PAST SAREX MISSIONS

 Amateur Radio has been carried aboard orbiting US space shuttles for
nearly 15 years now. It all began in the fall of 1983 with shuttle
mission STS-9. The following text from the Johnson Space Center Amateur
Radio Club's Web page (http://www.phoenix.net/~mbordel/jscarc/shuttle/)
tells the story of the first space shuttle flight to carry Amateur
Radio:

"On November 28, 1983, STS-9 was launched carrying Mission  Specialist
Owen Garriott, Amateur Radio call sign W5LFL, and his ham radio into
orbit. For 10 days the Space Shuttle Columbia streaked through the
skies, and for the last 7 of those days, hams around the world
were sent emotionally into orbit when they heard Dr. Garriott's voice
break their squelches calling earthbound stations. But it was just the
beginning. Amateur Radio had moved into its newest frontier, and it was
there to stay."

In addition to the possibility that earthbound hams could make random
contacts with the ham-astronauts aboard orbiting space shuttles,
beginning with STS-35 in 1990, Amateur Radio took
on a new role: The dawn of the Space Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment
(SAREX). This new secondary payload called SAREX brought the opportunity
of scheduled radio contacts between the orbiting ham-astronauts and
schools, putting astronauts and the space program in direct contact with
school children around the world!

Past SAREX missions include:

Mission:  Shuttle:   Duration:     Primary mission / Notes:
STS-35    Columbia   Dec 2 - 10,   UV Astronomy Spacelab ASTRO / The
                     1990          1st SAREX
STS-37    Atlantis   Apr 5 - 10,   Gamma Ray Observatory deployment
                     1991          mission
STS-45    Atlantis   Mar 24 -      ATLAS-1 spacelab mission
                     Apr 2, 1992
STS-50    Columbia   Jun 25 -      U.S. Microgravity Lab-1 (USML-1)
                     Jul 9, 1992   mission
STS-47    Endeavour  Sep 12 -      First Japanese Spacelab mission
                     20, 1992
STS-56    Endeavour  Apr 8 - 17,   ATLAS-2 spacelab mission
                     1993
STS-55    Columbia   Apr 26 -      Spacelab-D2 (German) spacelab
                     May 6, 1993   mission
STS-57    Endeavour  Jun 21 -      Spacehab-1 mission
                     Jul 1, 1993
STS-58    Columbia   Oct 18 -      Spacelab for Life Sciences-2 (SLS-
                     Nov 1, 1993   2) mission
STS-60    Discovery  Feb 3 - 11,   1st Wake Shield Facility, Spacehab-
                     1994          2 mission
STS-59    Endeavour  Apr 9 - 20,   Space Radar Lab-1 (SRL-1) mission
                     1994
STS-65    Columbia   Jul 8 - 23,   International Microgravity Lab-2
                     1994          (IML-2)
STS-64    Discovery  Sep 9 - 20,   Spartan-3 mission
                     1994
STS-63    Discovery  Feb 3 - 11,   Shuttle/Mir rendezvous; Spacehab-3
                     1995          mission
STS-67    Endeavour  Mar 2 - 18,   ASTRO-2 spacelab mission
                     1995
STS-71    Atlantis   Jun 27 -      First Shuttle/Mir docking mission
                     Jul 7, 1995
STS-70    Discovery  Jul 13 -      TDRS-G deployment mission
                     22, 1995
STS-74    Atlantis   Nov 12 -      Second Shuttle/Mir docking mission
                     20, 1995
STS-76    Atlantis   Mar 22 -      Third Shuttle/Mir docking; Early
                     31, 1996      return: No SAREX
STS-78    Columbia   Jun 20 -      Spacelab-LMS mission
                     Jul 7, 1996
STS-79    Atlantis   Sep 16 -      Fourth Shuttle/Mir docking mission
                     26, 1996
STS-83    Columbia   Apr 4 - 8,    Returned early; No SAREX contacts
                     1997          (See STS-94)
STS-94    Columbia   Jul 1 - 17,   Microgravity Sciences Laboratory
                     1997          mission; Made 17 school, and over
                                   160 random, ham radio QSOs!
*STS-93   Columbia   August 1998   * Tentatively scheduled for launch:
                                   August 27, 1998.