SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-142.01 Way Cleared For AMSAT Launch HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 142.01 FROM AMSAT HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON, DC May 21, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Arianespace scored another major success last week when an Ariane 2 rocket performed flawlessly in boosting a large geo-synchronous satellite to orbit. The V-23 launch success means the decks are cleared for the launch AMSAT is most interested in: the V-22 mission carrying AMSAT's Phase 3C satellite. That's nominally scheduled for the morning of June 8. The V-23 mission, an Ariane 2 launcher carrying the Intelsat 5 F13 satellite, apparently performed exactly as expected. The satellite was inserted into its transfer orbit and late in the week was being prepared for kick motor firing and subsequent solar panel deployment. The launch was broadcast on commercial satellite SPACENET S1, transponder 23. Several AMSAT members reported watching the excitement unfold in real-time. The night launch was visually spectacular as the 6 rocket engines lit up the Kourou night sky. It's hoped the V-22 launch of Phase 3C, which is a morning launch, will also be broadcast. If it is, the broadcast will support the ALINS (AMSAT Launch Information Network Service) planned. With V-23 off, the next mission up is the V-22 Ariane 4 mission; the first flight for the very large Ariane 4 launcher. V-22 will carry AMSAT's Phase 3C, PANAMSAT and Meteosat as Arianespace attempts to extend the versatility of its launcher fleet. AMSAT's Phase 3C has been fully prepared and is awaiting the actual launch. In the next few days a joint AMSAT-DL and AMSAT-NA team will return to Kourou for the countdown to launch. The "Team Three" effort is focused on assuring telemetry from the satellite is nominal. A constant stream of telemetry from Phase 3C will alert monitoring engineers if anything untoward occurs in the satellite systems. In the days immediately following launch an intense effort will begin to precisely locate the satellite using AMSAT-developed techniques and personnel. Phil Karn, KA9Q, and Bob McGwier, N4HY, will employ sophisticated ranging techniques and advanced mathematical analysis comparable to the best available to precisely define the orbital parameters within a few days of launch. Then, when the uncertainties are reduced to acceptable levels, the kick motor will be fired for the first time. This will raise the perigee from a precipitously low 200 km to a more comfortable level. After a series of perhaps 3 burns the orbit will be modified from one having perigee at 200 km to one having a 1500 km perigee. The inclination will be raised from its initial 10 degrees to 57 degrees. The apogee and argument of perigee ( 36,000 km and 178 degrees respectively) will remain unchanged. AMSAT's bi-weekly newsletter, ASR (Amateur Satellite Report), will publish a special Phase 3C launch edition. The special edition, ASR #178, will be published and distributed to arrive (on average) just before launch day, June 8. The special edition contains satellite performance specifications, recommended ground station capabilities and preliminary Phase 3C telemetry equations and channel designations. It's a great time to renew your AMSAT membership or, if you've been postponing joining, to get on board and join now. Call or write AMSAT HQ to learn how to join or renew. The telephone number is 301-589-6062. The address is AMSAT, P.O. Box 27, Washington D.C. 20044. AMSAT members receive ASR as a member service. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-142.02 W0ORE To Exit NASA HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 142.02 FROM AMSAT HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON, DC May 21, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Astronaut Tony England, W0ORE, whose July 1985 shuttle flight brought the "Hams in Space" concept to new heights, has announced his retirement from NASA. He will leave the agency within the next several weeks to take a teaching position at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He cited the stretchout of the shuttle and space station programs and his desire to progress with his own agenda as underpinning his decision to leave the agency. Dr. England, a geophysicist from North Dakota, had taken Amateur Slow Scan TV with him on his shuttle flight aboard the shuttle Challenger. Aside from an instrumentation anomaly on lift-off that caused an engine to be shut down early, the mission on the ill-fated Challenger was a success. And thousands around the world heard W0ORE and many saw the images sent from Tony's SSTV setup. The SSTV beamed up to W0ORE from the Johnson Space Center station, W5RRR, were the first live TV pictures ever received aboard shuttle. Tony told the AMSAT News Service he will be moving to the Ann Arbor area as soon as his affairs can be set in order in Houston where he now resides with his wife Kathy. He will become Professor of Electrical Engineering at U of M's EE department. Tony said he is especially interested in working with AMSAT in future satellite projects and that his work at Michigan will keep him very much involved in space technology. Aside from his teaching duties, he said, he will be doing research in satellite technology especially in the area of remote sensing. Dr. England is a leading world authority on remote sensing and was co-investigatior on the Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR) experiment which was enormously successful. Tony said he enjoys teaching and doing research. During a long lull in the U.S. Space Station program early procurement days he had taken a teaching assignment at Rice University in Houston. With the imminent departure of Dr. England from NASA the next opportunity for continuing the "Ham In Space" program falls to Dr. Ron Parise, WA4SIR, of Silver Spring, Maryland who's a visiting scientist in NASA. Ron's proposed inclusion of a packet radio