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K5ARH > SAREX 17.07.97 04:54l 120 Lines 5423 Bytes #-10393 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : STS-94.024
Read: GUEST OE7FMI
Subj: STS-94 SAREX Bulletin 24
Path: DB0RGB<DB0SL<DB0FSG<DB0IGL<DB0KCP<DB0KFB<DB0CZ<DB0GV<DB0AIS<DB0NDK<
DB0ACH<ON4RAT<ON1ANR<PI8HWB<PI8VAD<PI8VNW<PE0MAR<VK5ASF<PP5BLU<PY2GN<
N9DBX<KB0TDF<WB0TAX<K5ARH
Sent: 970716/2108z @:K5ARH.#LFT.LA.USA.NOAM #:49624 $:sts-94.024
Silver Spring, Maryland USA
Wednesday, July 16, 1997 @ 1600 UTC
Contact Preliminary Summary
As the orbiting Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL) nears the end of
its mission, the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia is wrapping up Spacelab
experiments in the areas of combustion science, fluid physics, materials
science and biotechnology.
Mission Specialist Dr. Donald Thomas and Pilot Susan Still transferred
the Astro/Plant Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus from the EXPRESS Rack to
the Shuttle middeck Tuesday morning. The plant growth experiment had
been moved from the middeck to the EXPRESS Rack early in the mission.
The EXPRESS Rack is designed to speed and ease the transportation of
experiments to the International Space Station and the MSL mission is
testing the design, development and adaptability of the rack. "Lessons
learned from this flight will be implemented to improve the EXPRESS Rack
for the Space Station," said hardware developer Annette Sledd of NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Yesterday, the final two STS-94 SAREX educational contacts took place.
On Rev 221, Public School 9 in New York City spoke with MS3 Don Thomas,
KC5FVF, via the AMSAT Telebridge Network with Bob Hopkins, WB2UDC,
coordinating at the school. Volunteer Bob Diersing, N5AHD, in southern
Texas at university station W5ZD provided exceptional ground station
support. There were 190 students, 200 total in the audience and
possibly one television station present. Nine student questions were
answered. Technical Mentor Allan Spitzer, N3TCM, networked with PS9's
technical committee leading up to contact day. Frank Bauer, KA3HDO,
acted skillfully as the AMSAT Telebridge Moderator at the NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Immediately following the PS9 school contact, at 14:00 UTC on July 15,
the Discovery Place, Inc. in North Carolina initiated an exciting chat
with PLT Susan Still via the telebridge. Discovery Place is a "hands
on" type of science museum in Charlotte. Bob Southworth, KI4YV,
provided coordination at Discovery Place which used the club callsign
W4BFB. The AMSAT ground station was Gerald Klatzko, ZS6BTD, in
Johannesburg, South Africa. There were about 180 in attendance with
over 100 students present. The students had 12 questions answered.
Volunteer Rob Suggs, KB5EZ, assisted on the line from the SAREX Customer
Support Room (CSR) in Houston. The Charlotte Observer and the Charlotte
Leader newspapers covered the event along with WBT-TV, WSOC-TV and
WCNC-TV. Bob KI4YV commented, "We appreciate all the help from our
AMSAT Technical Mentor, Terry Jones, W8JE!"
After the seventeen school successes on STS-94, reports of individual
Amateur Radio operators making random contacts continued to pour in
from around the world.
At 10:06 AM 7/16/97 +1000, Chris Edmondson, VK3CE wrote:
>Hi all. Just had to share this with you. Yesterday afternoon our
>time, I made the connect with SAREX, when it was just one degree above
>the horizon on a fairly ordinary pass. Delighted with this! Been
>trying for a while.
>
>*** CONNECTED to W5RRR-1 [15/07/97 14:57:57]
>#148-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
>
>*** DISCONNECTED [15/07/97 14:58:02]
>
>W5RRR-1>QRZ: <UI>:
>#147-P43HOT ZL1AKJ W6YEP N6WS K6JG NF6L N6IPE K6ZG ZS6AZG W4ZRZ N5WS
>WD0GQA N7OD WD6GFF N4JQQ WU3V WA5YKO N0ST KA6ING KA4IWG KD4EAK KO4ZR
>K5JZ HRG YZ W5QG 5FDX WC5P MK N5HRG KM6K N7TR K6LLK W6GO DX6
>
>W5RRR-1>QSL: <UI>:
>P43HOT/143 7N1JVW/115 JH4DHX/109 BV1AF/107 E20GJW/104 ZS6BMN/101
>KJ4ZZ/73 KR4IZ/70 WA5PIE/66 K4HN/63 VK6DM/55 KE4HJV/51 KC4YEJ/46
>K4RS/44 KE4JNJ/43
The STS-94 preliminary summary shows that the SAREX system was used to
complete nine personal contacts and 17 school contacts, a 100%
completion rate. Over 194 student questions were addressed. There were
over 2,100 who witnessed the educational contacts. Over 52 news media
organizations were represented.
There was one test contact made with W5RRR, one Mir air-to-ground patch
performed for the MSL-1 crew, and two Columbia-to-Mir air-air contacts.
As in amateur radio tradition, there was a not-so-trivial work around
performed on orbit to replace a missing cable required to maintain
packet radio operation.
There were over 500 random contacts made between the crew members and
individual hams around the world, based on about 25 shifts and about 20
contacts averaged per shift at midflight. The packet radio QRZ and QSL
counts are forthcoming.
AMSAT representative in Houston, Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, provided most of
the educational contact results and summaries.
The SAREX payload was scheduled to be stowed this morning at 04:32 UTC
in a middeck locker.
ADDENDUM: In regards to SAREX Bulletin $STS-94.017 and the Ione Junior
High School contact, special thanks and appreciation goes to Dave
Larson, N6CO, for his on-site support. Dr. Larson was invaluable in
the technical success of the contact. Thanks also to Ione teacher
Mrs. Diana Fry for her outstanding efforts to make it happen.
[Radio amateurs are encouraged to relay these SAREX bulletins to
their local packet BBS as long as the Bulletin IDentification (BID)
is preserved. The BID is the character string beginning with the
dollar sign ($), for example as in "SB SAREX @ AMSAT $STS-94.024"
without the quotation marks.]
Submitted by Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ, for Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO, and the
SAREX Working Group.
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