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| AMSAT Fox-1A lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard the US National Reconnaissance Office's Atlas-5 launch on October 8. (NRO photo) |
The
skies are once again filling up with amateur radio satellites, with eight new
"birds" launched in late September and early October.
AMSAT's Fox-1A
satellite, now known as AO-85, was successfully launched on October 8 and the
AMSAT News Service reportst that signals were heard on its first orbit. For
more information, visit <http://bit.ly/1McAMcG>.
The
week before, Indonesia's LAPAN-2 satellite (now IO-86) was launched from India.
This satellite carries an FM transponder and an APRS digipeater. Primary access
will be to stations located in the tropics, between 30 degrees north latitude
and 30 degrees south latitude.
China
followed its mid-September launch of nine amateur radio satellites with the
liftoff of three more on September 25 (Tianwang 1-A, 1-B and 1-C), according to
the ARRL. Another Chinese ham satellite - LQSat - was launched on October 7.
All four lifted off from a launch facility in Inner Mongolia.
Finally,
two Danish ham satellites - AAUSat-5 and GomX-3 - were deployed from the
International Space Station on October 5. The AMSAT News Service says the crew
used the station's robotic arm to place the cubesats in orbit. As of this
writing, no OSCAR numbers were available for either the Chinese or the Danish
satellites.
