The Mission Control Centre at SSTL at the Surrey Space Centre reports that UoSAT-OSCAR-14 has finally reached the end of its mission after nearly 14 years in orbit.
Launched on 22 January 1990 by Ariane, UO-14 was the first 9k6 bps amateur data communications satellite and pioneered the PACSAT communications concept. After approximately 18 months in orbit, UO-14 was switched to commercial frequencies for humanitarian use for Satellite and it was used by them until 1997 when it was switched back to amateur use as an FM repeater where it remained until now.
Since launch, UO-14 has completed over 72,000 orbits and
many charge/discharge cycles of its on-board NiCd battery, however recently one of the battery cells has become
exhausted and can no longer support continuous operation of the repeater (the transmitter shuts down shortly after it is commanded ON due to undervoltage) so the microsatellite s mission has been terminated.
Thank you UO-14 for your long service!
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Professor Sir Martin Sweeting OBE FRS G3YJO
Chairman, AMSAT-UK
73
Richard W L Limebear G3RWL
g3rwl@amsat.org
FOC # 1188
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