SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS013
ARLS013 RadFxSat (Fox-1B) Launch Scrubbed Again, but More Foxes are on the Way!

ZCZC AS13
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 013  ARLS013
> From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT  November 15, 2017
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS013
ARLS013 RadFxSat (Fox-1B) Launch Scrubbed Again, but More Foxes are on the Way!

The launch of the already-delayed United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket
that will transport the RadFxSat (Fox-1B) CubeSat carrying an AMSAT Amateur
Radio payload and other payloads into orbit was scrubbed on November 14, with
just over 15 minutes to liftoff.

"The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the JPSS-1
mission for NASA and NOAA was scrubbed today, due to a range safety hold and
high upper-level winds," ULA said in a tweet. "The team is working to establish
a new launch opportunity." ULA said weather balloons found that upper-level
wind conditions "are red for the launch window, causing today's attempt to be
scrubbed."

The launch was postponed on November 6 due to a faulty battery on the booster.
RadFxSat is one of four CubeSats making up the NASA Educational Launch of
Nanosatellites (ELaNa) XIV mission, riding as secondary payloads aboard the
Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)-1 mission, set to launch from Vandenberg
Air Force Base, California.

RadFxSat is a partnership with Vanderbilt University's Institute for Space and
Defense Electronics (ISDE) and hosts four payloads for the study of radiation
effects on commercial off-the-shelf components. It will carry a Fox-1 style FM
U/V repeater with an uplink on 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS) and a downlink on
145.960 MHz. Satellite and experiment telemetry will be downlinked via the DUV
subaudible telemetry stream, which can be decoded using FoxTelem software.

To keep up with launch updates, call the ULA launch hotline, (877) 852-4321,
via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, with #DeltaII and #JPSS1.

Meanwhile, progress continues on getting future Fox payloads into space. On
November 6, AMSAT Vice-President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, delivered
Fox-1D to Spaceflight, Inc in Seattle, where it was integrated into its
Innovative Solutions in Space QuadPack for delivery to India. Fox-1D will
launch on the next ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) flight, scheduled
to take place by the end of December.

In addition to the Fox-1 U/V FM transponder, Fox-1D will carry several
university experiments, including a MEMS gyro from Pennsylvania State
University-Erie, a camera from Virginia Tech, and the University of Iowa's High
Energy Radiation CubeSat Instrument (HERCI) radiation mapping experiment.

Fox-1D also carries the AMSAT "L-Band Downshifter," which gives the option of
utilizing a 1.2 GHz uplink for the FM transponder.

The NASA ELaNa XX mission that will carry RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) into orbit will
take place no earlier than the end of next March, AMSAT reported recently. The
ELaNa XX mission will carry 12 CubeSats
constructed by NASA and by several universities around the US. That mission
will be launched by Virgin Galactic on its LauncherOne air launch to orbit
system from Mojave, California. Like RadFxSat
(Fox-1B), RadFxSat-2 is a partnership opportunity between Vanderbilt
University's ISED and AMSAT and will carry a similar radiation effects
experiment, studying new FinFET technology.

RadFxSat-2 will be the fifth Fox-1 satellite built by AMSAT. Fox-1A, now
AMSAT-OSCAR 85 (AO-85), was launched on October 8, 2015 and is fully
operational, providing science data from its onboard experiments and FM
transponder service for the Amateur Radio community. Fox-1Cliff and Fox-1D are
scheduled to launch soon.

The RadFxSat-2 spacecraft bus will be built on the Fox-1 series but will
feature a linear transponder upgrade to replace the standard FM transponder
used in Fox-1A through Fox-1D. In addition, the uplink and down-link bands will
be reversed from the previous Fox satellites in a Mode V/U (J). The downlink
will feature a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry channel to carry the Vanderbilt science
data in
addition to a 30-kHz wide transponder for Amateur Radio use.

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/EX

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