SB SAREX @ AMSAT $STS-71.002
STS-71 SAREX Mission Begins

Silver Spring, MD
June 28 @ 04:00 UTC

The Space Shuttle Atlantis began its historic flight to the Russian Space
Station MIR yesterday with an on-time launch from the Kennedy Space Center.
Despite the threat of weather delays, the STS-71 mission and its 
U.S. and Russian crew of seven were lofted into the cloudy Florida skies at
19:32 UTC.  This mission represents the first docking of U.S. and Russian 
manned space vehicles since the Apollo-Soyuz mission nearly 20 years ago.

The seven member crew includes two ham radio operators:  Pilot Charlie 
Precourt, KB5YSQ, and Mission Specialist Ellen Baker, KB5SIX.  The other
five shuttle crew members include Commander Hoot Gibson, Mission Specialists
Greg Harbaugh and Bonnie Dunbar and Russian Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and
Nikolai Budarin.

Prior to the docking with MIR, which is scheduled for 13:20 UTC on Thursday
June 29, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will perform several, large thruster
burns to catch up with the space station.  Because the Shuttle Flight path
will be so variable over the next few days, shuttle Keplerian elements
will not be provided by the SAREX working group.  The primary goal of
the Shuttle Mission is to rendezvous and dock with MIR.  Thus, the MIR
orbital elements will provide ground-based observers the best "final
trajectory" profile for the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

SAREX enthusiasts should also note that the Shuttle crew will be quite
busy during this rendezvous and docking phase of the mission.  Thus, 
the crew is not expected to operate SAREX during this flight phase.  SAREX
operations during the docked portion of the mission will also be curtailed
due to the SAREX antenna being blocked by MIR.  SAREX operations are 
expected to be initiated after the post separation burn is performed on
July 4 at 13:39 UTC.

A MIR Keplerian Element set is provided for your convenience.

Mir
1 16609U 86017A   95177.57042795  .00002606  00000-0  42223-4 0  1007
2 16609  51.6480 110.7224 0004878 115.5949 244.5543 15.56965667534337

Satellite: Mir
Catalog number: 16609
Epoch time:      95177.57042795
Element set:     100
Inclination:       51.6480 deg
RA of node:       110.7224 deg          Semi-major axis:  3657.9590 n.mi.
Eccentricity:    0.0004878              Apogee altitude:   215.8092 n.mi.
Arg of perigee:   115.5949 deg          Perigee altitude:  212.2405 n.mi.
Mean anomaly:     244.5543 deg          Altitude decay:      0.0036 
n.mi./day
Mean motion:   15.56965667 rev/day      Apsidal rotation:    3.7266 deg/day
Decay rate:     2.6060E-05 rev/day^2    Nodal regression:   -4.9994 deg/day
Epoch rev:           53433              Nodal period:       92.4261 min
Checksum:              316


Submitted by Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO for the SAREX Working Group

/EX