FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Number 94-01 January 30, 1994 AMSAT-NA PHASE 3-D TEAM JOINS WITH FLORIDA-BASED ENGINEERING GROUP FOR SPACECRAFT INTEGRATION About a half dozen members of the North American Phase 3-D Development team met recently to assess overall progress on the program and to begin planning for the spacecraft's final assembly in preparation for its April, 1996 launch from Korou, French Guyana. Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, AMSAT VP for Engineering, hosted the North American Phase 3-D progress meeting near Orlando, Florida on 7-9 January, 1994, where a number of critical Phase 3-D issues were discussed. While several open items still must be resolved, AMSAT-NA's overall technical contributions to the Phase 3-D project remain on track. "We're still on schedule for the 1996 launch," said Bill Tynan, W3XO, AMSAT-NA President. "I am really proud of the way everyone on the North American team is pulling together to insure our responsibilities to the international project are met," he said. The high point of the meeting came when several officers of a Florida-based volunteer group, called Space Frontier Operations (SFO), presented their proposal to manage the overall integration effort for the Phase 3-D spacecraft. After extensive discussions concerning their capabilities and proposed integration approach, SFO's offer was gratefully accepted by Bill Tynan, Dick Jansson, and the rest of AMSAT-NA Phase 3-D team members present. Space Frontier Operations is a relatively new group based in the Orlando/Cape Canaveral, Florida area. Presently, their membership stands at about one hundred. They are, however, a rapidly growing, not-for-profit, Florida corporation dedicated to the private, non- commercial, use of space. Their first project was a "Get-Away Special" (GAS Can) experiment which will fly on an upcoming NASA Space Shuttle mission. Most SFO members are also connected professionally to NASA or other space agencies at the Cape. Together, they bring several decades of "hands on" experience designing and building a wide variety of government and commercial space hardware to the Phase 3-D integration effort. "We are very honored to be associated with such a prestigious group as AMSAT," said Andy Clark, SFO's Chief Executive Officer at the recent Orlando meeting. He went on to note, "We believe our professional aerospace experience will bring another, very positive dimension to an already outstanding international Phase 3-D team." These same feelings were echoed by Mike Peacock, KR4GA, SFO's Director of Engineering, who stated that because SFO and AMSAT share many of the same goals, the partnership should prove mutually beneficial. Also on hand for the meeting were Keith Baker, KB1SF, AMSAT VP, Strategic Planning, who discussed the overall Phase 3-D Master Schedule. In addition, Stan Wood, WA4NFY, updated the team on Phase 3-D's various antenna designs. Dick Daniels, W4PUJ, AMSAT's North American P3-D Team Director along with Dr. Tom Clark, W3IWI, P3-D GPS experiment Team Leader, joined the group by telephone. Longtime AMSAT satellite builder Jan King, W3GEY, and Lyle Johnson, WA7GXD, from TAPR, were also present and served as technical advisors to both teams during the discussions. Final designs for solar cells, solar panels, batteries, as well as the progress now being made on the spacecraft's overall structure were also discussed. In addition, possible integration sites in the Orlando/Cape Canaveral area were evaluated and several team members toured a candidate facility at the Orlando International Airport. A final selection regarding the most cost-effective location for Phase 3-D integration will be made once firm rental price proposals are received and evaluated by the now AMSAT-NA/SFO combined Phase 3-D integration team. For more information contact: Keith C. Baker, KB1SF 1324 Fairgrounds Road Xenia, Ohio 45385-9514 USA "kb1sf@amsat.org"