STS122 with Columbus and the ARISS-EU antennas launch tomorrow
Hi All,
The ARISS-Europe L/S band antennas are now mounted on the outside of Columbus which is safely located in the cargo bay of Shuttle Atlantis prior to its scheduled launch tomorrow.
The flight will be covered by NASA-TV as usual and their 150kb video stream is also available over the internet. For this flight ESA are also relaying the program(me) over the Atlantic Bird 1 satellite for viewers in Europe who have a FTA satellite system. Details from ESA are given below.
As the antennas are on the "bottom" of Atlantis they will not become visible until it has been completely removed from the cargo bay prior to mating it with the Harmony module of the ISS during the first EVA on flight day 4.
Exciting times!
73
Graham G3VZV
The next Shuttle mission to the ISS, STS-122 with European astronauts
Leopold Eyharts and Hans Schlegel on board, has now been confirmed for launch at 21.31 GMT on 6 December from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. It will carry the European Columbus laboratory into orbit, establishing Europe as a full partner in the operation and utilisation of man's permanent science outpost in space.
ESA TV will provide re-broadcast of NASA TV for the following key events:
Wednesday 5 Dec 2007, 17:50 - 19:00 GMT (Sat coordinates below): Briefing from KSC with ESA and NASA mission managers on Columbus mission and 1st ATV mission.
Thursday 6 Dec 2007, 16:25 - 22:00 GMT (Sat coordinates below): Full relay of NASA TV coverage of pre-launch events and launch (scheduled at 21:31 GMT).
Monday 10 Dec 2007: Columbus module 1st ingress (scheduled at 22:06 GMT).
Wednesday 12 Dec 2007: Mission inflight call (scheduled at 14:51 GMT) with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ESA DG Jean Jacques Dordain (Eyharts and Schlegel plus mission commanders participating)
Friday 14 Dec 2007: Joint Crew News Conference (scheduled at 16:31 GMT).
Monday 17 Dec 2007: Landing (scheduled at 17:29 GMT).
Also, daily mission highlights will be re-broadcast from NASA (starting Fri 7 Dec at 06:00 GMT).
Further announcements/timings will follow with full detail of launch day coverage and all further events.
All NASA TV programming is subject to last-minute changes. We will do our best to deliver late advisory/updates in the event of changing schedules.
The line-up time for all these SCPC feeds will be 5 minutes
More background information can be found on: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
Satellite coordinates for Weds 5 Dec and Thurs 6 Dec:
Eutelsat Atlantic Bird 1 (AB1) at 12.5degW, Transponder F5, Channel C, F = 12642.75MHz, Pol = horizontal,SR = 6.1113 Ms/s, FEC = 3/4, signal MPEG2 4:2:0 in the clear
For events after launch - please see further announcements.
For the latest transmission schedule, go to http://television.esa.int.
Are there pictures of the actual antennas? What equipment is used for rx/tx?
On Dec 5, 2007, at 4:56 AM, Graham Shirville wrote:
Hi All,
The ARISS-Europe L/S band antennas are now mounted on the outside of Columbus which is safely located in the cargo bay of Shuttle Atlantis prior to its scheduled launch tomorrow.
The flight will be covered by NASA-TV as usual and their 150kb video stream is also available over the internet. For this flight ESA are also relaying the program(me) over the Atlantic Bird 1 satellite for viewers in Europe who have a FTA satellite system. Details from ESA are given below.
As the antennas are on the "bottom" of Atlantis they will not become visible until it has been completely removed from the cargo bay prior to mating it with the Harmony module of the ISS during the first EVA on flight day 4.
Exciting times!
73
Graham G3VZV
All information on ARISS antennas on Columbus available at www.ariss-eu.org
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF ARISS-Europe Chairman
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On 5 Dec 2007, at 13:31, MKM wrote:
Are there pictures of the actual antennas? What equipment is used for rx/tx?
There is another picture of the antenna on the AMSAT-UK gallery
http://www.uk.amsat.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2547
John
One of the best images of the antennas mounted on Columbus is located at http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=34324. Just select the image size (S|M|L) that you want to view. Other images of the Columbus antennas are available at the ARISS-EU website (http://www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm)
The radio equipment to be attached at the other end of the feedline is still being discussed.
Kenneth - N5VHO
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of MKM Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 7:32 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: STS122 with Columbus and the ARISS-EU antennaslaunch tomorrow
Are there pictures of the actual antennas? What equipment is used for rx/tx?
On Dec 5, 2007, at 4:56 AM, Graham Shirville wrote:
Hi All,
The ARISS-Europe L/S band antennas are now mounted on the outside of Columbus which is safely located in the cargo bay of Shuttle Atlantis prior to its scheduled launch tomorrow.
The flight will be covered by NASA-TV as usual and their 150kb video stream is also available over the internet. For this flight ESA are also relaying the program(me) over the Atlantic Bird 1 satellite for viewers in Europe who have a FTA satellite system. Details from ESA are given below.
As the antennas are on the "bottom" of Atlantis they will not become visible until it has been completely removed from the cargo bay prior to mating it with the Harmony module of the ISS during the first EVA on flight day 4.
Exciting times!
73
Graham G3VZV
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (5)
-
Gaston BERTELS -
Graham Shirville -
John Heaton -
MKM -
Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR]