On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 3:57 PM, Edward Cole kl7uw@acsalaska.net wrote:
Without getting into the issue too much. I would remind the project managers that their constituency (and contributors or potenitial contributors) rely on periodic progress reports on developing satellite projects. This complaint is not new to amsat-bb (we heard it for AO-40), so it should not be news to project managers.
Isn't the story very simple regarding the critical step of launching P3E: they're looking for an affordable ride, and there are none on the horizon?
I assume it is very hard to enter into negotiations looking for a cut-rate on a launch while publicly naming the party you are negotiating with. If I were that party, the first thing I'd insist is that there be no mention until a deal is reached, because my organization could end up looking like bad guys for even entertaining the idea.
On the technical side of P3E, I think we've been reasonably well-informed, but then I don't think AMSAT-DL is obliged to report in English any more than AMSAT-NA is obliged to publish its reports in Japanese and German because significant donors came from those countries. We can always get by with online translators if we don't know German. It works pretty well; I can show you how.
73, Bruce VE9QRP