On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 10:46 AM, wa4hfn@comcast.net wrote:

...

Time to have a FUND raiser for a new bird

Somebody just asked me, how much is it to develop/launch a new bird?

Anybody care to share some concrete numbers?

-aps

AO-51 cost in the neighborhood of 400,000 dollars to build and launch.

Our current project, Fox, is designed as a replacement for the V/U repeater on AO-51, and as a multi-function RF system for other cubesats. The idea is to provide better quality RF systems for university cubes, and maybe after their mission they can retask their satellite to two-way amateur service, either as a repeater, transponder, or digital. There is a fundraiser widget on the front page of amsat.org for Fox, and in several other places around the web and on other websites. You can even add it to your own webpage.

Fox is a 1U cubesat, about 1kg in mass. We expect launch costs alone to be from 30,000 to 70,000 dollars. Compare that to the number on the fundraising widget, and you can see how far we have to go. There are many donations that have been made outside of the widget, but the gap is still large.

The Dayton ARA has been kind enough to offer a matching donation to AMSAT, 3:1 up to 5,000 dollars. So, whether you are headed to Dayton this week or not, your donation to AMSAT will be 33% matched automatically. Drop a few dollars through the widget next time you cruise by the AMSAT website, and help us make Fox a reality. Join AMSAT if you haven't already. Too few of the everyday users of our satellites are AMSAT members. Membership helps support AMSAT and our goals to keep amateur radio in space, and if you are a regular user of satellites like AO-51, you should really support the organization with your membership dollars.

73, Drew KO4MA