Satellite Celebrates 20 Years Working in Orbit 199
lloydwood writes "The UoSAT-2/UO-11 small satellite was launched into low Earth orbit on 1 March 1984 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Twenty years later, it's still in orbit and operational -- and we recently found launch footage. To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of starting in orbit, the original video celebrating the UoSAT-2 launch is available (in windows media and mpeg). Thrill to the computers, the clothes, and the haircuts of 1984. SSTL has launched more than twenty satellites since."
Not quite as amazing as Oscar 7 (Score:5, Interesting)
Incidentally, that launch pad [spaceflightnow.com] is about 3 miles from where I'm sitting. I can see it if I climb up on the antenna tower on the roof, but management got mad last time I did that to watch a launch.
Re:Umm... (Score:3, Interesting)
What exactly does it do? (Score:0, Interesting)
Landsat 5's birthday, too ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Launch Date March 1, 1984
Launch Vehicle Delta 3920
Launch Location Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Weight 1938 kg
Pheakin' bird was inctruckingcredibly sturdy.
Life expectancy (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:FIRST POST! (Score:5, Interesting)
I must post this anonymously.
I was a junior engineer on the UoSAT-2/UO-11 project. Early into the project a group of military people visited us. We were asked various odd questions. This exchange in particular remains strong in my memory:
Military Man: Can we mount a laser into this satellite?
My Boss: No way, that'd require a lot of reenforcement of the tube chamber (back then we didn't have solid state).
Military Man: You could compensate with more fuel for launch. I'll approve it myself.
My Boss: But.. a laser? What size are you talking about and for what?
Military Man: [leans to assistant, whispers back and forth] We can tell you but your juniors [myself and 2 co-workers] will have to leave. [we did]
my boss left the project immediately and worked on a secret payload project overseen by the military. Whatever that bird has in it, it's looking down at us.
Re:Umm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps the kid with his 2-year-old PS2 will have a greater appreciation for a functioning 20-year-old satellite when he has some gear of that age himself.
20 years is nothing. (Score:5, Interesting)
So we have satellites that work after having been dead longer than your satellites have been alive.
Nyeah.
G.
What about Iridium? (Score:2, Interesting)
Landsat 5 (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, as long as we're celebrating, today is the 20th anniversary of the launch of Landsat 5. If you want to talk about a work horse, it has been returning Earth observation data used by scientists everywhere for two decades as well. It just might outlive its successor.
Landsat 5 [spaceimagingme.com]
Oldest working Satellite is 30 years (Score:3, Interesting)
AMSAT-UK is issuing special QSL cards (Score:5, Interesting)
For the non-ham-operators among us, a QSL card (not SQL) is basically a post-card that hams send each other after making contact.
So earlier today, remembering that I had read about the March 1st QSL cards, I pulled up my handy sat prediction software (PREDICT) along with the equally handy gsat client, updated keplerian elements, synced my pc's time so I could achieve the most accurate predictions possible.
Had a good pass of UO-11 with about 50 degrees at elevation at 3:45 this afternoon (20:45 UTC)
So, of course, I submitted my signal report to AMSAT-UK this afternoon. They're going to verify my data, and I get a gold star when they're done. Today, I reached a new pinnacle of geekdom. Long live the hams!
de N1ZPP