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Spring 2004 Issue |
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AMSAT OSCAR-E Project Spring 2004 Status Report This status report about AMSAT OSCAR-E (“Echo”) is an update to the article in the Summer 2003 issue of CQ VHF and is being simultaneously published in the March/April 2004 issue of the AMSAT Journal. By Richard M. Hambly,* W2GPS |
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Project manager Dick Daniels, W4PUJ, watches over integration team leader Jim White, WDØE, at SpaceQuest on 18 December 2003. |
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This status report about AMSAT OSCAR-E
(“Echo”) is a companion article to the presentation given at the
Maryland-DC area Annual AMSAT Meeting in March 2004 and to previous
articles published in the AMSAT Journal,1,2,3 the AMSAT Proceedings,4 and
CQ VHF magazine.5,6,7 On December 8, 2003, a team led by Jim White, WDØE, and Mike Kingery, KE4AZN, arrived at SpaceQuest in Fairfax, Virginia to begin the process of integrating Echo’s various hardware and software subsystems. After two weeks of long hours and hard work, the team had the core systems working and had successfully tested much of the experimental hardware. During January and February, the Echo integration team continued working with the designers of the flight and ground software, and with the developers of the S-band transmitter and the digital voice recorder to finalize Echo and get it ready for flight.
In mid-February, we received the news that the
primary payload for our launch was experiencing delays, so the launch
window has been pushed back to a two-month period beginning June 28, 2004.
While disappointing, this will give us time to further refine the software
and to get the experimental payloads installed and fully tested. As has been reported in previous articles, Echo will offer a wide range of capabilities that will support interests from “EasySat” operations to scientific experiments. In anticipation of Echo’s launch, an operations committee has been formed to determine the initial operating schedule for Echo after commissioning is complete. The initial proposed schedule is as follows, but keep in mind that this is preliminary and subject to change at any time.
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