I am pleased to announce that AMSAT's request to re-distribute AFSPC
Keplerian
elements from SpaceTrack has been approved for the period April 1, 2014 to
April 1, 2015. Our USSTRATCOM ODR (Orbital Data Request) to distribute the
KEPs
was approved on March 13, 2014.
Thanks to AFSPC, Perry Klein, W3PK and Paul Williamson, KB5MU for their help
in this process.
We are "good to go" for another year.
This week I have added the following satellites to the AMSAT KEP
Distribution List:
LITSAT-1 - Cat# 39568
LITUANICASAT-1 - Cat# 39569 (This satellite is listed under the name
LITUANSAT.)
Nico Janssen (PA0DLO) has written a very interesting comment on how Joint
Space Operations Center (JSpOC) is handing the launch of multiple cubesats.
His comments are in the current AMSAT News Service Bulletin ANS-68 in the
third article entitled "Satellite TLE Object ID's". Go to the following URL
to read his insight into JSpOC's process of determining what object is what
spacecraft. It looks like JSpOC will depend more on radio amateur satellite
operators to resolve the identity at least some of the cubesats.
http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=443
The AMSAT KEP Distribution will not change its current data format.
This week the following satellites have been added to the AMSAT KEP
distribution:
SHINDASAT - Cat # 39572
OPUSAT - Cat # 39575
TEIKYOSAT - Cat # 39576
ITF-1 - Cat # 39577
INVADER - Cat # 39578
STARS-II - Cat # 39579
These Japanese amateur radio satellites were launched from the Yoshinobu
Complex at the Tanagashima Space Center on February 27, 2014 at 1837 UT. Use
the following URL for frequencies and further information -
http://tinyurl.com/ANS-061-JapaneseHamSats
The ITF-1 student team is asking for reports on the satellite on 437.525 FM
Morse code. See this URL for more info -
http://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/26/itf-1-cubesat-team-request-reports/
Additionally, on Friday 28, 2014 at 0730 UT another group of cubesats was
launched form the International Space Station (ISS) using a NanoRacks
deployment pod. The Peruvian Chasqui 1 was on board ISS but is it unclear
if it was also deployed. The satellites deployed are as follows:
LituanicaSAT-1
LitSat-1
ArduSat-2 (2U configuration)
UAPSAT and SkyCube
These satellites are very close to ISS at present. The KEPs used for ISS
should work for now. None of these satellites has showed up in the
SpaceTrack list of objects as yet. Too close to ISS????
TNX to AMSAT News Service, Bulletin 061 for most of the above information.
See http://ww2.amsat.org/ for more info.
