The world's first non-government
space launch company is now scheduled to carry descendants of the world's first
non-government satellites into orbit. According to the AMSAT News Service, two amateur
satellites being built by AMSAT-EA in Spain are scheduled for launch in December
aboard a SpaceX rocket. The satellites – one analog and one digital – are named
EASAT-2 and Hades. At least one of them will also carry a camera and transmitter
for slow-scan TV images. They being built in partnership with the European
University of Madrid and will both have uplinks on 2 meters and downlinks on 70
centimeters