AMSAT News Service
ANS-249
September 6, 2026

In this edition:

* AMSAT Board Election Voting Deadline Approaches
* ARISS Announces New Leadership and Operations Appointments
* July/August 2026 Issue of The AMSAT Journal Now Available
* SatNOGS Rolls Out Major Network and Database Updates
* Updated VUCC & DXCC Satellite Standings for September 2026
* Sean Borgerson, KK7OVF, Earns AMSAT Sexagesimal Award
* Eric Olson, KH6WI, Earns AMSAT Rover Award #96
* Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for September 4, 2026
* ARISS News
* AMSAT Ambassador Activities
* Satellite Shorts from All Over

The AMSAT? News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information
service of AMSAT, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes n
ews related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities o
f a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest
in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and dig ital Amateur Radio satellites.

The news feed on https://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in S pace as soon as our volunteers can post it.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at] amsat .org<http://amsat.org>

You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletin
s via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/postor ius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

________________________________
AMSAT Board Election Voting Deadline Approaches

Voting in the 2026 AMSAT Board of Directors Election will close on Septembe
r 15, and AMSAT members who have not yet cast their ballots are encouraged
to do so before the deadline. As of early September, fewer than 10% of elig ible AMSAT members have voted in this year's election.

Five candidates are seeking election to the Board:



* Rich Gopstein, KD2CQ
* Mark Hammond, N8MH
* Bruce Paige, KK5DO
* Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
* Douglas Tabor, N6UA

Three seats on the AMSAT Board of Directors are being filled this year. The
three candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be elected to
the Board, while the candidates receiving the next highest vote totals will
be named First Alternate and Second Alternate, respectively.

Current AMSAT members may review the official candidate statements and cast
their ballots through the AMSAT 2026 Board of Directors Election website. Voting closes September 15, 2026, and election results will be announced no
later than September 30.

https://launch.amsat.org/2026-BoD-Election

[ANS thanks Douglas Tabor, N6UA, AMSAT Secretary, for the above information
]

________________________________
ARISS Announces New Leadership and Operations Appointments

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has announced seve
ral leadership and operational appointments aimed at strengthening the orga nization's technical, educational, and administrative activities. Daryl You
ng, K4RGK, has been named ARISS-USA Director of Operations, while Ryan Kren zischek, Deborah Lebair, KC3YWM, and Megan Tucker, KQ4MAM, are taking on ne
w or expanded roles within ARISS.

Young is a longtime ARISS-USA Technical Mentor who has supported numerous d irect and telebridge amateur radio contacts between astronauts aboard the I nternational Space Station and students on Earth. As Director of Operations
, he will lead the ARISS Technical Mentors and oversee other operational ac tivities associated with the organization's STEM contacts.

Most recently, Young led the ARISS initiative that assembled a worldwide co nsortium of ground stations to track Artemis II during its journey around t
he Moon. The AREx Artemis ground station consortium successfully tracked th
e spacecraft and provided Doppler data to NASA during the mission. ARISS de scribed the effort as an important first step toward expanding its operatio
ns beyond low Earth orbit and preparing for future amateur radio activities
associated with lunar exploration.

Ryan Krenzischek, who previously served as ARISS-USA Director of Operations
, has moved into the newly created position of Chief Information Officer. H
e and his team will oversee ARISS websites and other backend systems suppor ting the organization's information infrastructure. Krenzischek has served
as an ARISS-USA Technical Mentor since 2013 and has additional experience w
ith the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Navy-Marine Corps Military Auxi liary Radio System (MARS), and Army MARS.

Deborah Lebair, KC3YWM, currently the ARISS-USA Metrics Lead, will join the
ARISS International Board as its secretary while continuing her metrics re sponsibilities. Lebair began her professional career as an aerospace engine
er at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center before becoming a high school math ematics teacher. Megan Tucker, KQ4MAM, has been named ARISS-USA Logistics M anager and will coordinate the organization's growing participation in educ ational conferences, hamfests, and other public events.

ARISS is an international cooperative effort involving amateur radio organi zations and space agencies that uses amateur radio contacts with astronauts
aboard the ISS to encourage student interest in science, technology, engin eering, the arts, and mathematics. AMSAT is among the U.S. sponsors of the ARISS program. Additional information about ARISS and its educational activ ities is available at www.ariss.org<https://www.ariss.org/>.

[ANS thanks Dave Jordan, AA4KN, and ARISS<https://www.ariss.org/> for the a bove information.]

