SB SAREX @ AMSAT $STS-70.004 SAREX Update & Keps 7/16 Silver Spring, MD July 16, 1995 at 13:30 UTC The Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts are keeping busy on the STS-70 mission with secondary payload experimentation including the operation of the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX). In the past 24 hours the crew has completed a successful contact with students at the Euclid High School in Euclid, Ohio. 7 students asked their questions through a telebridge link. Astronaut Mary Ellen Weber communicated to the Euclid students using a satellite station in Johannesburg, South Africa. Gerald Klatzko, ZS6BTD was the station control operator who patched the students to Astronaut Weber. The bridge telephone link was provided courtesy of Darome Telecommunications in Chicago, Illinois. The SAREX station has also been active in packet mode on several of the passes over the US. Over 300 packet connects have been reported thus far. The following packet downlink was copied by Gil Carman, WA5NOM: This is STS-70 SAREX Robot station W5RRR-1 onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. 12:38:17 W5RRR-1*>QST : Greetings from the STS-70 Crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery! We are into our fourth day in orbit and we are continuing to perform the numerous experiments we have on board.Besides the five crew members on board, we are carrying 10 pregnant rats investigating bone loss and muscle atrophy. These studies may some day help us understand muscular diseases and bone loss mechanisms which can lead to osteoporosis, or weaking of the bones which is experienced by many elderly adults. Space Shuttle Discovery continues to perform flawlessly and is an excellent laboratory for conducting Earth observations and our microgravity experiments. The crew is doing well and we pass our best wishes to you all!! 73s, KC5FVF and KC5OZX (Don and Nancy) Gil Carman, WA5NOM, also reports that an orbit 44 state vector from Discovery showed that the actual Orbiter trajectory was running 4 seconds later than element set JSC-006 predictions. This set will, therefore, be the official set for today and is provided below: STS-70 1 23612U 95035A 95196.56939848 .00070695 00000-0 20860-3 0 63 2 23612 28.4632 312.1213 0021330 158.8689 201.2847 15.90588344 335 Satellite: STS-70 Catalog number: 23612 Epoch time: 95196.56939848 = (15-Jul-95 13:39:56.02 UTC) Element set: 006 Inclination: 28.4632 deg RA of node: 312.1213 deg Space Shuttle Flight STS-70 Eccentricity: .0021330 Keplerian element set JSC-006 Arg of perigee: 158.8689 deg from NASA flight Day 3 vector Mean anomaly: 201.2847 deg Mean motion: 15.90588344 rev/day Gil Carman Decay rate: 7.0695e-04 rev/day^2 NASA Johnson Space Center Epoch rev: 33 Checksum: 313 Submitted by Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO for the SAREX Working Group /EX