedule includes maintenance of the Elektron oxygen generating system, functioning again after Krikalev replaced its liquids unit two weeks ago. For information on the crew's activities aboard the station, future launch dates, and station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station The next station status report will be issued this evening, after the Expedition 12 launch. (ANS Thanks Arthur, N1ORC for this information) /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.06 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 30, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.06 Solar Eclipse September 30, 2005 On Monday October 3, 2005, there will be a solar eclipse encompassing Europe, Asia & most of Africa. It will start early am and move across the continents rather quickly. There are many web sites with exact information and you should search for them to obtain this data. These are natural phenomena's that are spectacular and a miraculous thing to observe. If you are lucky enough to be in this path, you'll begin to understand what happens when a satellite is in "eclipse!" (Submitted by Dee, NB2F, thanks.) SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.07 Delfi-C3 Newsletter Available AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.07 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 2, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.07 The latest edition of the Delfi-C3 Newsletter is available on-line. Delfi-C3 is a cubesat project being built by aerospace engineering students and professors at Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Interested amateur radio operators can subscribe to the newsletter: http://www.delfic3.nl/newsletter/ Full coverage of the Delfi-C3 project is on-line at: http://www.delfic3.nl [ANS thanks the Delfi-C3 team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.08 Informal MSN Chat Group For ISS and PCSAT2 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.08 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 2, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.08 Cor, PD0RKC, invites amateur radio operators who are interested in ISS and PCSAT2 activity to join his informal chat group at http://www.msn.com. Discussions include ISS activity, trackings-aprs-packet-software, and ISS news. For more details about this group contact Cor at his MSN e-mail address: isszarya (at) hotmail.com. [ANS thanks Cor, PD0RKC for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-275.09 Amateur Radio Operators Copy MRO at 14 Million Kilometers Distance AMSAT News Service Bulletin 275.09 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 2, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-275.09 The Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter, presently enroute to Mars in an interplanetary orbit 14 million kilometers from Earth, activated its Electra UHF Relay system operating at 437.1 MHz on September 21 and September 22. Andy, N9AB successfully detected this weak signal using his amateur radio station and DSP software to perform FFT analysis. Andy has written a very nice report on his detection of MRO which can be found on-line at: http://members.verizon.net/~km1p/N9AB_MRO_Report.pdf Viktor, OE1VKW reports his success at receiving the MRO at: http://cacofonix.nt.tuwien.ac.at/~oe1vkw/MRO/rcv22905.htm [ANS Andy, N9AB, Joe, KM1P, and Viktor, OE1VKW for the above information] /EX