March 16, 2025
In this edition:
* Amateur Satellites Finally Launch After Delays
* NASAâs SPHEREx, PUNCH Missions Launch
* ISS Changes Crew for Expedition 73
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
* ARISS News
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* 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 news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports
on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who
share an active interest in designing, building, launching and
communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.
The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at] amsat.org
Sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/
Amateur Satellites Finally Launch After Delays
After delaying the launch of the mission a (highly unusual) seven
times â it was originally slated to take to the skies on Feb. 27 â a
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket finally carried the 13th Rideshare to orbit on
Saturday, March 15. The launch carried 74 small satellites to
sun-sychronous orbit (SSO), lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force
Base, California at 06:43 UTC (11:43 p.m. on March 14 local California
time).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Transporter 13 rideshare
mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on March 15,
2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Among the satellites aboard is HADES-ICM 1.5 PocketQube satellite
main mission is to act as a FM voice repeater. It can also repeat FSK
derived modes like FT-4 and FT-8. It has the same functionalities as in
HADES-R (SO-124). FM and Digital modes repeater with Uplink on 145.875
MHz and Downlink on 436.666 MHz. It also carries the same experiment for
SMART-IR/Manchester University. The repeater will not be active until
all the checks have been performed on the satellite. This can take
several weeks.
A group of satellites labeled as âTEVEL2â are on the launch manifest
for the SpaceX Transporter 13 mission. Designated as TEVEL2-1 through
TEVE2-9, they are all listed as having a downlink frequency of 436.400
MHz, and are expected to be activated in rotation, much in the same way
as the previous constellation of TEVEL satellites, which have now all
decayed from orbit.
A French cubesat named UVSQ-Sat NG â or âNext Generationâ is also on
the launch manifest. This satellite appears to have capabilities for
amateur operation, however no such operation has been coordinated or
announced.
See AMSAT News Service bulletins 061 for more details on all of these satellites.
[ANS thanks Space.com and AMSAT-EA for the above information]
The 2025 AMSAT Presidentâs Club Coins Have Just Arrived!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox Plus.

Join the AMSAT Presidentâs Club today and help
Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/
NASAâs SPHEREx, PUNCH Missions Launch
NASAâs SPHEREx and PUNCH missions were launched together on a SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base,
California, on Tuesday evening, March 11 (early March 12 UTC). The
launch had been delayed one day due to unfavorable weather at the launch
site and an issue with one of the spacecraft.
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of
Reionization and Ices Explorer) will then collect data on more than 450
million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky
Way in order to explore the origins of the universe, contributing to
NASA Scienceâs key goals to discover the secrets of the universe and
search for life elsewhere.

NASAâs SPHEREx mission will operate in low Earth orbit, detecting
hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies and creating the first
all-sky spectroscopic survey in the near-infrared. This artistâs concept
shows the spacecraft and its distinctive conical photon shields, which
protect SPHERExâs telescope from infrared light and heat from the Sun
and Earth. (Graphic: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The missionâs 3D all-sky map will help scientists answer big-picture
questions about the universe. The mission will investigate a cosmic
phenomenon called inflation that caused the universe to expand rapidly
for a fraction of a second after the big bang, measure the collective
glow created by galaxies near and far, including hidden galaxies that
have not been individually observed, and search the Milky Way galaxy for
hidden reservoirs of water, carbon dioxide, and other essential
ingredients for life.
The SPHEREx missionâs ability to scan large sections of the sky
quickly and gather data on millions of objects complements the work of
more targeted telescopes, like NASAâs Hubble and James Webb, and the
observatoryâs data will be freely available to scientists around the
world, providing a new encyclopedia of information about hundreds of
millions of cosmic objects.
Along for the ride was a second mission, PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify
the Corona and Heliosphere), a mission consisting of four satellites
operating in concert. These small sats will observe the Sunâs corona as
it transitions into the solar wind, supporting NASA Scienceâs key goals
by creating a broad awareness and understanding of how the Sun creates
conditions that influence Earth and space, which is increasingly part of
the human domain.

