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K5ARH > SAREX 17.09.96 06:39l 89 Lines 3842 Bytes #-10808 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : STS-79.001
Read: IN3GHZ GUEST OE7FMI
Subj: STS-79 SAREX Mission Begins
Path: DB0AAB<DB0PV<DB0MAK<DB0SON<DB0SIF<DB0AIS<DB0GV<DB0GE<LX0PAC<ON7RC<
ON1BWP<ON6AR<F6CNB<WB0TAX<K5ARH
Sent: 960917/0008z @:K5ARH.#LFT.LA.USA.NOAM #:65476 $:sts-79.001
Silver Spring, Maryland USA
September 16, 1996 @ 1600 UTC
In full view of the space station Mir crew above, space shuttle
Atlantis today lifted off into the clear pre-dawn Florida sky on
time. Docking of the two spacecraft is scheduled for MET 2/18:23
(Thursday, September 19 at 0316 UTC).
STS-79 is carrying the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX)
payload in Configuration M. Configuration M is voice-only
operations on a downlink frequency of 145.840 MHz FM. Voice uplinks
are on 144.45 and 144.47 MHz. Packet radio is not on Atlantis this
mission.
The three schools selected for a scheduled contact are Andover Middle
School in Andover, Kansas; Immaculate Conception Elementary School
in Celina, Ohio; and the Royal School For Girls in Haslemere, Surrey,
England. The students have been preparing for their contact for
several months.
Random contacts will also be made with the "ham" community. Details
to STS-79 amateur radio operation was provided in several releases,
including AMSAT News Service Bulletin ANS-258.07 dated September 14
and the ARRL SAREX Mission STS-79 Fact Sheet STS79FCT.TXT dated
July 24.
The STS-79 crew members to listen for are William Readdy, Commander;
Terry Wilcutt, Pilot; Tom Akers, Mission Specialist; Jay Apt, N5QWL,
Mission Specialist; and Carl Walz, KC5TIE, Mission Specialist. Also
listen for John Blaha, KC5TZQ, Mission Specialist, who will trade
places with Shannon Lucid, Mission Specialist on Mir.
Amateur radio operators are invited to post their STS-79 SAREX
signal reports and technical observations on the AMSAT Internet
e-mail list, sarex@amsat.org, for the benefit of all. To subscribe
to the SAREX mailing list, send a message with your request to
listserv@amsat.org. Be sure to include your call sign (if any),
your correct e-mail address, and the proper name of the mailing list
you wish to receive (SAREX). Your request will be processed manually
for now, so the format of your request is not important.
When posting a brief message to the list please be sure to include
the standard QSL report information, your *location* (either city and
country or grid square) and any additional comments.
To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send another message with your
request to listserv@amsat.org.
To receive a STS-79 QSL card, send your 2-way report or heard-only
(SWL) report to: ARRL EAD, STS-79 QSL, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT
06111-1494 USA. Include the following information in your QSL or
report: STS-79, date, time in UTC, frequency and mode. In addition,
you must also include an SASE using a large, business-sized envelope
if you wish to receive a card.
Here are the current Atlantis on-orbit keplerian elements as provided
by Gil Carman, WA5NOM, in Houston, Texas:
STS-79
1 24324U 96057A 96260.67910015 .00047696 00000-0 80761-4 0 9048
2 24324 51.6515 23.6754 0036957 348.3960 11.6363 16.02012967 60
Here are the current keplerian elements for space station Mir as
provided by Roy Hoad, WA5QGD, in the most recent AMSAT distribution
of KEPS, ORBS-257.N, dated September 13:
MIR
1 16609U 86017A 96256.53225558 .00002633 00000-0 29560-4 0 6602
2 16609 51.6543 43.9630 0009971 166.3428 193.8496 15.61900319504340
For those without satellite tracking programs, these SAREX bulletins
will periodically list space shuttle Atlantis rise and set times for
major cities around the world.
There are spectacular naked-eye sighting opportunities for earthbound
individuals in particular geographical locations during the mission,
including in the USA and Canada just before local sunrise. For
sighting information for your location, you may point your Web
browser to URL:
http://shuttle.nasa.gov/sts-79/orbit/orbiter/sighting/sighting.html
Submitted by (Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ for) Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO for the
SAREX Working Group
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