________________________________
July/August 2026 Issue of The AMSAT Journal Now Available

The July/August 2026 issue of The AMSAT Journal (Volume 49, Number 4) is no
w available for members to download from the AMSAT member portal at https:/ /launch.amsat.org/.

The Journal staff is always looking for articles, experiences, and photos t
o share with fellow members. Manuscripts, photos, and story ideas may be se
nt to journal [at] amsat.org.

[https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The_AMSAT_Journ al_July_August_2026.jpg]<https://launch.amsat.org/resources/Documents/Journ al/2026/The%20AMSAT%20Journal%20July-August%202026.pdf>

The July/August 2026 issue includes the following features:

* Apogee View - AMSAT President Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, reports from a
busy week on the road, including a day at the Huntsville Hamfest and two d
ays spreading the AMSAT message at the Small Satellite Conference in Salt L
ake City, where the conversations ranged from launch providers to high scho
ols - and included an introduction to the new president of AMSAT-Canada.
* Educational Relations Update - Alan Johnston, KU2Y, on the CubeSatSim
's feature in the September issue of QST, a preview of the upcoming v2.3 so ftware release, and the CubeSatSim loaner program for educators, along with
a sidebar Quick Update on FoxPlus-A testing.
* AO-7's 24-Hour Mode Timer: What the AMSAT Status Reports Reveal Durin
g Continuous Sunlight - Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, mines nearly 1,500 AMSAT Satel lite Status API reports from this summer's illumination season to ask a sim
ple question of a 51-year-old spacecraft: how well is its onboard mode time
r really behaving?
* Public STEM Events and AMSAT's "BuzzSat" Resources - AMSAT Ambassador
Tom Schuessler, N5HYP, shares his approach to engaging the non-ham public
at Dallas's Moon Day, from CubeSatSim demos and live SSTV to the new BuzzSa t.com youth outreach materials, with ready-to-use handouts for other Ambass adors.
* AMSAT Field Day 2026 Results - Bruce Paige, KK5DO, delivers his annua
l roundup of AMSAT Field Day, complete with the final standings, station st ories, and the traditional visits from Murphy, followed by a 20-photo Field
Day Gallery with scenes from sites across North America.

The AMSAT Journal is published bi-monthly as a benefit of AMSAT membership.
Not yet a member? Join today at https://launch.amsat.org/ - students join
for free.

[ANS thanks Joe Kornowski, KB6IGK, Editor-in-Chief of The AMSAT Journal, fo
r the above information]

________________________________
Give Your Next Rove a Payload - Put Your Lunch into Orbit!
Pack the rover dogs and hit the grid line with an all-new
AMSAT Round Logo Metal Lunchbox. [https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/AMSAT_Round_Log o_Metal_Lunchbox-300x239.jpg]
Keep Amateur Radio in Space - and your lunch in the box! https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_round_logo_metal_lunchbox-256761530568368967 ________________________________
SatNOGS Rolls Out Major Network and Database Updates

The SatNOGS project rolled out a series of software updates in late August,
including SatNOGS Network versions 1.128, 1.129 and 1.130 along with SatNO
GS DB version 1.76. Network 1.128, released August 27, introduced a substan tial collection of changes affecting ground station operation, observation scheduling and the project's application programming interfaces. The releas
e was followed in quick succession by versions 1.129 and 1.130 as developer
s addressed issues discovered following deployment. SatNOGS is an open-sour
ce global network of satellite ground stations developed by the Libre Space
Foundation and supported by amateur radio operators and satellite enthusia
sts around the world.

One of the most significant changes in Network 1.128 is the first phase of
a new multi-vetting system for observations. Previously, only one vetting r esult could be associated with an observation artifact such as a waterfall,
while the new system allows individual users to independently evaluate the
same artifact. Future development is expected to extend vetting to additio
nal observation products and could eventually allow automated systems or bo
ts to participate in the process. The change is intended to provide more us eful information about the confidence and quality of observations collected
by the network. The update also removes an older observation-status field from the API as part of the transition to the new vetting system.

Ground station status handling has also been redesigned. Instead of describ
ing a station simply as online, offline or testing, SatNOGS now separately tracks whether a station is connected, whether it is available for scheduli
ng, and whether it is undergoing testing. Station owners can therefore leav
e a station connected to the network while making it unavailable for observ ations, providing greater control over how stations participate in the netw ork. Another new feature separates a station's minimum horizon from its min imum culmination elevation, allowing operators to independently specify the
elevation at which tracking begins and ends and the minimum elevation a pa
ss must reach before it can be scheduled. These limits can also be configur
ed as hard limits when dictated by antenna patterns, local obstructions or other station constraints.

