Founded in 1975 AMSAT-UK is a voluntary organisation that supports the design and building of equipment for Amateur Radio Satellites.

AMSAT-UK initially produced a short bulletin called OSCAR News to give members advice on amateur satellite communications. Since those early days OSCAR News has grown in size and the print quality has improved beyond recognition. Today, OSCAR News is produced as a high-quality quarterly colour A4 magazine consisting of up to 40 pages of news, information and comment about amateur radio space communications.

The new lower-cost E-membership provides OSCAR News as a downloadable PDF file giving members the freedom to read it on their Tablets or Smartphones anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

An additional advantage is that the PDF should be available for download up to 2 weeks before the paper copy is posted.

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch

The Membership year lasts for 12 months starting on January 1 each year.

If you join after July 31 of any particular year, then you will receive complimentary membership for the whole of the following year, i.e. join on November 12, 2013, and you have nothing more to pay until Dec 31, 2014.

Now is a very good time to join.

Take out an Electronic membership here http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_9/Join-Amsat-UK.html

E-members can download their copies of OSCAR News from http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/on

A sample issue of OSCAR News can be downloaded here.

As a result of recommendations from the January 2013 UK CubeSat Workshop, members of the UK CubeSat community have established a forum to provide an independent, community led discussion and networking platform for UK nanosatellite or CubeSat stakeholders.

The organising committee, which the UK Space Agency also sits on, invites all individuals with an interest in nanosatellite or CubeSat activities to read the forum’s Charter and, if interested in becoming an active member, register at http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/ to participate in the forum.

As well as building stronger links throughout the CubeSat community, the independent forum aims to be the primary interface for the UK Space Agency to seek the community’s views on matters such as Outer Space Act (OSA) reform, and what its future CubeSat initiatives should look like.

UKube-1 model on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow – Credit G3VZV

Best regards
Ryan King
Space Science Assistant Programme Manager

UK SPACE AGENCY
Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1SZ
Tel 01793 41 8090
Mob 07826921986
Web http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency
Twitter http://twitter.com/spacegovuk
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/spacegovuk
An executive agency for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit – Credit Clyde Space

Aspirations following UKube-1

The UK CubeSat Forum are seeking thoughts on the future format of the UK Space Agency CubeSat programme (aka UKube). Specifically, we are interested in thoughts regarding the mission applications, budget, timelines, and competitiveness in the market.

For example, should CubeSats stay within the education and training sphere or should the UK compete with NASA-style missions: e.g. EDSN (a network of CubeSats)?

Can we progress science further for example into MEO or GEO to investigate radiation belts or focus on industrial problems – e.g. cheaper platforms towards real navigation and Earth observation applications like PlanetLabs‘ Flock?

Should the UK implement a similar programme to the NASA CubeSat Initiative where government funds the launch of prebuilt CubeSats? Or should we focus on funding full missions?