UoSAT-OSCAR 11

Satellite Summary

Name: UoSAT-OSCAR 11 (UoSAT-2)
NASA Catalog Number: 14781
Launched: March 1, 1984
Launch vehicle: Thor Delta 3920
Launched piggyback with: LANDSAT-5
Launch location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California
Weight: 60 kg
Orbit: Polar LEO (Low Earth Orbit), circular, sun-synchronous 679 x 697 km.
Inclination: 98.25 degrees
Period: 99 Minutes
Size: 585 x 355 x 355 mm
Telemetry: 1200 bps FM AFSK

Downlink:

Features: Firsts: Status: Semi-Operational

Description

At 17:59 UTC on March 1, 1984, the second satellite designed and built by the University of Surrey's Spacecraft Engineering Research Group - UoSAT in the United Kingdom, UoSAT-2 (UO-11) was launched on a Delta rocket from the Western Test Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California with LANDSAT 5. It weighs 60 kg.

Among its many experiments, UoSAT-2 carried the Digital Communications Experiment, which was one of the first (if not the first) non-military use of store-and-forward techniques with Low Earth Orbiting Satellites. UoSAT-2 was the test-bed for the packet radio satellites as we know them today. (Thanks WD3Q)

For a more detailed description of UoSAT-11, read John Magliacane's, KD2BD, Spotlight On: UoSAT-OSCAR-11 originally published in The AMSAT Journal.

For more information also see UoSAT & SSTL Satellite Mission Summary and UoSAT-2 Microsatellite Mission.


References


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Last update May 31, 2003 - N7HPR