Tag Archives: Fox-1Cliff

Dec 9 2018

Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 Receive Anomaly

AO-95 (Fox-1Cliff) CubeSat

AO-95 (Fox-1Cliff) CubeSat

Following the launch of Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 AMSAT Engineering began the commissioning process, with the help of AMSAT Operations, on Tuesday, December 4.

Satellite telemetry indicates that the bird is healthy, and I thank all of the stations who have captured and relayed the telemetry that enabled us to monitor and determine the health of the various systems on board. Fox-1Cliff required an extended period monitoring battery and power levels due to the anomaly and fix that was applied back in February of 2016 during environmental testing, and the result of that is positive.

However, during the next steps of commissioning we discovered an anomaly with her receive capability. After a few days of tests, analysis, and discussion, it appears that Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 will not be commissioned as our fourth Fox-1 amateur radio satellite.

AMSAT Engineering will continue to evaluate and test Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 for solutions to the anomaly and your continued help in providing telemetry is appreciated so that we can have data throughout her daily orbits rather than limited data over our U.S. stations. The data, analysis, and testing could lead to a positive solution but at the very least will be important to AMSAT’s satellite programs in providing information that would help us and others, as we do freely share our successes and failures, to avoid similar situations with future missions.

I would like to thank all of the AMSAT Fox Engineering volunteers who made Fox-1Cliff possible and continue to build our new satellites, becoming even better as we move forward.

I will provide more information on the anomaly and any determination we make regarding the possible cause or causes as well as information on the possibility of recovery, over time. Please be patient regarding that. Many of you have probably built a project and had to troubleshoot it on your bench, we are in a troubleshooting situation here with the additional challenge of being 600 km away from our bench.

Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT Vice President of Engineering

Source AMSAT News Service, sign up for emails at
https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans

Dec 5 2018

Fox-1Cliff Designated AMSAT-OSCAR 95 (AO-95)

AO-95 (Fox-1Cliff) CubeSat

AO-95 (Fox-1Cliff) CubeSat

On December 3rd, 2018, Fox-1Cliff was launched on a Falcon 9 vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California

Part of Spaceflight’s SSO-A: Smallsat Express launch, Fox-1Cliff was named after long time AMSAT supporter Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR (SK). In the 48 hours after launch, more than 110 amateur radio operators around the world have successfully received and submitted telemetry from the satellite.

Following in our long tradition of naming amateur satellites, AMSAT hereby designates Fox-1Cliff as AMSAT-OSCAR 95 (AO-95).

Thank you to those who have supported this mission with their time, talent, and financial support for the benefit of amateur radio operators worldwide.

73,
Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
AMSAT VP Operations / OSCAR Number Administrator

AO-95 https://www.amsat.org/tlm/leaderboard.php?id=3&db=FOXDB

Frequencies of amateur radio satellites on the same launch as AO-95
https://amsat-uk.org/2018/11/14/ssoa-amateur-radio-satellites/

Nov 9 2018

Fox-1Cliff scheduled for launch on SSO-A mission

Fox-1Cliff CubeSat

Fox-1Cliff CubeSat

AMSAT is counting down to the launch of the next Fox-1 satellite, Fox-1Cliff.

The launch of Spaceflight’s SSO-A SmallSat Express mission, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base is scheduled for 18:31:47 GMT on Monday, December 3.

It is planned to launch 15 microsatellites and 56 CubeSats on this mission, some with amateur radio payloads. A full list of satellites to be deployed, can be found at https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/content/-/article/sso-a

Information on IARU coordinated satellite frequencies can be found at http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/

Fox-1Cliff carries the Fox-1 U/v FM repeater, AMSAT’s L-Band Downshifter, the flight spare of the AO-85 Vanderbilt University Low Energy Proton (LEP) radiation experiment, and the standard Fox-1 Penn State University–Erie MEMS gyroscope experiment. Virginia Tech provided a VGA camera which is the same as AO-92’s but will provide images at a higher 640 x 480 resolution. Additional information about the launch and early operations phase (LEOP) will be released prior to launch.

As part of the preparations for the launch of Fox-1Cliff, AMSAT is making the “Getting Started With Amateur Satellites” book available for a limited time as a download with any paid new or renewal membership purchased via the AMSAT Store. This offer is only
available with purchases completed online, and for only a limited time. A perennial favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the latest amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of satellite operation. The 186 page book is presented in PDF format, in full color, and covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham radio satellite.

Please take advantage of this offer today by visiting the AMSAT store at https://www.amsat.org/shop/ and selecting any membership option.

While there, check out AMSAT’s other items, including the M2 LEOpack antenna system, Arrow antennas, AMSAT shirts, and other swag. Be sure to view your cart before going to checkout. If you add a membership and then go directly to checkout, you’ll never see an option to add your free gift.

Fox-1Cliff is named in honor of long-time AMSAT member, contributor, and benefactor Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR (SK), who passed away in 2016. Cliff’s contributions to AMSAT and other amateur satellite programs, including serving as an adviser during the initial development of the CubeSat specification at California Polytechnic State University, earned him the Lifetime Achievement Award from Project OSCAR in 2006.

Source AMSAT News Service https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans