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K5ARH > SAREX 25.09.96 23:50l 94 Lines 3846 Bytes #-10789 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : STS-79.021
Read: GUEST OE7FMI
Subj: STS-79 SAREX Bulletin Number 21
Path: DB0AAB<DB0PV<DB0MAK<DB0SON<DB0ERF<DB0MW<DB0AIS<DB0NDK<DB0ACH<ON4RAT<
ON1ANR<ON6AR<F6CNB<KD4IDR<WB0TAX<K5ARH
Sent: 960925/1720z @:K5ARH.#LFT.LA.USA.NOAM #:72580 $:sts-79.021
Silver Spring, Maryland USA
September 25, 1996 @ 1500 UTC
Each of the three schools selected for a scheduled SAREX contact on
STS-79 met with outstanding success. Over the weekend while Atlantis
was docked with Mir, Jay Apt, N5QWL, spoke with the students of
Andover Middle School (Andover, Kansas) through the AMSAT Telebridge
Network. AMSAT member Gerald Klatzko, ZS6BTD, in Johannesburg,
South Africa served as the volunteer ground station. Jay answered
22 of the students' questions on the one pass.
Reports from radio amateurs around the world continue to be posted
on the sarex@amsat.org Internet e-mail list. Most observe accurate
predictions from the orbital elements provided here, as well as
strong signals from the orbiter.
A report by Philip Chien, KC4YER, invites one to the NASA Shuttle Web
to see a high resolution image of John Blaha, KC5TZQ, using space
station Mir's amateur radio:
http://shuttle.nasa.gov/sts-79/images/esc/s79h5150.jpg
and to check out the Web page by SAREX Principal Investigator Matt
Bordelon, KC5BTL, for electronic images of Jay Apt and Valeri Korzun
operating the Mir two-meter radio:
http://www.phoenix.net/~mbordel/jscarc/news/index.html and
http://www.phoenix.net/~mbordel/jscarc/images/s79e5149low.jpg
Earlier today, CDR Bill Readdy and PLT Terry Wilcutt conducted a test
of the small vernier jets on Atlantis to collect engineering data for
flight controllers who will oversee the reboost of the Hubble Space
Telescope at the completion of the STS-82 mission next February to
service the astronomical instrument. Atlantis' [perigee] actually
was lowered by about 3 1/2 miles, but Hubble's orbit will be raised
about 10 miles next year as it sits locked on a servicing platform
in Discovery's cargo bay. The use of vernier jets to reboost Hubble,
rather than larger maneuvering jets, is expected to reduce the
stress on Hubble's delicate solar arrays.
Mission Specialists Jay Apt, N5QWL, and Carl Walz, KC5TIE, began to
stow equipment aboard Atlantis and in the double Spacehab module
housed in the shuttle's cargo bay, including the Active Rack
Isolation System, or ARIS, which was used during the mission to
collect data on how experiments may be kept immune from microgravity
disturbances, like those which will be conducted on the International
Space Station. All the rest of the astronauts' gear was stowed and
buttoned up as the crew members neared the end of their tenth day on
orbit.
Until the VHF radio stow is confirmed, here are updated orbital element
sets courtesy Gil Carman of the NASA Johnson Space Center:
Mir
1 16609U 86017A 96268.43238672 .00004561 00000-0 57048-4 0 6823
2 16609 51.6511 343.9616 0011067 198.4087 161.6595 15.62034554605512
STS-79
1 24324U 96057A 96269.26374461 .00004692 00000-0 69160-4 0 9219
2 24324 51.6498 339.7639 0012980 169.5658 190.5772 15.63818685 1418
Satellite: STS-79
Catalog number: 24324
Epoch time: 96269.26374461 = yrday.fracday
Element set: 921
Inclination: 51.6498 deg
RA of node: 339.7639 deg
Eccentricity: .0012980
Arg of perigee: 169.5658 deg
Mean anomaly: 190.5772 deg
Mean motion: 15.63818685 rev/day
Decay rate: 4.69200E-05 rev/day^2
Epoch rev: 141
Checksum: 359
Atlantis' astronauts are scheduled to begin a nine hour sleep period at
17:54 UTC. Atlantis continues to orbit the Earth at an altitude of 240
statute miles in excellent condition.
[Radio amateurs are encouraged to relay these SAREX bulletins to
their local packet BBS as long as the Bulletin IDentification (BID)
is preserved. The BID is the character string beginning with the
dollar sign ($), for example as in "SB SAREX @ AMSAT $STS-79.021"
without the quotation marks.]
Submitted by Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ for Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO and the
SAREX Working Group.
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