SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS010
ARLS010 SAREX will not fly on Glenn mission

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Space Bulletin 010  ARLS010
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT  June 26, 1998
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS010
ARLS010 SAREX will not fly on Glenn mission

NASA has scuttled plans to include the Space Amateur Radio Experiment
(SAREX) payload aboard STS-95 this fall. That's the flight that will
carry US Senator and astronaut John Glenn into space. Five schools,
four in the US and one in Japan, had been tentatively lined up for
Amateur Radio schedules to talk with the shuttle crew during the
highly publicized October mission. Glenn, the first astronaut to
orbit Earth, will be 77 when he returns to space later this year.

NASA flight managers also removed nine other ''secondary'' payloads
because of time constraints on the already-busy mission. NASA
expressed regret at having to drop the educational SAREX payload.

Two hams--US Astronaut Scott Parazynski, KC5RSY, and European Space
Agency astronaut Pedro Duque, KC5RGG, of Spain--will be among the
international crew aboard STS-95.

''We're really disappointed,'' said ARRL Educational Activities
Department Manager and SAREX Working Group Member Rosalie White,
WA1STO. The Glenn flight had generated a good deal of enthusiasm
within the ham radio community. Schools to be included had only
recently been notified that they would be on the list. White said the
US schools involved now will be first in line for consideration on
future missions, such as STS-93 early next year and the International
Space Station.

Future shuttle missions are heavily loaded with activities involving
construction of the ISS. Eileen Collins, KD5EDS, the commander of
STS-93, is said to be enthusiastic about the possibility of including
SAREX on her flight. Amateur Radio also is an official payload aboard
the International Space Station.
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