 
SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0318
* SpaceNews 18-Mar-96 *


BID: $SPC0318


			       =========
			       SpaceNews
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                         MONDAY MARCH 18, 1996


SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA.  It is
published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution.



* CELESTIAL BBS UPDATE *
========================
Stephen L. Wilson, N9OTT reports that the Celestial World Wide Web URL is:
	
	http://www.grove.net/~tkelso


* MIR NEWS *
============
The Mir #22 crew, as of 11-Mar-96, is busy getting use to their new
environment and perparing for the arrival of the Shuttle Alantis, STS-76.
The 2-meter station has been turned off since the first of the month.
It is hoped that after the STS-76 Docking mission is over, that normal
PMS activity will resume.

Most of the Mir passes over the USA are currently during the early morning
hours.  The Mir Space station will be visible in the morning sky over the
next few weeks.  Please update your tracking programs, and look for Mir
passes 30 to 120 minutes after before sunrise.

Space Shuttle Alantis STS-76 will be docking with the Space Station Mir a
few days after liftoff (launch of STS-76 scheduled for 21-Mar-96).  This
mission will last for approximately 9 days.  The Shuttle will be docked
to Mir for approximately 5 days.  The best set of Keps to use to track
Space Shuttle Alantis are the Keps for Mir.  The orbit of the Mir Space
station is very stable, Mir only drifts 30-60 seconds a week.  The orbit
of the Space Shuttle Alantis will be constantly changing until it docks
with Mir.  You can find Keps on most PBBS and via the Internet.  Any keps
for Mir less than a week old will be sufficient.

Remember, only 1 station can connect to MIR's PMS (R0MIR-1) at a time, ALL
others must wait.

[Info via G. Miles Mann, WF1F (mann@pictel.com)]


* STS-76 VISIBILITY *
=====================
Richard Kramer reports that the last nighttime MIR rendezvous Shuttle
launch was visible as far north as 30 miles south of Boston, Massachusettes.
The view was brief but spectacular and would suggest that the effort
required to watch the launch (weather permitting) is well worth it.
It was particularly incredible to watch the launch live on the NASA TV
channel and then step outside and see the vehicle streak by, close to the
horizon just a few minutes later.  (Make sure you keep the TV dimmed down
to preserve your night vision).


* STS-76 SAREX NEWS *
=====================
The STS-76 SAREX mission is currently scheduled for March 21st, with launch
at 3:35 AM EST (0835 UTC).  It will use the SAREX-M configuration (e.g.
voice only using the VHF transceiver that is also used to talk to Mir).

The crew are:

CDR  Kevin Chilton TBD
PLT  Rick Seafross KC5CKM
MS1  Ron Sega KC5ETH
MS2  Rich Clifford N0CAL
MS3  Linda Godwin N5RAX
MS4  Shannon Lucid TBD

Kevin Chilton reported that he just took his test (and passed) and Shannon
Lucid is interested in getting her license.  She and her husband are
planning on taking the Technician test before the launch.

The three previously licensed astronauts got their tickets for several
different previous SAREX flights.  Linda Godwin got her Technician license
in 1990 (now a Tech Plus) for the STS-37 mission and also used SAREX on
her second shuttle flight, STS-59.  Rick Seafross got his license for the
STS-58 mission in October 1993.  Ron Sega got his license for the STS-60
mission in February 1994.

Kevin Chilton did not have his license for the STS-59 SAREX flight, but
did use the transceiver for an educational contact.

Last December, Linda Godwin married fellow astronaut Steve Nagel N5RAW,
making the couple the first married astronaut ham couple.

The crew will have their preflight press conference on March 12th at
1530 UTC, and this will be carried on NASA Television.  NASA Television
carried on Spacenet 2, Transponder 5, Channel 9 at 69 degrees West
longitude.  The transponder frequency is 3880 MHz and the audio
subcarrier is 6.8 MHz.  Polarization is horizontal.

[Info via Philip Chien]


* STS-76 ELEMENT SET *
======================
The following is a pre-launch Keplerian element data set for STS-76:

STS-76
1 99976U          96081.38742082  .00020093  16712-8  12081-4 0    17
2 99976  51.6455 203.9666 0076991   3.1580 185.7961 16.10725400    13

Satellite: STS-76
Catalog number: 99976
Epoch time:      96081.38742082
Element set:       1
Inclination:       51.6455 deg
RA of node:       203.9666 deg
Eccentricity:    0.0076991
Arg of perigee:     3.1580 deg
Mean anomaly:     185.7961 deg
Mean motion:   16.10725400 rev/day
Decay rate:    2.00933e-04 rev/day^2
Epoch rev:               1

[Info via Gary Morris, KK6YB]


* LUSAT-OSCAR-19 NEWS *
=======================
The fileserver on LUSAT-OSCAR-19 has been re-opened and is functioning
normally once again.


* FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED *
===========================
Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John,
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SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19

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/EX