experiment aboard his ASTRO-1 mission has been delayed while the shuttle program is reorganized following the Challenger accident in January 1986. Astronaut Dr. Tony England, W0ORE, has been a marvelous spokesman for Amateur Radio and a vocal supporter of promoting better education in the space sciences and engineering in general. He's been a superb role model for thousands of students and would-be astronauts throughout the world. And he's brought a rare brand of excitement to the air waves when his callsign could be heard originating in space. AMSAT wishes Tony and his family well in their new assignment in Michigan. We're sure we'll be hearing from W0ORE in the future! /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-142.03 Skitrek Report #17:May 21,1988 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 142.03 FROM AMSAT HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON, DC May 21, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT The thirteen members of the Amateur Radio supported Transpolar Skitrek Expedition have made excellent progress this week as they near the coast of Ellesmere Island, North West Territory, Canada. On May 20th they were just 273 km from their destination. They plan on coming ashore on Ward Hunt Island, just to the north of Cape Columbia. The moving group will have one more supply and science stop before the trek ends. All is well with the skiers as they continue southward and the weather moderates. Temperatures they are reporting have risen to a balmy -10 degrees Celsius. The skiers' position as of Saturday, May 21st was latitude 85d 28.8m North and longitude 77d 09.5m West. The Soviet ice island NP-28, one of the principal communications bases for the expedition, is now experiencing rapid break-up. The past week saw it split into 4 pieces. The crew is now seriously considering abandoning the station as it continues its southward drift. Continued fracturing has shrunk the airstrip to less than half its original length. Barry Garratt, 4K0DX/VE3CDX, Canadian communicator on the "island" lost part of the communications gear on Saturday, May 21st, when the HF linear amplifier fell into the sea as a lead opened up. Temperatures at Resolute Bay, NWT, Canada, are now often above zero. The last Canadian communicator, Rick Burke, V01SA, has now arrived at Resolute. Rick, you may remember, spent a month in the Soviet Arctic back in March as the trek began. This report has been prepared by Rich Ensign, N8IWJ, AMSAT Science Education Advisor for use with the AMSAT Teachers Guide "Exploring The High Arctic From Your Classroom" Transpolar Skitrek Expedition Progress Report #18 will be issued on Friday, May 27, 1988. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-142.04 Soviet Shuttle Launch? Nyet! HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 142.04 FROM AMSAT HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON, DC May 21, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Soviet space observers kept a constant vigil this past week for the rumored launch of the Soviet Space Shuttle, Kosmolyet. As reported here last week, western media groups were invited to the Baikonur Cosmodrome to view a "major space event", to occur on the afternoon of 18 May. The press was notified that they would be at Baikonur for 4 hours and rumors began to spread that it was in fact the long-awaited launch of Kosmolyet, or "space flyer". The press was invited to tour the Cosmonaut training facility at Star City on Monday and at that time it became apparent that Kosmolyet was still in the testing stages. An interview with one Soviet Space official conducted by ABC News indicated that more testing is necessary before the launch will occur. He also pointed out that the first several flights will be unmanned. This conflicts with repeated statements from Vladimir Shatalov, head of the training facility, who has indicated that it WILL be manned by two cosmonauts. In fact, in an interview with Radio Moscow on Thursday of this past week, Shatalov once again stated that the first flight will be manned. He also said that the flight will not occur until both the shuttle and the Energiya, the largest booster rocket ever built, have been thoroughly checked. The media event of Wednesday turned out to be the launch of Kosmos 1944, an "agricultural/photographic satellite", on board an SL-4 booster. The press were permitted to photograph the launch with their own equipment (a first) and were given a brief tour of the launch facility, including the 15,000 foot shuttle landing facility. Western analysts were surprised to learn that some 20 atmospheric flights have already taken place with Kosmolyet and "several more are necessary before launch." It is presumed that veteran cosmonauts Igor Volk and Anatoly Levchenko will command the first mission. In other Soviet space activity, Radio Moscow announced that a press conference was held at Star City, the cosmonaut training facility outside of Moscow, by the crew members of the upcoming joint Soviet-Bulgarian mission to the Soviet Space Station, Mir. The flight, now set for June 7, will carry two Soviet cosmonauts and one Bulgarian guest cosmonaut to Mir to join the two residing cosmonauts, Manarov and Titov. A review of MIR's projected orbits suggests a launch in the range of 1710 UTC (9:10 PM Moscow time) which would indicate significant Soviet TV coverage. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-142.05 AO-10 Returns To Service HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 142.05 FROM AMSAT HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON, DC May 21, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT AMSAT OSCAR 10 returned to service May 14 providing Mode B communications (70 cm up, 2 m down) to users worldwide. Operating times for AO-10 Mode B per ZL1AOX: From May 14 thru May 30: MA 20 through MA 220 From June 01 thru June 14: MA 25 through MA 225 From June 15 thru June 30: MA 30 through MA 230 Please use minimum power required for communications. /EX