SatNOGS DB 1.76 introduces complementary changes to the way satellites and their transmitters are described. Satellite status values have changed from
future, alive, dead and re-entered to future, in-orbit, launch failed and re-entered, separating the orbital status of a spacecraft from whether its transmitters remain active. The database also gains experimental support fo
r structured transmitter parameters, intended eventually to provide SatNOGS
Network, Client and Radio with enough information to create dynamic proces sing flowgraphs. This could improve automatic decoding and support for a wi
der variety of satellite modes as the feature develops.

The database update also lays groundwork for a new Launches feature intende
d to organize information about satellites deployed on individual launches.
SatNOGS currently relies heavily on community forum threads to coordinate reports following launches, but the new system is intended to provide a cen tral view of deployment, reception and identification status. New reception
classifications include Unknown, Unverified, Partially Verified and Verifi
ed, with supporting evidence links available for received signals. This cou
ld be particularly useful following rideshare missions when observers aroun
d the world are attempting to identify numerous newly deployed spacecraft. Network 1.128 also adds support for transmitter parameters supplied by SatN
OGS DB, beginning the integration of these new database capabilities with o bservations.

Deployment of the new Network software was not entirely trouble-free, promp ting the rapid release of versions 1.129 and 1.130 following 1.128. Develop
ers worked through database migration and performance issues and made addit ional corrections as the updated software entered service. Beyond the major
features, the releases include numerous user-interface improvements, bug f ixes, performance improvements and enhancements for developers. Together, t
he Network and Database updates establish groundwork for improved observati
on verification, more flexible ground station operation and better handling
of the growing number of satellites and transmitters tracked through SatNO
GS.

### For More Information

SatNOGS Network 1.128 breaking and notable changes: https://community.libre.space/t/upcoming-satnogs-network-release-1-128-brea king-and-notable-changes/15204

SatNOGS Network releases 1.128, 1.129 and 1.130: https://community.libre.space/t/satnogs-network-release-1-128-1-129-1-130/1 5231

SatNOGS DB 1.76 breaking and notable changes: https://community.libre.space/t/upcoming-satnogs-db-release-1-76-breaking-a nd-notable-changes/14956

[ANS thanks Fredy Damkalis and the Libre Space Community<https://community. libre.space/> for the above information]

________________________________
Updated VUCC & DXCC Satellite Standings for September 2026
VUCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Changes for August 1, 2026 to September 1,
2026.
Callsign
Previous VUCC Grids
Updated VUCC Grids
DL5GAC
1745
1967
EA2AA
1235
1285
HB9AOF
1130
1158
E70A
1023
1126
JL1SAM
1008
1105
G4GIR
New
1025
JG6CDH
777
941
KK4YEL
799
812
N9FN
752
753
HB9GWJ
702
741
AC9DX
730
733
LA6OP
700
711
K5TA
600
660
N5EKO
623
624
DJ7NT
510
606
JK6DXD
New
602
JI5USJ
551
601
AG4W
524
587
KF2T
505
580
OH3DP
501
551
N8URE
471
488
KF0QS
400
450
W0PR
230
333
JF3MKC
280
325
G4BWP
220
303
PU5DDC
280
289
KG7CW
115
250
PY3YO
160
205
DL1TJ
New
198
WB5TX
175
181
DM2RM
115
177
AD4ES
New
113
IK2TPX
New
101
HJ6MR
New
100

Congratulations to new VUCC Satellite award holders G4GIR, JK6DXD, DL1TJ, A D4ES, IK2TPX, and HJ6MR! G4GIR is the first VUCC Satellite award holder fro
m Maidenhead grid IO92, JK6DXD is the first from PM53, and DL1TJ is the fir
st from JN69. HJ6MR is the first VUCC Satellite award holder from Colombia
and Maidenhead grid FJ23.

DXCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Changes for August 1, 2026 to September 1,
2026.
Callsign
Previous DXCC Entities
Updated DXCC Entities
YO3APJ
176
178
HB9GWJ
154
160
KB1HY
143
144
I1JQJ
New
123
IZ2AMW
New
103
UN3G
New
100

Congratulations to new DXCC Satellite award holders I1JQJ, IZ2AMW, and UN3G
!

[ANS thanks Jon Goering, N7AZ<https://x.com/N7AZhikesAZ>, for the above inf ormation]

________________________________
Sean Borgerson, KK7OVF, Earns AMSAT Sexagesimal Award

Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, has announced th
at Sean Borgerson, KK7OVF, has earned AMSAT Sexagesimal Award #204, recogni zing confirmed satellite contacts with stations in 60 different U.S. states
, Canadian call areas, or DXCC entities. In announcing the award, Paige obs erved that this is one of the AMSAT awards that is "not easy to earn" - and
the numbers back him up: in the decades since the award was introduced, on
ly 204 operators have completed the feat.

True to its name - sexagesimal meaning "relating to the number sixty" - the
award is the middle rung of AMSAT's classic operating award ladder. Operat
ors begin with the Satellite Communicators Club for their first satellite Q
SO and the Oscar Satellite Communications Achievement Award for contacts wi
th 20 different states, provinces, or countries; those same contacts then a ggregate toward the 60 required for the Sexagesimal Award and, eventually,
the 100 needed for the AMSAT Century Award.

Each contact must be with a station in a different entity - work six statio
ns in British Columbia and only one of them counts - and all contacts must
be made from locations within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of one another. For most operators, collecting 60 distinct entities through satellite footprint
s takes years of patience, with rare DX and hard-to-find states alike surre ndering only when pass geometry, timing, and luck all line up.

Sean's callsign may ring a bell for followers of the AMSAT Satellite Distan
ce Records: operating from grid CN85 in the Pacific Northwest, he set AO-12
3's first documented distance record in November 2024, a 1,622 miles (2,610
km) contact that remained the satellite's listed record until this summer.

Operators chasing awards of their own will find complete rules for the Sexa gesimal Award and all of AMSAT's operating awards at https://www.amsat.org/ awards/. Applications require only a report of contacts - no QSL cards need
ed - sent to KK5DO along with a small fee.

Congratulations, Sean!

[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO<https://x.com/kk5do>, AMSAT Director of Cont ests and Awards, for the above information]

________________________________
Eric Olson, KH6WI, Earns AMSAT Rover Award #96

It was a busy day at the AMSAT awards desk. Alongside Sexagesimal Award #20
4 (see story elsewhere in this issue), Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director o
f Contests and Awards, has announced that AMSAT Rover Award #96 has been ea rned by Eric Olson, KH6WI - the fourth Rover Award issued in roughly a mont
h, following recent recipients in Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Colombia.

Eric's aloha-flavored callsign tells part of the story. A self-described ad venturer and sailor, he completed Worked All States via satellite from Hawa
ii in 2023, crediting the IO-117 GreenCube digipeater, the rover community,
and more than a few midnight passes for making it possible. His travels co ntinue to provide plenty of opportunities for portable satellite operating
and grid activations.

The Rover Award recognizes exactly that spirit. It is earned by accumulatin
g 25 points from satellite activations in grid squares outside the rover's home grid - one point per grid on FM transponders, two on linear transponde
rs, and three on digital transponders - plus a bonus point for each grid ac tivated in a state, province, or DX entity other than the rover's own.

Publicizing an operation at least 24 hours in advance via a public social m edia post tagging @amsat or #amsat, the AMSAT-BB, or this bulletin adds fiv
e points, as does posting photos of the operation afterward. A grid activat
ed maritime mobile is worth ten points and a /MM endorsement on the certifi cate - a bonus that would seem tailor-made for a sailor.

In announcing the award, Paige offered his congratulations along with his c ustomary encouragement to rovers everywhere to keep on rovin'.

Complete rules and application details for the AMSAT Rover Award are availa
ble at https://www.amsat.org/amsat-rover-award/, and upcoming rover operati
ons may be found - and publicized - at https://hams.at.

Congratulations, Eric - and mahalo for the grids!

[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO<https://x.com/kk5do>, AMSAT Director of Cont ests and Awards, for the above information]

________________________________
The 2026 Coins Are Here! Help Support GOLF-TEE and Fox-Plus.
Annual memberships start at only $120.

[Presidents' Club 2026 Coin]<https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-president s-club/>

Join the AMSAT President's Club today and help Keep Amateur Radio in Space! https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/ ________________________________
Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for September 4, 2026

Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps
in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly u pdates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin fi
les are updated daily in the first hour of the UTC day. New bulletin files will be posted immediately after reliable elements become available for new
amateur satellites. More information may be found at https://www.amsat.org /keplerian-elements-resources/.

