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SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0513
* SpaceNews 13-May-96 *
BID: $SPC0513
=========
SpaceNews
=========
MONDAY MAY 13, 1996
SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It
is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use.
* STS-77 NEWS *
===============
NASA managers set May 19, 1996 as the official launch date for the agency's
next Space Shuttle mission, designated STS-77. The original target date of
May 16 was not available on the Eastern Range schedule.
NASA's fourth Shuttle mission of 1996 will involve Shuttle Endeavour and a
six-person crew performing microgravity research aboard the commercially
owned and operated SPACEHAB Module. The crew also will deploy and retrieve
a research satellite and perform rendezvous operations with a test satellite.
Launch of Endeavour on May 19 is scheduled for 6:30 AM EDT (1030 UTC) at
the opening of a 2-1/2 hour available launch window. The STS-77 mission
is forecast to last just over 10 days. Mission Control in Houston will
be closely monitoring power consumption and cryogenic fuel reserves
associated with the Shuttle's power system during the flight. Mission
managers will have an option of shortening the mission one day if
necessary. An on-time launch and nominal mission duration would result
in a landing on May 29 a little after 7:00 AM EDT (1100 UTC) at Kennedy
Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility.
The STS-77 crew is commanded by John Casper, making his fourth Shuttle
flight. The pilot for the mission, Curt Brown, is making his third flight.
There are four mission specialists assigned to the flight. Andrew Thomas,
serving as Mission Specialist-1, is making his first flight. Mission
Specialist-2 is Dan Bursch who is making his third flight. Mario Runco,
serving as Mission Specialist-3, also is making his third flight. Mission
Specialist-4 is Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau, who is flying in space for
the second time.
STS-77 will be the 11th flight of Endeavour and the 77th mission flown since
the start of the Space Shuttle program in 1981. There will be no SAREX
activity on this mission.
[Info via NASA / WD8LAQ]
* STS-77 ELEMENT SET *
======================
STS-77
1 99977U 96140.46798995 .00003995 00000-0 89987-5 0 25
2 99977 39.0081 273.3005 0008171 270.3851 295.4207 15.96521956 16
Satellite: STS-77
Catalog number: 99977
Epoch time: 96140.46798995
Element set: 2
Inclination: 39.0081 deg
RA of node: 273.3005 deg
Eccentricity: 0.0008171
Arg of perigee: 270.3851 deg
Mean anomaly: 295.4207 deg
Mean motion: 15.96521956 rev/day
Decay rate: 3.99534e-05 rev/day^2
Epoch rev: 1
For information about the Shuttle Elements Mailing List, Tracking,
Observing, Keplerian Elements, Tracking Software and more see the web
pages at <http://www.cts.com/browse/garym/elements>
Gary Morris/KK6YB Email: garym@cts.com
San Diego, CA, USA URL: <http://www.cts.com/browse/garym/elements>
* AMSAT-UK COLLOQUIUM NEWS *
============================
AMSAT-UK Colloquium application forms are being sent automatically to anyone
who attended last year (1995) or in 1994. Anyone else who would like a form
should contact the AMSAT-UK office with full mailing address. Travel
information is included with these forms; the first mailing will probably
be about 16 May.
The lecture program is still being assembled and papers are still needed (for
the "Proceedings" book) to arrive by 15 June. Organizers can also give a
platform to speakers, on amateur-satellite matters, who do not intend to
publish a paper (but organizers will help you, and try to twist your arm,
to write one). PLEASE contact Richard, G3RWL, if you would like to speak.
Lectures already known (or in an advanced state of arm-twisting) are: various
UoS talks; IARU; microwave beginners; laser communications; specific projects
(P3D, Sunsat etc); low-cost Mode-S; passive satellites; EME; WISP.
73 Richard G3RWL
Packet: @ GB7HSN.#32.GBR.EU
Internet: g3rwl@amsat.org
Mail: ok in callbooks
Telephone: +44 (0)181 366 4297 (utc evenings)
* MICROSAT NEWS *
=================
AMSAT-OSCAR-16 and LUSAT-OSCAR-19 continue to perform well in pacsat service.
AO-16 is operating on software that was last uploaded to the spacecraft over
600 days ago.
Work continues on reloading the operating software to WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18.
WO-18 is currently transmitting telemetry, computer status information,
and beacon text information. The digipeater is currently OFF. Since the
original software crash several weeks ago, the quality of the downlink
signal has improved in that the BPSK carrier suppression is much higher
than it was before. This makes its downlink signal easier to copy at
lower signal levels than it was before.
* GALILEO NEWS *
================
Galileo continues normal operations in orbit around Jupiter, transmitting
science and engineering telemetry at 16 bits per second, while the flight
team at JPL analyzes the flight path adjusted by a recent maneuver and the
health and performance of the spacecraft.
The orbit trim maneuver performed on 03-May-96 slightly changed the
spacecraft's arrival time and geometry for the Ganymede encounter on
27-Jun-96, as planned. This was the first trajectory correction using
the small 10-newton thrusters since late August 1995. There is an
opportunity for another trim maneuver in June if it is needed.
The celestial mechanics radioscience team, which uses perturbations in
the spacecraft flight path as it flies by planets and other bodies to
analyze their mass properties, published a report Friday, 03-May-96,
in Science magazine that they found Jupiter's moon Io to have a large
dense iron core. Galileo flew close to Io on 07-Dec-95, as it approached
Jupiter, gaining a gravity boost from the moon that allowed it to be
captured in orbit around Jupiter. Other observations of unexpected
magnetic field changes and of interplanetary dust made at about the
same time are being analyzed and prepared for future publication.
On 13-May-96, the Galileo team will begin installation of massive
new flight software in the spacecraft, transmitting the computer
code in installments over a period of 10 days to two weeks. This
will almost double the software used by the main spacecraft computers
in the command and data subsystem. At its present distance from the
earth, each digital bit of the flight software going to the spacecraft
takes a little less than 39 minutes to reach the spacecraft.
[Info via NASA / JPL]
* SOFTWARE SQPSK MODEM DEVELOPMENT *
====================================
Phil Karn, KA9Q, has been making good progress on an experimental 1200 bps
packet modem designed mainly for linear satellite transponder use. It uses
SQPSK (staggered quadrature phase shift keying) and strong forward error
correction to achieve reliable operation at very low signal to noise ratios,
and in no more bandwidth than that currently used by uncoded 1200 BPSK.
(i.e. it will still fit in ordinary SSB transceiver bandwidths.)
Phil has a prototype running in test mode (running within test programs
with artificially generated noise) and it's performing quite well. He
has written some notes on the design and included them on his web page.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. Phil's modem web page may be
accessed at the following URL:
http://www.qualcomm.com/people/pkarn/modem_memo.html
[Info via Phil Karn, KA9Q]
* NASDA HOME PAGE *
===================
Toyoshige Kamei, JA3SGR, reminds us that the National Space Development
Agency of Japan (NASDA) has a world wide web page accessible through the
Internet at the following URL:
http://www.nasda.go.jp/
* THANKS! *
===========
Thanks to all who sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews, especially:
AA1JM N2JUX JA3SGR W4OWA YV5AMW
* SpaceNews AVAILABILITY *
==========================
SpaceNews is available regularly on Usenet in the rec.radio.info,
rec.radio.amateur.misc, and sci.space.news newsgroups, and on packet
radio BBSs worldwide as well as the AMSAT-OSCAR-16 Pacsat satellite.
It may also be retrieved using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) at
pilot.njin.net (128.6.7.38) from the /pub/SpaceNews subdirectory.
Internet users may also "finger magliaco@pilot.njin.net" for a
copy of the latest issue, or access it via the World Wide Web at:
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/finger/pilot.njin.net/magliaco/w.
* FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED *
===========================
Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John,
KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below:
WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA
INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net
SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19
<<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>>
/EX