Illustration of one of the four identical PUNCH satellites in operation. (Graphic: NASA)
By providing scientists with new information about how these
potentially disruptive solar events form and evolve, data from PUNCH
could lead to more accurate prediction about the arrival and impact of
such events on Earth and for humanityâs robotic explorers in space.
Following orbital adjustments and commissioning, each of these two
missions is planned to last for at least two years, contributing
valuable data to the study of the universe and the sunâs influence on
space weather.
[ANS thanks NASA for the above information]
Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store.
When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/
ISS Changes Crew for Expedition 73
The 73rd long-duration expedition to the International Space Station
(ISS) will begin with the departure of Soyuz MS-26, expected to take
place in April 2025. The Expedition 73 crew will consist of astronauts
cosmonauts just launched to the station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon
Endurance, as well as those soon to follow aboard the Soyuz MS-27.
The crew of MS-26, Russian cosmonaunts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan
Vagner and American astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT, are already making
preparations for departure in the coming weeks.
Scheduled for departure even sooner â probably in the coming week â
is SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom with two members of SpaceX Crew 9,
astronaut Nick Hague, KG5TMV, and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov,
accompanied by U.S. astronauts Barry âButchâ Wilmore, and Sunita
Williams, KD5PLB. Wilmore and Williams were launched to the ISS in June
of last year aboard the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test.

The astronauts of NASAâs SpaceX Crew
10 (from left) Kirill Peskov, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi and Anne
McClain, leave crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center, FL Wednesday,
March 12, 2025 headed for the launch pad. They finally launched to the
International Space Station on March 14.
(Photo: Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK)
SpaceX Crew 10 consists of NASA astronaut Anne McClain, who will
serve as Crew-10âs commander. She is joined by Crew-10âs pilot, NASA
astronaut Nichole Ayers, KJ5GWI, mission specialist Japanese Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, KF5LKS, and Roscosmos
cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Crew 10 was launched from pad 39A at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 14, at 23:03 UTC after a
scrub on Wednesday. The March 12 launch attempt was scrubbed due to an
issue with the hydraulics on ground support systems on the launch pad.
That crew will be joined later next month by the crew of Soyuz MS-27,
which is scheduled to consist of cosmonaunts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey
Zubritsky, as well as American astronaut Jonny Kim.
Once the MS-26 crew departs, Takuya Onishi of the Japan will serve as
the commander of Expedition 73, the third JAXA astronaut to take
command of the station. Born in Nerima, Japan, Onishi earned an
aeronautical and space engineering degree from the University of Tokyo
and was a co-pilot of Boeing 767 airplanes from 2003 to 2009. Onishi
will fly to space for the second time on Crew-10, having previously
flown to the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-01 in 2016 as part of Expedition 48/49.
JAXA and NASA selected Onishi for NASAâs 20th astronaut group in 2009.
Expedition 73 will continue the extensive scientific research
conducted aboard the ISS, focusing on various fields, including biology,
human physiology, physics, and materials science. The crew members will
also maintain and upgrade the space station systems.
[ANS thanks NASA for the above information]
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Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for 14 March
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 updates are completely adequate for most amateur
satellites. TLE bulletin files 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/.
NOTICE: In an effort to minimize confusion between sources of two
line element sets, AMSAT is adopting the convention of listing the
USSF/NORAD Satellite Catalog name first, followed by any secondary name
or names in parentheses. For example, âPOEM 4 (BGS ARPIT)â was added
recently where âPOEM 4â is the name that appears in the U.S. Space Force
Satellite Catalog, and âBGS ARPITâ is the name best known within the
amateur satellite community. Expect name changes for affected satellites
in the coming weeks as this change is fully implemented.
The following satellite has been added to this weekâs AMSAT TLE distribution:
+ HYDRA-T NORAD Cat ID 62692 Downlink 437.778 MHz
[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager for the above information]
ARISS NEWS

