The GOMX-2 and RACE CubeSats were among more than 2 dozen satellites that were lost after an unmanned Orbital Space Sciences (OSC) Antares 130 vehicle exploded spectacularly shortly after launch at 2222 UTC on Tuesday, October 28, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Both satellite packages carried payloads that operated on Amateur Radio freque…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
AMSAT has invited the Amateur Satellite community to submit ideas and suggestions for the next generation of AMSAT satellites. AMSAT Vice President-Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, announced the plan at the recent 2014 AMSAT Space Symposium in Baltimore. AMSAT asked that ideas be based on the CubeSat platform, as “this is the standard through which we will look for launches in the foreseeable fu…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
The Fox-1 series of CubeSats will be capable of transmitting continuous telemetry during normal transponder operation, while contacts are taking place. The satellites will feature slow-speed (200 bps) telemetry data that accompany transponder audio or voice ID activity. The slow-speed data are contained in the audio spectrum below 300 Hz. Using DSP techniques, high-pass filtering is applied to …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
KickSat Project Manager Zac Manchester, KD2BHC, has announced that the KickSat CubeSat reentered the atmosphere on May 14 (UTC) and burned without deploying its cargo of tiny “Sprite” satellites.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to command the Sprite deployment in time,” said Manchester, a Cornell University aerospace engineering graduate student. “While we are certainly disappointed that things…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Because of a technical problem, the KickSat CubeSat may not be able to deploy its cargo of tiny “Sprite” satellites, Project Manager Zac Manchester, KD2BHC, announced on May 3. The Sprites, each about the size of a small cracker, would be the smallest satellites ever to orbit Earth. Manchester said an unexpected reset of KickSat’s master clock may mean that the CubeSat won’t be able to release …
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources
Yuri Bodrov, UT1FG, has been operating maritime mobile while aboard a commercial ship Silver, now heading north, possibly increasing chances of making a contact with him. Frank Griffin, K4FEG, and Rick Tillman, WA4NVM, contacted UT1FG when he was sailing in grid FG43 during a 2 minute pass on the venerable AO-7 satellite (Mode B). His next port will be Punta Patache, Chile (FG49). It’s possible…
American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources