The 2013 Dayton Hamvention, sponsored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association will be held this year on May 17-19, 2013. “Dayton” is the largest hamfest in the United States, and AMSAT will be there again this year. You can assist AMSAT by volunteering to help staff the booth. While there, you will meet other AMSAT members, interact with the satellite designers, builders, and operators, and enjoy all that Dayton has to offer.
AMSAT News
AMSAT Now Preparing for Two Launch Opportunities
AMSAT’s focus on STEM education and development of a cubesat platform capable of flying a science mission with a reliable communications link resulted in our previous selection of Fox-1 in the third round and RadFxSat (Fox-1B) in the recent fourth round of NASA’s Cubesat Launch Initiative. Actual launch vehicle selections are dependent on the availability of auxiliary payload space and on what orbits are required.
AMSAT VP Engineering Tony Monteiro reports that he has been in conversation with NASA about our orbital preferences/priorities and we’re awaiting a response from NASA as to a specific launch selection. In the meantime, the engineering team expects to complete Fox-1 in 2013 and have RadFxSat ready in the 2nd half of 2014 in order to take advantage of launch opportunities that may be offered by NASA.
RadFxSat/Fox-1B Proposal Accepted by NASA
I am pleased to announce that our NASA ELaNa proposal for RadFxSat/Fox-1B has been accepted.
Here is the NASA announcement. Note that the projects are listed in alphabetical order, not priority order.Look for “Vanderbilt and AMSAT.”
NASA Announces Fourth Round of CubeSat Space Mission Candidates
We requested a launch in 2014.
-Tony Monteiro AA2TX
AMSAT and Virginia Tech Sign Collaboration Agreement
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (“Virginia Tech”) and Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (“AMSAT”) signed a Collaboration Agreement on February 4, 2013 that establishes a relationship for future projects in the development of space hardware, software, algorithms, documentation of same and an agreement to protect each other by protecting ITAR-covered materials and identifying same for the other. The agreement was signed by AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW and Virginia Tech Assistant Vice President for Sponsored Programs Administration John Rudd.