Amateurs
and others around the world may listen in on contacts between amateurs
operating in schools and allowing students to interact with astronauts
and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The downlink
frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.
None scheduled in the immediate future due to crew changes.
The crossband repeater continues to be active (145.990 MHz up {PL 67}
& 437.800 MHz down). If any crewmember is so inclined, all they
have to do is pick up the microphone, raise the volume up, and talk on
the crossband repeater. So give a listen, you just never know.
The packet system is also active (145.825 MHz up & down).
As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios are turned off as part of the safety protocol. Systems will be OFF for Crew Dragon docking on March 16, and for undocking later in the week.
Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your
own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the
listed time.
The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.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 for the above information]
Upcoming Satellite Operations
+ N4AKV/R will be on various satellites from FM25, FM26, FM27, and FM28 on March 16-18. See hams.at for details.
+ PA3GAN will be on AO-07 from JO22 on March 16.
+ WD5GRW will be on FM satellites for a POTA operation in EM01 on March 16.
A growing number of satellite rovers are currently engaged in sharing their grid square activations on https://hams.at.
By visiting the website, you gain easy access to comprehensive
information about the operators responsible for activating specific grid
squares. Additionally, you have the ability to assess the match score
between yourself and a particular rover for a given pass, while also
being able to identify the upcoming satellite passes that are accessible
from your location.
[ANS thanks hams.at for 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.
March 22, 2025
Midwinter Madness Hamfest
Buffalo Civic Center
1306 County Rd 134
Buffalo MN 55313
https://k0ltc.org/midwinter-madness/
KÃJM, ADÃHJ, KEÃPBR
March 27, 2025
AMSAT Update and Info
West Fork Amateur Radio Club
Paradise Fire Dept.
303 Main St.
Paradise, TX 76073
https://wfarc.org/
W5ITR
April 4 â 5, 2025
Southeastern VHF Conference 2025
Quality Inn
3095 Wilma Rudolph Blvd
Clarksville, TN 37040
https://svhfs.org/wp/2025-conference/
W4FCL
April 5, 2025
RARSfest
Jim Graham Building
NC State Fairgrounds
Youth Center Drive, Gate 5
Raleigh NC
https://www.rarsfest.org/index.php
K4EB, N4AEW, W1DCM, KK4HG, N4HF
[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director â AMSAT Ambassador Program, for the above information]
Satellite Shorts From All Over
+ AMSAT Italia is pleased to announce the renewal of its Board of
Directors, which were elected on February 26th and assigned to the role
on March 3rd. The new Board of Directors, in charge for the period
2025-2027, consists of:
- De Paolis Francesco IKÃWGF â President / Treasurer
- Ferrario Gianpietro IZ2GOJ â Vice President
- Andrioli Fabio IZÃQPO â Secretary
- Ariotti Claudio IK1SLD â Board Member
- Tognolatti Piero IÃKPT â Board Member
Andrioli Fabio IZÃQPO and Tognolatti Piero IÃKPT join the BoD after
being former members of the board of auditors. Fabrizio Carrai IU5GEZ
and Emanuele DâAndria IÃELE leave the BoD, while Emanuele IÃELE was
already appointed by the assembly of associates as President Emeritus of
AMSAT Italia. For more information about AMSAT Italia and its
activities, please visit their website https://www.amsat.it. (ANS thanks Francesco De Paolis, IKÃWGF, for the above information.)
+ Intuitive Machineâs IM-2 Athena lander touched down near the Moonâs
south pole, 250 meters from its target in the Mons Mouton region,
inside of a crater. But, while a softer landing than last time, like
IM-1 in Feb 2024, the lander appears to have fallen over into an
âincorrect attitudeâ ending up âsomewhat on its side.â A day later the
mission was declared over, with little hope of even partial recovery due
to solar panels oriented in the wrong direction and the extreme cold
temperatures in the crater. (ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above
information.)
+ With somewhat better luck, another private lunar lander carrying a
drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon on
March 2, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart
business on Earthâs celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions.
Firefly Aerospaceâs Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on
autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an
impact basin on the moonâs northeastern edge of the near side. (ANS
thanks The Associate Press for the above information.)
+ Starship blew up over the Caribbean, again. Starship Flight 8 seems
to have suffered the same fate as its predecessor. Eight minutes into
Ship 34âs powered flight, four of its six Raptor engines shut down, and
the craft began to tumble. Minutes later, it exploded over the
Caribbean, producing a similarly spectacular light show as the last
flight. In better news, Super Heavy Booster 15 was again caught by its
launch tower, an incredible feat that is somehow slowly starting to look
routine. (ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above information.)
+ NASA recently turned off Voyager 1âs cosmic ray subsystem
experiment and Voyager 2âs low-energy charged particle instrument to
conserve power. At 43 years old, both craft are at half their initial
power levels, now operating at around 235W each and losing about 4W of
power generation capacity each year. In part, this is due to the
87.7-year half-life decay of Plutonium-238, which powers the probesâ
three Multi-Hundred-Watt Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators. (ANS
thanks The Orbital Index for the above information.)
Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/
In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:
* Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
* Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate.
* Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status
shall be eligible for the student rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary
years in this status.
* Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.
Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.
73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
This weekâs ANS Editor, Mark Johns, KÃJM
mjohns [at] amsat.org
ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002