ARLA/CLUSTER: OSCAR 5: A história do 1.º satelite de amador australiano

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Australia's first ham radio satellite

Australia's ABC reports on how university students convinced NASA to
launch the Australis OSCAR 5 Amateur Radio satellite

In 1967, a group of students from the Melbourne University
Astronautical Society came up with an idea to build a small amateur
radio satellite.

It was just 10 years after the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, was
launched and Australia had yet to enter the space race. But it was the
hard work and persistence of the young students that convinced NASA to
launch the Australis OSCAR 5 into space.

Now based in Adelaide, the project's coordinator Owen Mace said the
technology at the time was "cutting edge".

"[The satellite would] transmit details about itself — how it was
tumbling, the temperature and the like," Mr Mace told ABC Radio
Adelaide's Nightlife program.

"It carried the first command system of an amateur radio satellite;
for the first time we could control the satellite."

Australis OSCAR 5 was launched by NASA on January 24, 1970.

Read the full story at
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-06/how-uni-students-got-nasa-to-launch-australias-first-satellite/8421480

AMSAT-VK Yahoo Group
https://groups.yahoo.com/group/AmsatVK

Thanks to Murray ZL3MH for spotting this item