Just to remind you as i already wrote...in the past any military VS AMSAT'S should be strongly condemned and even more by AMSAT-NA BOD.

Theses "cadets" are no learning to play chess and this " along with its primary science mission" take all his sense in the scope of the excerpt below!

As memory tends to forget in time it helps to remind those with a selective one...

On 11 Feb 2007 at 23:33, Andrew Glasbrenner wrote:

There are several new pieces of software that need to be uploaded and tested this week on AO-51. Additionally the S band transmitter will be on for an as of yet undetermined number of daylight passes over the Air Force Academy ground station in Colorado Springs, Colorado. These passes will be used for the ground station checkout on S band prior to the launch of Falconsat-3 satellite, now scheduled in late February. FS-3 carries an amateur payload along with its primary science mission.

2003 Annual Session > 156 STCMT 03 E - WEAPONS IN SPACE AND GLOBAL SECURITY 156 STCMT 03 E - WEAPONS IN SPACE AND GLOBAL SECURITY

III. POSSIBLE THREATS TO SPACE-BASED ASSETS

30. The availability of tracking data by amateur satellite observers from all over the world, who post their findings on the Internet, facilitates the tracking and identifying of satellites in low orbit. The increased sophistication of technologies such as radar, optical telescopes and passive radio frequency receivers makes it easier to track satellites in LEO.

d.Micro-satellites (of less than 100 kg) and nano-satellites (of less than ten kg) that use lightweight composite materials and high-speed computer chips. These kinds of satellites could be used as secondary payloads of a primary space vehicle to covertly encounter space assets and disrupt or destroy them.

37. As Donald Rumsfeld became Defense Secretary in the newly elected Bush administration, the DOD started to implement some of the report's recommendations. In May 2001, the Defense Secretary declared, "There is no question that the use of land and sea and air and space are all things that need to be considered if one is looking at the best way to provide the kind of security from ballistic missiles that is desirable for the United States and for our friends and Allies." In July 2001, General Michael Ryan, the US Air Force chief of staff, endorsed the deployment of space-based weapons to protect US assets in space. He also predicted that by 2020 the United States will be able to shoot down other countries' orbiting spacecraft.

38. In October 2002, the US Space Command was merged with the US Strategic Command into an organisation that now controls all U.S. nuclear and space forces. "The missions of SpaceCom and StratCom have evolved to the point where merging the two into a single entity will eliminate redundancies in the command structure and streamline the decision-making process", Donald Rumsfeld said at the time. One of the largest components of the new StratCom - with 40,000 airmen and civilians - is Air Force Space Command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Space Command's Strategic Master Plan calls for the United States, by 2025, to be able to strike any target in the world from space within minutes, to protect US systems in space from hostile forces, and to deny space access to potential enemies.

"Potential enemies" As far as we are the US will soon consider the rest of the world as "potential enemies" I was taking my lunch last week in the Philipsburg area near the border and i have a nice conversation with a US national guard pilot based in Vermont who told me very interesting comment about the "mood" in the forces who is just the same it was in the Vietnam era...

He told me he was sick and disgusted to always have to take side in defending the undefendable as soon as he goes out his country...

As many of our brief discussion is "highly" OT he also told me many are "going north" to avoid serving overseas but he refused to clarify what he's meaning about overseas... but he smile...

DAYTON 2007

Too bad AMSAT-NA ANS was again trailing on this one "AGAIN" but here it is... and you will have some matter to discuss in May too.

Ham-astronaut to be league's honored guest at ARRL EXPO 2007 in Dayton Reprinted from The ARRL Letter, Vol 26, No 13 (Mar 30, 2007)

NASA Space shuttle veteran and International Space Station Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, will be the League's guest at Dayton Hamvention http://www.hamvention.org 2007 in May. Hamvention takes place this year Friday through Sunday, May 18-20, at Hara Arena near Dayton, Ohio. The first astronaut to work all states from space, McArthur has been applauded for inspiring others through his ham radio activities from NA1SS. He'll be featured speaker during a closed ARRL reception Thursday, May 17, and will be on hand all day Friday, May 18, to greet and talk with visitors to ARRL EXPO 2007 at Hamvention http://www.arrl.org/announce/nc/2007/. ARRL also anticipates that McArthur will be able to lead an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) forum at Dayton Hamvention for first-day visitors.

"-" "A "Fidel" AMSAT observer."

Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE