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From: "Mark Johns, K0JM via ANS" <ans@amsat.org
Subject: [ANS] ANS-075 March 16, 2025
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2025 20:09:51 EDT
Reply-To: k0jm.mark@gmail.com
To: space@ww
AMSAT News Service
ANS-075
March 16, 2025
In this edition:
* Amateur Satellites Finally Launch After Delays
* NASAâ€Ös SPHEREx, PUNCH Missions Launch
* ISS Changes Crew for Expedition 73
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
* ARISS News
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* AMSAT Ambassador Activities
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information
service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes
news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities
of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active
interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog
and digital Amateur Radio satellites.
The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in
Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.
*Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at]
amsat.org <http://amsat.org>*
Sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via
the ANS List; to join this list see:
https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/
Amateur Satellites Finally Launch After Delays
After delaying the launch of the mission a (highly unusual) seven times â
€ö
it was originally slated to take to the skies on Feb. 27 â€ö a SpaceX
Falcon
9 rocket finally carried the 13th Rideshare to orbit on Saturday, March 15.
The launch carried 74 small satellites to sun-sychronous orbit (SSO),
lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California at 06:43 UTC
(11:43 p.m. on March 14 local California time).
*A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Transporter 13 rideshare mission
from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on March 15, 2025. (Image
credit: SpaceX)*
Among the satellites aboard is HADES-ICM 1.5 PocketQube satellite main
mission is to act as a FM voice repeater. It can also repeat FSK derived
modes like FT-4 and FT-8. It has the same functionalities as in HADES-R
(SO-124). FM and Digital modes repeater with Uplink on 145.875 MHz and
Downlink on 436.666 MHz. It also carries the same experiment for
SMART-IR/Manchester University. The repeater will not be active until all
the checks have been performed on the satellite. This can take several
weeks.
A group of satellites labeled as “TEVEL2†are on the launch
manifest for
the SpaceX Transporter 13 mission. Designated as TEVEL2-1 through TEVE2-9,
they are all listed as having a downlink frequency of 436.400 MHz, and are
expected to be activated in rotation, much in the same way as the previous
constellation of TEVEL satellites, which have now all decayed from orbit.
A French cubesat named UVSQ-Sat NG â€ö or “Next Generationâ
€ is also on the
launch manifest. This satellite appears to have capabilities for amateur
operation, however no such operation has been coordinated or announced.
See AMSAT News Service bulletins 061 for more details on all of these
satellites.
[ANS thanks Space.com and AMSAT-EA for the above information]
------------------------------
*The 2025 AMSAT Presidentâ€Ös Club Coins Have Just Arrived!*
*Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight*
*Help Support GOLF and Fox Plus.*
*[image: 2025 PC Coin Set]*
*Join the AMSAT Presidentâ€Ös Club today and help *
*Keep Amateur Radio in Space! *
*https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/*
<https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/>
------------------------------
NASAâ€Ös SPHEREx, PUNCH Missions Launch
NASAâ€Ös SPHEREx and PUNCH missions were launched together on a Space
X Falcon
9 rocket that lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on
Tuesday evening, March 11 (early March 12 UTC). The launch had been delayed
one day due to unfavorable weather at the launch site and an issue with one
of the spacecraft.
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of
Reionization and Ices Explorer) will then collect data on more than 450
million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way in
order to explore the origins of the universe, contributing to NASA
Scienceâ€Ös key goals to discover the secrets of the universe and sea
rch for
life elsewhere.
*NASAâ€Ös SPHEREx mission will operate in low Earth orbit, detecting
hundreds
of millions of stars and galaxies and creating the first all-sky
spectroscopic survey in the near-infrared. This artistâ€Ös concept sh
ows the
spacecraft and its distinctive conical photon shields, which protect
SPHERExâ€Ös telescope from infrared light and heat from the Sun and E
arth.
(Graphic: NASA/JPL-Caltech)*
The missionâ€Ös 3D all-sky map will help scientists answer big-pictur
e
questions about the universe. The mission will investigate a cosmic
phenomenon called inflation that caused the universe to expand rapidly for
a fraction of a second after the big bang, measure the collective glow
created by galaxies near and far, including hidden galaxies that have not
been individually observed, and search the Milky Way galaxy for hidden
reservoirs of water, carbon dioxide, and other essential ingredients for
life.
The SPHEREx missionâ€Ös ability to scan large sections of the sky qui
ckly and
gather data on millions of objects complements the work of more targeted
telescopes, like NASAâ€Ös Hubble and James Webb, and the observatory
â€Ös data
will be freely available to scientists around the world, providing a new
encyclopedia of information about hundreds of millions of cosmic objects.
Along for the ride was a second mission, PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the
Corona and Heliosphere), a mission consisting of four satellites operating
in concert. These small sats will observe the Sunâ€Ös corona as it
transitions into the solar wind, supporting NASA Scienceâ€Ös key goal
s by
creating a broad awareness and understanding of how the Sun creates
conditions that influence Earth and space, which is increasingly part of
the human domain.
*Illustration of one of the four identical PUNCH satellites in operation.
(Graphic: NASA)*
By providing scientists with new information about how these potentially
disruptive solar events form and evolve, data from PUNCH could lead to more
accurate prediction about the arrival and impact of such events on Earth
and for humanityâ€Ös robotic explorers in space.
Following orbital adjustments and commissioning, each of these two missions
is planned to last for at least two years, contributing valuable data to
the study of the universe and the sunâ€Ös influence on space weather.
[ANS thanks NASA for the above information]
------------------------------
*Need new satellite antennas?*
*Purchase M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store.*
*When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards*
*Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.*
*https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/*
<https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/>
------------------------------
ISS Changes Crew for Expedition 73
The 73rd long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS)
will begin with the departure of Soyuz MS-26, expected to take place in
April 2025. The Expedition 73 crew will consist of astronauts cosmonauts
just launched to the station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance, as
well as those soon to follow aboard the Soyuz MS-27.
The crew of MS-26, Russian cosmonaunts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and
American astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT, are already making preparations for
departure in the coming weeks.
Scheduled for departure even sooner â€ö probably in the coming week
â€ö is
SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom with two members of SpaceX Crew 9, astronaut
Nick Hague, KG5TMV, and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, accompanied by U.S.
astronauts Barry “Butch†Wilmore, and Sunita Williams, KD5P
LB. Wilmore and
Williams were launched to the ISS in June of last year aboard the Boeing
Starliner Crew Flight Test.
*The astronauts of NASAâ€Ös SpaceX Crew 10 (from left) Kirill Peskov,
Nichole
Ayers, Takuya Onishi and Anne McClain, leave crew quarters at Kennedy Space
Center, FL Wednesday, March 12, 2025 headed for the launch pad. They
finally launched to the International Space Station on March 14. (Photo:
Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK)*
SpaceX Crew 10 consists of NASA astronaut Anne McClain, who will serve as
Crew-10â€Ös commander. She is joined by Crew-10â€Ös pilot, NASA
astronaut
Nichole Ayers, KJ5GWI, mission specialist Japanese Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, KF5LKS, and Roscosmos cosmonaut
Kirill Peskov. Crew 10 was launched from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida on Friday, March 14, at 23:03 UTC after a scrub on
Wednesday. The March 12 launch attempt was scrubbed due to an issue with
the hydraulics on ground support systems on the launch pad.
That crew will be joined later next month by the crew of Soyuz MS-27, which
is scheduled to consist of cosmonaunts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey
Zubritsky, as well as American astronaut Jonny Kim.
Once the MS-26 crew departs, Takuya Onishi of the Japan will serve as the
commander of Expedition 73, the third JAXA astronaut to take command of the
station. Born in Nerima, Japan, Onishi earned an aeronautical and space
engineering degree from the University of Tokyo and was a co-pilot of
Boeing 767 airplanes from 2003 to 2009. Onishi will fly to space for the
second time on Crew-10, having previously flown to the ISS aboard Soyuz
MS-01 in 2016 as part of Expedition 48/49. JAXA and NASA selected Onishi
for NASAâ€Ös 20th astronaut group in 2009.
Expedition 73 will continue the extensive scientific research conducted
aboard the ISS, focusing on various fields, including biology, human
physiology, physics, and materials science. The crew members will also
maintain and upgrade the space station systems.
[ANS thanks NASA for the above information]
------------------------------
*AMSAT Remove Before Flight Key Tags Now Available Yes, These are the Real
Thing!*
*Your $20 Donation Goes to Help Fly a Fox-Plus Satellite Includes First
Class Postage (Sorry – U.S. Addresses Only) Order Today at
https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-remove-before-flight-keychain
<https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-remove-before-flight-keychain>*
------------------------------
Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for 14 March
Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps
in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical
model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly
updates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin
files are updated daily in the first hour of the UTC day. New bulletin
files will be posted immediately after reliable elements become available
for new amateur satellites. More information may be found at
https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/.
NOTICE: In an effort to minimize confusion between sources of two line
element sets, AMSAT is adopting the convention of listing the USSF/NORAD
Satellite Catalog name first, followed by any secondary name or names in
parentheses. For example, “POEM 4 (BGS ARPIT)†was added re
cently where
“POEM 4†is the name that appears in the U.S. Space Force S
atellite
Catalog, and “BGS ARPIT†is the name best known within the
amateur
satellite community. Expect name changes for affected satellites in the
coming weeks as this change is fully implemented.
The following satellite has been added to this weekâ€Ös AMSAT TLE
distribution:
+ HYDRA-T NORAD Cat ID 62692 Downlink 437.778 MHz
[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager for the
above information]
------------------------------
ARISS NEWS
Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between
amateurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with
astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The
downlink frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.
None scheduled in the immediate future due to crew changes.
The crossband repeater continues to be active (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} &
437.800 MHz down). If any crewmember is so inclined, all they have to do is
pick up the microphone, raise the volume up, and talk on the crossband
repeater. So give a listen, you just never know.
The packet system is also active (145.825 MHz up & down).
As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios
are turned off as part of the safety protocol. *Systems will be OFF for
Crew Dragon docking on March 16, and for undocking later in the week.*
Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own
orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed
time.
The latest information on the operation mode can be found at
https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html
The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at
https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html
[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors
for the above information]
------------------------------
Upcoming Satellite Operations
+ N4AKV/R will be on various satellites from FM25, FM26, FM27, and FM28 on
March 16-18. See hams.at for details.
+ PA3GAN will be on AO-07 from JO22 on March 16.
+ WD5GRW will be on FM satellites for a POTA operation in EM01 on March 16.
A growing number of satellite rovers are currently engaged in sharing their
grid square activations on https://hams.at. By visiting the website, you
gain easy access to comprehensive information about the operators
responsible for activating specific grid squares. Additionally, you have
the ability to assess the match score between yourself and a particular
rover for a given pass, while also being able to identify the upcoming
satellite passes that are accessible from your location.
[ANS thanks hams.at for the above information]
------------------------------
AMSAT Ambassador Activities
AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through
amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests,
conventions, maker faires, and other events.
*March 22, 2025*
Midwinter Madness Hamfest
Buffalo Civic Center
1306 County Rd 134
Buffalo MN 55313
https://k0ltc.org/midwinter-madness/
KØJM, ADØHJ, KEØPBR
*March 27, 2025*
AMSAT Update and Info
West Fork Amateur Radio Club
Paradise Fire Dept.
303 Main St.
Paradise, TX 76073
https://wfarc.org/
W5ITR
*April 4 – 5, 2025*
Southeastern VHF Conference 2025
Quality Inn
3095 Wilma Rudolph Blvd
Clarksville, TN 37040
https://svhfs.org/wp/2025-conference/
W4FCL
*April 5, 2025*
RARSfest
Jim Graham Building
NC State Fairgrounds
Youth Center Drive, Gate 5
Raleigh NC
https://www.rarsfest.org/index.php
K4EB, N4AEW, W1DCM, KK4HG, N4HF
[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director – AMSAT Ambassador Program,
for the
above information]
------------------------------
Satellite Shorts From All Over
+ AMSAT Italia is pleased to announce the renewal of its Board of
Directors, which were elected on February 26th and assigned to the role on
March 3rd. The new Board of Directors, in charge for the period 2025-2027,
consists of:
- De Paolis Francesco IKØWGF – President / Treasurer
- Ferrario Gianpietro IZ2GOJ – Vice President
- Andrioli Fabio IZØQPO – Secretary
- Ariotti Claudio IK1SLD – Board Member
- Tognolatti Piero IØKPT – Board Member
Andrioli Fabio IZØQPO and Tognolatti Piero IØKPT join the BoD aft
er being
former members of the board of auditors. Fabrizio Carrai IU5GEZ and
Emanuele Dâ€ÖAndria IØELE leave the BoD, while Emanuele IØE
LE was already
appointed by the assembly of associates as President Emeritus of AMSAT
Italia. For more information about AMSAT Italia and its activities, please
visit their website https://www.amsat.it. (ANS thanks Francesco De Paolis,
IKØWGF, for the above information.)
+ Intuitive Machineâ€Ös IM-2 Athena lander touched down near the Moon
â€Ös south
pole, 250 meters from its target in the Mons Mouton region, inside of a
crater. But, while a softer landing than last time, like IM-1 in Feb 2024,
the lander appears to have fallen over into an “incorrect attitude
†ending
up “somewhat on its side.†A day later the mission was decl
ared over, with
little hope of even partial recovery due to solar panels oriented in the
wrong direction and the extreme cold temperatures in the crater. (ANS
thanks The Orbital Index for the above information.)
+ With somewhat better luck, another private lunar lander carrying a drill,
vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon on March 2,
the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on
Earthâ€Ös celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions. Firefly Aer
ospaceâ€Ös
Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the
slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moonâ€Ös
northeastern edge of the near side. (ANS thanks The Associate Press for the
above information.)
+ Starship blew up over the Caribbean, again. Starship Flight 8 seems to
have suffered the same fate as its predecessor. Eight minutes into Ship
34â€Ös powered flight, four of its six Raptor engines shut down, and
the
craft began to tumble. Minutes later, it exploded over the Caribbean,
producing a similarly spectacular light show as the last flight. In better
news, Super Heavy Booster 15 was again caught by its launch tower, an
incredible feat that is somehow slowly starting to look routine. (ANS
thanks The Orbital Index for the above information.)
+ NASA recently turned off Voyager 1â€Ös cosmic ray subsystem experim
ent and
Voyager 2â€Ös low-energy charged particle instrument to conserve powe
r. At 43
years old, both craft are at half their initial power levels, now operating
at around 235W each and losing about 4W of power generation capacity each
year. In part, this is due to the 87.7-year half-life decay of
Plutonium-238, which powers the probesâ€Ö three Multi-Hundred-Watt
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators. (ANS thanks The Orbital Index for
the above information.)
------------------------------
Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/
In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:
* Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
* Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at
one-half the standard yearly rate.
* Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status
shall be eligible for the student rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary
years in this status.
* Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.
Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.
73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
This weekâ€Ös ANS Editor, Mark Johns, KØJM
mjohns [at] amsat.org
ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H
Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002
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