SB SAREX @ AMSAT $STS-78.009
STS-78 Keps and SAREX Update

Silver Spring, Maryland USA
June 23, 1996 @ 01:00 UTC

Apparently excited to chat with earthbound hams as soon as possible,
the space shuttle Columbia crew set up the Shuttle Amateur Radio
EXperiment (SAREX) well ahead of schedule.

Reports of voices from space swelled over the Internet.  Patty Winter
of Sunnyvale reported an STS-78 pass over California where she heard
Chuck Brady at the mic handing out contacts.  She said he told
someone, "You're our second contact."  Philip Chien, KC4YER, added
"On 6/21/96 at 21:12 UTC (MET 1/06:23) Susan Helms KC7NHZ was heard
doing radio checks with hams on the ground."  When the crew retires
for the night, others hope to make contact with the sleepless packet
radio robot, W5RRR-1.

Here is the latest Keplerian element set provided by Gil Carman,
WA5NOM, in Houston:

STS-78
1 23931U 96036A   96174.67091749  .00087705  00000-0  15228-3 0  9057
2 23931  39.0142 356.2256 0007682 286.0620  73.9512 16.00946493   341

Satellite: STS-78
Catalog number: 23931
Epoch time:      96174.67091749   =     yrday.fracday
Element set:     905
Inclination:       39.0142 deg
RA of node:       356.2256 deg
Eccentricity:     .0007682
Arg of perigee:   286.0620 deg
Mean anomaly:      73.9512 deg
Mean motion:   16.00946493 rev/day
Decay rate:    8.77052E-04 rev/day^2
Epoch rev:              34
Checksum:              325

This orbital element set is expected to be accurate for most amateur
applications for the next three days or better.

Submitted by (Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ for) Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO for the
SAREX Working Group

/EX