The following satellites have been removed from this week's AMSAT TLE distr ibution:

HYPERVIEW-1G (RS66S) NORAD Cat ID 61772 Decayed from orbit on or about 18 A ugust 2026
Sparrow NORAD Cat ID 43881 Decayed from orbit on or about 18 August 2026

General Perturbations Data Support

AMSAT is pleased to announce that modern forms of what are called General P erturbations data are being disseminated via modern formats including JSON,
XML and KVN at https://newark192.amsat.org/gpdata/current/. The reason thi
s change is being made is that we are running out of 5-digit catalog number
s and the TLE format is not viable for satellites launched after July of th
is year. See https://celestrak.org/NORAD/documentation/gp-data-formats.php
for details.

These data are presently considered in beta test for the next two months wh
ile hosted on the test server newark192.amsat.org<https://newark192.amsat.o rg/>, and we are very open to community feedback at webmaster [at] amsat.or g<http://amsat.org>. Testers may experience outages and errors while we mak
e improvements. We intend to put this into production on our main web serve
r in July as we expect that satellites launched after this summer will requ
ire one of the new formats to accommodate longer object numbers. AMSAT will
continue to publish TLE bulletins for satellites launched before July 2026
indefinitely.

[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the a bove information]

________________________________
ARISS News

Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between amat eurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with astronauts
and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The downlink freque
ncy on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.

Scheduled Contacts

+ Recently Completed

No ARISS educational contacts were completed during the last week.

+ Upcoming Contacts

No school contacts are currently scheduled for the upcoming week.

Many times, a school makes a last-minute decision to do a Livestream or run
s into a last-minute glitch requiring a change of the URL, but we at ARISS
may not get the URL in time for publication. You can always check https://l ive.ariss.org/ to see if a school is Livestreaming.

As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios
are turned off as part of the safety protocol.

+Schedule of ISS radio power downs and power ups
Mon 2026-09-07 12:10 UTC Service module radio power down
Mon 2026-09-07 12:15 UTC Columbus module radio power down
Mon 2026-09-07 15:16 UTC Progress undocking
Mon 2026-09-07 19:05 UTC Columbus module radio power up
Mon 2026-09-07 19:10 UTC Service module radio power up

The crossband repeater remains configured in the Columbus Module (145.990 M
Hz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down). If a crewmember decides to pick up the m icrophone and turn up the volume, you may hear them on the air-so keep list ening, as you never know when activity might occur.

Kenwood D710GA in the Zvezda Service Module - Call sign RS0ISS. Please note
we're still in the process of troubleshooting and testing this radio. APRS
is currently active on 437.825 MHz. Feel free to check out status reports
at https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_APRS/.

HamTV in the Columbus Module (2395.00 MHz) is currently transmitting a test
signal. For more information, visit the ARISS Ham TV Live site at https:// live.ariss.org/hamtv/.

Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orb ital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time.

The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ar iss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html

The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org /contact-the-iss.html

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors f
or the above information]

________________________________
AMSAT Ambassador Activities

AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests,
conventions, maker faires, and other events.

AMSAT Ambassador Clint Bradford, K6LCS, says,

"Think a 75-minute presentation on 'working the easy satellites' would be a ppropriate for your club or event? Let me know by emailing me at k6lcsclint
[at] gmail [dot] com or calling me at 909-999-SATS (7287)!"

Clint has NEVER given the exact same show twice: EACH of the 150+ presentat ions so far has been customized/tailored to their audiences.

Scheduled Events

Greater Louisville Hamfest - September 12, 2026
Paroquet Springs Conference Centre
395 Paroquet Springs Drive
Shepherdsville, KY 40165-6007 https://louisvillehamfest.wixsite.com/louisvillehamfest
W4FCL

Bored Net ?Expo and ARRL Santa Barbara Section Convention - October 3, 20
26
Cal State University Channel Islands
1 University Drive
Camarillo, CA 93010 https://www.theborednet.net/index.php/2026/06/22/2026-microexpo-is-on/
K6KH

Tucson Area Autumn Hamfest - October 3, 2026
Radio Society of Tucson
Immanuel Presbyterian Church
9252 East 22nd Street
Tucson, AZ
https://k7rst.club
N1UW

44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Membership Meeting - October 8 thru 1
1, 2026
Wyndham Jacksonville Hotel and Conference Center
14670 Duval Road
Jacksonville, FL 32218
https://www.amsat.org/2026-amsat-symposium/

Southern Arizona Fall Hamfest - November 14, 2026
Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club
Marana Middle School
11285 W. Grier Rd.
Marana AZ
www.tucsonhamradio.org/hamfest<http://www.tucsonhamradio.org/hamfest>
N1UW

