Category Archives: Satellite

Satellite Category

Successful Vega Launch

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Vega is launched successful and Satellite Signals are Heard.

Vega First LaunchThe first Vega, flight VV01, lifted off at 1000 UT from the ESA Spaceport at Kourou in the Caribbean carrying eight student built amateur radio satellites and the LARES Laser Relativity Satellite into orbit.

At 1153 UT Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA reported hearing signals from the satellites as they went past Florida. Signals were first heard in the United Kingdom at around 1208 UT.

In Germany Mike Rupprecht DK3WN copied the satellites at an elevation of just 3 degress at 1209 UT, see his Satblog

A recording of PW-Sat made by Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG can be heard at this link

Watch the launch of Vega VV01

AMSAT Fox-1 Cubesat Selected for NASA ELaNa Launch

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Amsat-NA Fox LogoProject ELaNa, NASA’s “Educational Launch of NanoSat” managed by the Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center, announced on February 10 that the AMSAT Fox-1 cubesat has been selected to join the program. AMSAT will work with NASA in a collaborative agreement where NASA will cover the integration and launch costs of satellites deemed to have merit in support of their strategic and educational goals.

AMSAT teamed with the ARRL to write and deliver the 159 page educational proposal to NASA. Letters documenting the importance of AMSAT’s satellites in the education programs at the ARRL and also at the Clay Center for Science and Technology at the Dexter and Southfield schools in Brookline, MA, were important parts of our proposal.

AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW said, “The ELaNA Launch opportunities during 2013-2014 marks AMSAT’s return to space after the conclusion of the successful ARISSat-1/KEDR flight. We need to get the flight Fox-1, along with an operational flight backup satellite, built, integrated, tested, and delivered. Our ability to provide a spacecraft and get it launched is dependent upon the active support of our donors who wish to see Fox-1 fly.”

[PE0SAT thanks www.amsat.org for the above information]

ESA Vega Launch Includes 8 Amateur Band Satellites

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Vega Artist ImpressionVega is scheduled to launch on February 13, at 1000 UTC with eight student built amateur radio satellites. Internet video streaming of the launch will be available.

The launcher will first deploy the main payload, the LARES the Laser relativity Spacecraft and will then make an additional firing of the final OVUM stage before deploying the secondary cubesat payloads. The planned timing for these deployments, in order of ejection, are as follows:

  • T0+ 4245.30secs 1st PPOD, with XatCobeo, e-st@r, and Goliat.
  • T0+ 4255.30secs 2nd PPOD, with Robusta, MaSat-1 and PW-Sat.
  • T0+ 4265.30secs 3rd PPOD, with UniCubeSat.
  • T0+ 4275.30secs AlmaSat-1.

The Cubesats will not deploy their antennas until 1800 seconds after they leave their PODS. It is not known how soon AlmaSat-1 will start transmitting after deployment.

Vega Launch Cubesat Amateur Band Frequencies

AlmaSat-1 437.465 MHz 1200 bps FSK, 2407.850 MHz
E-St@r 437.445 MHz 1200 bps AFSK
Goliat 437.485 MHz 1200 bps AFSK
MaSat-1 437.345 MHz GFSK 625/1250 bps (demodulator/decoder software), CW
PW-Sat 435.020 MHz FM uplink, 145.990 MHz DSB downlink
Robusta 437.325 MHz 1200 bps FM telemetry (data every 1 min, 20 sec. burst)
UniCubeSat 437.305 MHz 9600 bps FSK
XaTcobeo 437.365 MHz FFSK with AX.25

The university cubesat teams welcome reception reports. All observers are invited to submit reports via amsat-bb and to also join the CubeSat Internet Relay Chat channel to pass on their news and comments in realtime. You will need an IRC client such as the ChatZilla addon for FireFox or mIRC to join the cubesat chat. Connect to the irc.freenode.net server. Once connected to the server the /join #cubesat command will bring you into the channel. Many users set their chat nickname to “name_callsign”.

[PE0SAT thanks www.amsat.org for the above information]

ISS Performs Debris Avoidance Maneuver

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Check Your Keps: ISS Performs Debris Avoidance Maneuver

UniverseToday reports that the ISS needed to perform a maneuver on Friday, January 13 to avoid debris from the 2009 collision between an inactive Russian Cosmos 2251 satellite and a commercial Iridium satellite.

ISS After Undocking STS134U.S. Space Command recommended the space station perform a debris avoidance maneuver on Friday, January 13, 2012 to move out of harms’ way and dodge a possible collision with the piece of space junk, said to be about 10 centimeters in diameter. The thrusters on the Zvezda service module fired at 1610 UTC on Friday to raise the orbit of the ISS.

Without the maneuver, the object would have made two close approaches to the station on consecutive orbits on Friday, passing within the “pizza box” shaped region around the station, measuring 0.75 kilometers above and below the station and 25 kilometers on each side (2,460 feet above and below and 15.6 by 15.6 miles).

A higher orbit for the ISS means that AOS will occur at a slightly later time than those predicted in existing Keplerian Elements. Users are encourage to update their tracking elements to maintain tracking accuracy.

[PE0SAT thanks UniverseToday.com for the above information]

ARISSat-1/KEDR Goes Silent

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ARISSat-1 ModelReception reports indicate that ARISSat-1/KEDR has stopped transmitting on Wednesday, January 4, 2012. The last full telemetry captured and reported to the ARISSatTLM web site at 06:02:14 UTC on January 4 were received from ground stations as the satellite passed over Japan.

See: http://www.arissattlm.org/live (full telemetry display)
See: http://www.arissattlm.org/mobile (condensed telemetry)

Telemetry reports showed that the temperature aboard ARISSat-1/KEDR had been rising as atmospheric drag began to affect the satellite. Final temperatures received via ARISSatTLM reported this data:

IHU           75 ° C / 167.0 ° F
PSU           76 ° C / 168.8 ° F
RF            88 ° C / 190.4 ° F
Control Panel 61 ° C / 141.8 ° F
Experiment    64 ° C / 147.2 ° F

Tracking data from Space Command gave a Predicted Decay Time 0700 GMT +/- 3 Hours on January 4. Telemetry report narrows the impact time window to about 4 hours. The predicted decay location is 12.7° S, 354.3° E, an open part of the South Atlantic, well west of Angola. Send reports to the amsat-bb If you heard the satellite, even briefly, after 0600 UTC. This will help confirm the actual impact point.

Stations receiving telemetry from ARISSat-1 at any time over the last few months, please forward all of your .CSV telemetry files to telemetry AT arissattlm.org.

The Official ARISSat-1/KEDR web page: http://www.arissat1.org/ See DK3WN SatBlog for last signal report received by Tetsu san, JA0CAW in Japan: http://www.dk3wn.info/p/ p=25125

[PE0SAT thanks the ARISSat-1/KEDR Team for the above information]