Amsat News Service is pleased to report that SEDSAT-1, signifying Students for the Exploration and Development of Space Satellite number one, was successfully launched and placed in orbit on Saturday, October 24, 1998. The spacecraft flew as a secondary passenger along with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space One mission aboard a Delta II booster.
SEDSAT-1 includes Amateur Radio configurations for digital packet store-and-forward, analog parrot repeater and Mode A and Mode L transponders.
According to Chris Lewicki, KC7NYV, Program Manager at the University of Arizona Student Satellite Project, SEDSAT-1 "appears to be performing well." Chris tells ANS that the ground-station crew in Tucson had a number of problems receiving data on the very first pass, although their counterparts in Florida did have audio confirmation of telemetry during the pass. On the second orbit both crews we were able to verify the audio of the SEDSAT-1 heartbeat. The third pass proved fruitful as each team successfully decoded the telemetry from the craft.
Data received reveals that the satellite is operating at a nominal main voltage with reasonable temperature and successful boot-ups of several processes. A minor anomaly is showing slightly more power drain than expected.
