karn@allegra.UUCP (Phil Karn) (03/02/84)
The UoSAT-B spacecraft riding as a piggyback with the Landsat-D Prime satellite was successfully orbited today (March 1,1984) from Spacecraft Launch Complex 2W (SLC-2W) at Vandenberg AFB. Launch was aboard a Delta 3920 vehicle, the 174th member of the highly successful Delta series. This marked Delta's 163 success -- an enviable 93.7% track record. NASA is now phasing out the expendable Delta series and replacing it with the reusable Shuttle. Liftoff went like clockwork, within one second of the nominal 19:59 UT. Following the deployment of Landsat, the UoSAT spacecraft separated from the second stage of the launcher at about 21:11 UT. The telecommand station at the University of Surrey sent commands to initialize the spacecraft software and activate the 145.825 MHz beacon for a few seconds. The few seconds of telemetery showed that the spacecraft was in good health, so an additional command was sent to acquire about 5 minutes of data. We are informed that on the second orbit, at about 22:30 UT, the spacecraft will be commanded on for a 5 hour period. Thus the first passes visible in the US will be on March 2 at about 00:05 UT on the east coast, at about 01:40 UT for the eastern half of the US and about 03:20 on the west coast. The spacecraft is in a nominal orbit with inclination 98 degrees, period 98.6 minutes and altitude 690 km. Improved orbital data should be available later today after the radars can separate UoSAT from Landsat and the launcher. The international designator for UoSAT- OSCAR-11 is 1984 021B; the NASA/NORAD catalog number will be know when we get the first Keplerian elements. I talked with Dr. Martin Sweeting, G3YJO (the Surrey project manager) as the first signals were being received at Surrey and heard them over the phone. Martin was elated at the success and I conveyed our congratulations on his success for all of AMSAT. AMSAT is proud to have played a small role in making this newest amateur satellite come to life. The ALINS broadcasts were carried on 14.280, 21.280, & 147.45 MHz from WA3NAN. Good reports were received from Europe on 15. After it was determined that 20 was not doing very well, that transmitter QSY'd to 7.180. W3IWI played the role of "mouth of AMSAT" and KA1TB manned the WA3NAN facility. Also present in the control center at Goddard were Bill Lazzaro and Dick Daniels of AMSAT and Gary Garriott of VITA. 73, Tom