AMSAT-North America http://www.amsat.org/ has announced that launch of the AMSAT OSCAR-E Amateur Radio microsat–the “Echo Project”–has been moved up to March 31, 2004. Earlier plans had called for a May 2004 launch. Echo Project Team member Richard Hambly, W2GPS, reported at AMSAT-NA’s Annual Meeting and Space Symposium October 18-19 in Toronto, Canada, that the Echo project has made significant progress in recent months.
“The Project Team met with our contractor, SpaceQuest http://www.spacequest.com/ , and at this meeting we decided that spacecraft integration would take place this December and scheduled the launch for March,” Hambly told the gathering. Integration will take place at the AMSAT Integration Lab at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
A Russian Dnepr LV rocket–a converted SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile–will carry the approximately 10-inch-square satellite into a low-Earth orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Hambly reported that the project team powered up the Echo flight hardware in late summer in a “flat-sat” configuration at SpaceQuest. Data communications, command and control, and attitude control subsystems were tested, in addition to the radio equipment, power systems and cabling.
The satellite will incorporate two UHF transmitters, each running from 1 to 8 W and capable of simultaneous operation, four VHF receivers and a multiband, multimode receiver capable of operation on the 10 meter, 2 meter, 70 cm and 23 cm bands. Echo will feature V/U, L/S and HF/U operational configurations, with V/S, L/U and HF/S also possible. FM voice and various digital modes–including PSK31 on a 10-meter SSB uplink–also will be available.
During the Symposium, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, outlined the delivery of the so-called Phase 2 ham equipment to the ISS. A Progress rocket already has delivered a Kenwood TM-D700E VHF/UHF transceiver to the ISS. The unit will mean a significant boost to the power output of the ARISS initial station gear–from 5 W to 25 W.
Bauer said a Yaesu FT-100D and SSTV equipment, along with some new headsets, tentatively are set for transport to the ISS in January on another Progress flight. Additional ARISS gear will not go up until the space shuttle returns to flight in September 2004, however. Bauer said the equipment still on the ground will be tested in November in Moscow to validate that the Phase 1 and 2 systems are compatible. RF testing will also be conducted.
According to Bauer, plans call for the Expedition 8 crew of Mike Foale, KB5UAC, and Alex Kaleri, U8MIR, to install the Phase 1 and 2 70-cm hardware after ground tests are complete. Previous crews already installed four Amateur Radio antennas to cover HF, 2 meters, 70 cm and microwave frequencies.
In addressing the general membership meeting, AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, asked the Board of Directors to continue its support of ARISS and that it go ahead with the OSCAR-Eagle project.