AMSAT News

RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) Launch Scheduled for December 2017

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AMSAT has been informed that the launch for the NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) XX mission carrying RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) has been scheduled for December 2017.

In addition to RadFxSat-2, the ELaNa XX mission will carry 12 CubeSats constructed both by NASA and several universities around the United States. The mission will be launched by Virgin Galactic on their LauncherOne air launch to orbit system from Mojave, CA

RadFxSat-2, like RadFxSat (Fox-1B), is a partnership opportunity between the Vanderbilt University Institute for Space and Defense Electronics and AMSAT and will carry a similar radiation effects experiment, studying new FinFET technology.

RadFxSat-2 will be the fifth Fox-1 satellite built by AMSAT. Fox-1A, now AMSAT-OSCAR 85 (AO-85), was launched on October 8, 2015 and is fully operational, providing science data from it’s onboard experiments and FM transponder service for the amateur radio community. Fox-1Cliff and Fox-1D are scheduled for launch this fall and RadFxSat is scheduled to launch in early 2017.

The RadFxSat-2 spacecraft bus will be built on the Fox-1 series but will feature a linear transponder “upgrade” to replace the standard FM transponder in Fox-1A through D. In addition, the uplink and downlink bands will be reversed from the previous Fox satellites in a Mode V/u (J) configuration using a 2 meter uplink and 70 cm downlink. The downlink will feature a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry channel to carry the Vanderbilt science data in addition to a 30 kHz wide transponder for amateur radio use.

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RadFxSat “Tour” on YouTube

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Vice President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, gave a live “tour” of the RadFxSat CubeSat on August 20 from Fox Labs, describing various aspects of the flight model, construction, and testing.

The video playback is available on YouTube.

RadFxSat (Fox-1B) Nearing Completion

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RadFxSat flight unit has been assembled and is going through various stages of testing before it is put through environmental (shock, vibe, bakeout) testing in August  for completion in early September.  Launch is scheduled for January 20, 2017.

In a recent test stop in Fox Labs for a few days, most of the testing was streamed live on YouTube to give enthusiasts an opportunity to “look over the shoulder” of VPE Jerry Buxton, N0JY as he conducted tests on the flight unit along with other Fox Engineering Team members on GoToMeeting.

If you missed the live video, you can view the archives at

http://www.youtube.com/c/n0jy/live

RadFxSat is expected to be back in Fox Labs around August 11 for another round of tests and it is planned to have live streaming during those tests as well.

View of live streaming from YouTube
View of live streaming from YouTube

Take Advantage of the Timing: Attend the ARISS International Face-to-face Meeting

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If you plan to be on the 2016 AMSAT Space Symposium Cruise, you have the perfect opportunity to attend the ARISS-International Face-to-face Meeting in Houston. The ARISS meeting was purposely scheduled immediately following the cruise to allow Symposium attendees to take advantage of already being near Houston.

The ARISS-International Face-to-face Meeting takes place on November 15-18 in the ISS Conference Facility at 1800 Space Park Drive, Nassau Bay, TX 77058, across the street from the NASA Johnson Space Center gate.

A special tour of NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) will be hosted on Monday afternoon, November 14.

The scheduling of the ARISS-I meeting following the AMSAT Space Symposium is meant to encourage symposium attendees to attend the ARISS-I meeting as observers. Meetings are always open to the public. There is no registration fee.

The meeting coincides also with ARISS’s 20 th anniversary. In November 1996, the first international ARISS meeting took place at NASA JSC. At this year’s meeting, ARISS will commemorate its 20 successful years.

ARISS will soon distribute a web link for taking advantage of a special room rate at the Hampton Inn & Suites-Clear Lake/NASA at 506 W, Bay Area Blvd, Webster, TX 77598. Hotel rooms can be shared to save money. The Hampton Inn is near JSC and transportation for the special JSC tour will be coordinated to and from the hotel among the team.

The detailed meeting agenda is still being worked and will center around ARISS’s hardware development project and future initiatives, sustaining ARISS in the future through strategic partnerships and fundraising, and making a quantum improvement in educational outcomes. Other topics and discussions will be held on:

-How ARISS can leverage into an international effort the phenomenal outcomes the ARISS United Kingdom team members achieved during Astronaut Tim Peake’s mission.

-Educating the international team on the expectations of ARISS’s new benefactors, NASA Space Communications and Navigation and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space

-A celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of ARISS at the NASA Johnson Space Center

-Additional topics critical to the future of ARISS.

The ARISS team welcomes all AMSAT members and the public to the ARISS-International Face-to- face Meeting. ARISS hopes attendees will decide to begin volunteering after learning what ARISS is all about

Those interested in coming on November 15-18 can e-mail Rosalie White ([email protected]) or Frank Bauer ([email protected]).

AMSAT thanks Rosalie White, K1STO, for the above information.

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