Disappointment Immediately after Liftoff

Taiwan's PARUS T1A satellite was to become one of the newest FM repeaters in space but it never got a chance. The rocket launch was aborted by Japanese startup Space One right after liftoff on Wednesday, December 17th. The rocket destroyed itself, according to news reports. Engineer Mamoru Endo, a company executive, said that an autonomous safety mechanism triggered the destruction, likely after a first-stage engine or control system abnormality caused the rocket to become unstable.

Hams worldwide had anticipated the eventual orbit of 3U CubeSat which had an FM crossband repeater and an APRS digipeater on 145.825 MHz, the same frequency as the International Space Station's APRS channel.

Meanwhile, the amateur satellite known as PARUS T1 is being scheduled for launch by SpaceX in January, carrying an APRS store-and-forward system.

Both satellites were student projects at National Formosa University.

MESAT1 Amateur Satellite in Orbit

A satellite of interest to the amateur radio community is MESAT1. Built by the University of Maine, in cooperation with AMSAT, this satellite carries a 30 kHz wide V/U Transponder plus a 1k2 BPSK telemetry downlink. Telemetry downlink 435.800 MHz with transponder downlink 435.810-435.840 MHz, and transponder uplink 145.910-145.940 MHz. Amateurs are encouraged to use AMSAT’s FoxTelem software to collect telemetry.

AMSAT - https://www.amsat.org/

Company Announces Bluetooth Connection to Satellite

A company based in Seattle, Washington has achieved an unprecedented long-distance connection in space with a satellite - via Bluetooth technology.

Using a software patch upgrade to some off-the-shelf Bluetooth chips, the Hubble Network in Seattle has achieved what it calls the first low-power Bluetooth connection with a satellite orbiting the Earth. The signals travelled a distance of more than 600km - or 370 miles - prompting Hubble's CEO and cofounder Alex Haro to say in a recent press release that the Seattle company had debunked sceptics' belief that such a feat was impossible. A press release from the company this month heralded the achievement as "critical validation for the company, potentially opening the door to connecting millions more devices anywhere in the world.”

Hubble Network said it began receiving the signals shortly after the satellites' launch in March. Hubble hopes it will be able to present an option for communications with global coverage creating less battery drain and lower operating costs.

Source - https://www.arnewsline.org/