So let me play devils advocate here for a second or three. When I was watching the stream, it sure looked like they didn't really give a rats ass about the satellite. The fact that these spacewalks don't occur every day tells me that there's some effort behind them. So how can it be that the folks responsible did not have their act together and check something truly obvious like .. uhm .. an antenna? I mean it's not like we're talking about a software bug that only could've been uncovered after it was all done. No, we're talking about an external, visible and physical thing.
Now here's the rub. If AMSAT paid for it (to which degree and what percentage doesn't really matter) and the satellite does not have the desired and expected (and paid for) functionality because either it was damaged during the deployment or before (also doesn't really matter) who will refund AMSAT? Even more important what's the follow up to this?
I sure did not get the impression that it was a well coordinated mission. The communication between the two seemed a bit .. well let's say unprofessional.
Cheers, Mike K5TRI
On Aug 3, 2011, at 4:06 PM, Andy Kellner wrote:
No .. Linear .. Transponder !
Thank you very much Alexander Samokutyaev, Sergei Volkov and Roscosmos for a job well done.
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