[amsat-bb] Re: NASA 2 Line via mail?

Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL vlfiscus at mcn.net
Tue Nov 24 09:15:45 PST 2009


At 04:18 AM 11/24/2009 -0500, "Rich Dailey (Gmail)" <redailey1 at gmail.com> 
wrote:
>An open invitation to the list to assist in jogging this not so young man's
>memory... a bit of nostalgic research I'm doing. Thanks in advance for 
>everyone's
>help.
>
>Back what I used to call "not so many" years ago, maybe 1980-1985, I 
>recall NASA
>mailing me 2-line elements for specific satellites I had selected.  These 
>would come in an
>official manilla envelope with an extremely official looking NASA label 
>affixed to it. I recall
>these would arrive in my mailbox every week or so.  Later they dwindled to 
>perhaps one per month.
>
>At some point, they just stopped mailing them to me. Perhaps I had missed 
>a reminder to update
>my subscription info. I'm assuming more than likely the free service just 
>became redundant, as BBS systems,
>and later internet services began providing them online for free. Not to 
>mention the Oscar data provided
>in the AMSAT Journal.
>
>An aside - you can skip this paragraph if you want me to cut to the quick 
>- I was living
>in an apartment with my then new, now ex, wife. We were the only young 
>couple in the
>complex.  The ladies sitting in the breezeway thought we were gov'mt spies 
>receiving coded
>instructions. They always kept one eye on us as we unlocked our mail slot, 
>and pulled out one of
>these covert communiques. One accidentally was placed in another mail slot 
>once.  The nice elderly woman
>who lived below us returned it to me as I came home from work. She said, 
>"I think you'll be needing this."
>Handed it to me, and hurried back into her apartment.  I tucked it under 
>my coat, and went upstairs - I knew
>there were eyes peering out behind every door. I can't say that I tried to 
>dispell the myth. My apologies, Ms.
>Maxine, in Apt 303... God rest her soul.
>
>Question(s):
>* Which NASA office did these originate from?
>* When did this service begin/end?
>* Could requests be made for any unclassified object in orbit, as long as 
>the designator was known?
>
>For your eyes only, (ssshhh...)
>
>Rich, N8UX


Hi Rich,

I used to get the two line elements sets mailed to me too, and then I would 
type them into my tracking program manually.*ugly*

They were mailed from GSFC.  I don't know if they still do mail outs.

When I was able to get them off the internet I had them stop sending me 
them by snail mail.

Get on the AMSAT Keps list and you can get them by email.

KB7ADL



More information about the AMSAT-BB mailing list