For more information go to: https://www.amsat.org/ambassador/

[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director - AMSAT Ambassador Program, for the above information]

________________________________
Buying from Ham Radio Outlet?
Add AMSAT's Getting Started With Amateur Satellites to your order. [https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/HRO_Engineering _AMSAT_Book_Hard_Copy_1200px_650px-1024x555.jpg]<https://www.hamradio.com/d etail.cfm?pid?-019238>
Available for $29.95 from HRO (free shipping on most orders over $100) https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid?-019238 ________________________________
Satellite Shorts from All Over

+ NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched Sunday, August 30, aboa
rd a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The o bservatory is now beginning a three-month, roughly one-million-mile journey
to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, where it will conduct wide-field infra
red surveys of the universe. Roman will investigate dark matter, dark energ
y, and exoplanets using its 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument and a techn ology-demonstration coronagraph capable of directly imaging Jupiter-like pl anets. Controllers established contact with the spacecraft shortly after la unch, and its solar arrays and lower instrument sunshade deployed successfu
lly during the opening hours of the mission. Additional deployments, course
corrections, and instrument checkouts will continue during the journey to
L2, followed by several months of commissioning and calibration. NASA expec
ts Roman's first images in early 2027, beginning a mission designed to surv
ey the universe up to 1,000 times faster than the Hubble Space Telescope. (
ANS thanks SciTechDaily<https://scitechdaily.com/> for the above informatio
n)

+ NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has resumed science observations af
ter plans to boost the spacecraft into a higher orbit were abandoned. Swift
's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope and X-ray Telescope returned to operation
on August 26, while its Burst Alert Telescope is expected to resume observa tions in the coming weeks. Katalyst Space's LINK spacecraft launched July 3
with plans to rendezvous with, capture, and raise Swift's orbit, but attit ude-control problems prevented the boost attempt from proceeding. LINK may still rendezvous with Swift to demonstrate proximity operations and other t echnologies for future satellite servicing missions. Launched in 2004 to st
udy gamma-ray bursts and other transient astronomical events, Swift has rem ained operational far beyond its original two-year prime mission. With incr eased atmospheric drag from recent solar activity accelerating the decay of
Swift's low Earth orbit, NASA expects the observatory to reenter Earth's a tmosphere later this year. (ANS thanks NASA<https://www.nasa.gov/> for the above information)

+ Europe's second Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite, MTG-I2, was l aunched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from French Guiana on August 27. The sate llite completes the first three-spacecraft family of Europe's new Meteosat Third Generation weather satellite system. Once commissioned in geostationa
ry orbit, MTG-I2 will provide rapid weather imagery over Europe and norther
n Africa, with new observations available every 2.5 minutes. Its instrument
s include the Flexible Combined Imager and Lightning Imager, allowing forec asters to follow rapidly developing storms and detect lightning during both
day and night. Data from the satellite will also support wildfire monitori
ng, atmospheric pollution tracking, climate research, and improved early wa rnings for severe weather. MTG-I2 joins the first MTG Imager launched in 20
22 and the MTG Sounder launched last year, allowing the new generation of M eteosat satellites to begin operating at full capacity. (ANS thanks ESA<htt ps://www.esa.int/> for the above information)

+ SpaceMD, a subsidiary of Redwire Corporation, has signed an agreement to
fly a commercial pharmaceutical research mission aboard SpaceX's new Starfa
ll spacecraft in 2028. Starfall is an uncrewed reentry vehicle designed to provide routine access to microgravity for research, manufacturing, and tes ting, with experiments and other payloads returned to Earth after their tim
e in orbit. SpaceX conducted the first demonstration flight of Starfall in June 2026, launching the spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket and testing te chnology intended for future return missions. SpaceMD plans to fly as many
as 32 of its Pharmaceutical In-Space Laboratory, or PIL-BOX, systems on the
2028 mission, which the company says would make it the largest dedicated c ommercial microgravity research mission to date. The PIL-BOX systems allow researchers to crystallize pharmaceutical compounds in microgravity, where conditions can produce crystals useful in developing improved drug formulat ions and new therapies. Since November 2023, 54 PIL-BOX systems have flown
to the International Space Station and have been used to crystallize 45 com pounds, including insulin and molecules targeting cancer, cardiovascular di sease, obesity, and diabetes. (ANS thanks Redwire<https://rdw.com/> for the
above information)

________________________________
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73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

This week's ANS Editor,

Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD?HJ
mahrenstorff [at] amsat.org<http://amsat.org>

ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H S treet NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002
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