
SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0520
* SpaceNews 20-May-96 *


BID: $SPC0520


			       =========
			       SpaceNews
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                          MONDAY MAY 20, 1996


SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA.  It
is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use.


* AMSAT CALL FOR PAPERS *
=========================
The 1996 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium will be held on 
November 8-10, 1996 at the Holiday Inn, City Center in Tucson, AZ.  
This is the second call for papers to authors who wish to submit 
for this event.  As always, the scope of the papers should be on
topics of interest to the amateur satellite service. 

Topics may include, but are certainly not limited to:

		The Life and Times of AO-13
		Building a Phase-3D Ground Station
		Phase-3D Construction Topics
		DSP-93 Integration
		AMSAT Field Operations
		What's Next for AMSAT After Phase-3D?

We also would like to solicit topics from the AMSAT community.  In
other words, what topics would YOU like to see presented at this year's
Annual Meeting?  We have already received some interesting proposals, for 
instance, regarding P3D ground station construction, but more input is 
always welcomed and desired. 

REMEMBER: Abstracts from authors should be submitted by June 15, 1996. 
Final versions of all papers should be received by August 15, 1996.

Submissions and inquiries should be made to Dave Burnett, WD8KRV:

By Internet: wd8krv@amsat.org

By Mail:     G. D. Burnett
             4809 E. Pima #223
             Tucson, AZ 85712

Information about the Annual Meeting home page will be included in a
future announcement.  We look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting!

73,
Dave Burnett WD8KRV
wd8krv@amsat.org    


* DC-XA ROCKET TEST FLIGHT NEWS *
=================================
The NASA-McDonnell Douglas Delta Clipper-Experimental Advanced (DC-XA) was
scheduled to begin a new, five flight test series at 9 AM MDT (1500 UTC)
on Friday, May 17, at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
     
"Friday's one-minute-long flight will begin validation of new reusable
launch vehicle components such as the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen
tanks constructed of light-weight, high-strength materials," said Dave
Schweikle, DC-XA program manager for McDonnell Douglas.  "It will be the
first time that the tanks' materials and construction will be tested under
actual flight conditions."

As the flights continue, the tests will become progressively longer in
duration and more complex.  Each flight incrementally increases stresses
on the DC-XA and will lead to an understanding of the performance of the
advanced technologies incorporated in the rocket's components.

A rapid turnaround between flights is also scheduled to demonstrate the
reusable rocket's aircraft-like operability and maintainability by a small
support group.  The reusable launch vehicle will validate advanced technology
materials and components under flight conditions.  The DC-XA is a follow-on
of the DC-X, which successfully ended an eight flight test series last year.

Although similar in appearance to the DC-X, the DC-XA is approximately 10
percent lighter, and will fly with upgraded avionics and a composite
cryogenic liquid hydrogen tank, intertank structure, fuel line and valve.
The DC-XA also contains an advanced technology aluminum-lithium liquid oxygen
tank.  Later in the test series it will operate a new system that converts
liquid hydrogen to gas for fueling thrusters that control the rocket's
attitude.

The DC-X and DC-XA programs have demonstrated streamlined program management,
rapid development of prototypes and aircraft-like operation and maintenance
of launch vehicles by a small NASA-McDonnell Douglas team.  Lessons learned
from DC-X and DC-XA are being applied to the larger X-33, which is a NASA
industry program.  The X-33 will be used for technology development and risk
reduction to enable the development of an affordable, reliable space
transportation system to meet U.S. launch needs early in the next century. 

In July, NASA will select an industry team to develop, build and fly an X-33
reusable launch vehicle prototype.

[Info via John Keller, N6JLH]


* FUJI-OSCAR NEWS *
===================
Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK reports that the next FUJI-OSCAR satellite, JAS-2,
is currently scheduled for launch in August this year.  JAS-2 received a
preliminary license in March, and the callsign 8J1JCS was assigned to the
satellite.

JAS-2 will carry both linear (analog) and digital (packet radio)
communication transponders.  A look at its frequency plan shows a
similarity to FUJI-OSCAR-20 with some interesting additions:

	1) Analog mode
	Uplink:   145.900 - 146.000 MHz
	Downlink: 435.800 - 435.900 MHz (inverted)
	* same as FO-20
	Output power: 1W

	2) Digital mode
	1200bps BPSK (NRZ-I), same as FO-20
	Uplink:   145.850, 145.870, 145.890, 145.910 MHz
	Downlink: 435.910 MHz

	Additionally, 9600bps FSK will be available on JAS-2.
	9600bps FSK (NRZ-L)
	Uplink:   145.870 MHz
	Downlink: 435.910 MHz

	3) Digitalker
	FM voice, max 25 seconds
	Downlink: 435.910 MHz
	Output power: 1W

	4) CW telemetry
	Downlink: 435.795 MHz
	Speed: 12 WPM
	* same as FO-20

[Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK]


* 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
ftp.njin.net (165.230.224.140) 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


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/EX

