UO-14 Satellite Declared Dead

ARRL writes "The UO-14 satellite has been declared officially dead. The Mission Control Centre at the Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) Center for Satellite Engineering Research reports that the venerable and popular bird "has reached the end of its mission after nearly 14 years in orbit." "Since launch, UO-14 has completed over 72,000 orbits and as many charge/discharge cycles of its on-board NiCd battery," said AMSAT-UK Chairman Martin Sweeting, G3YJO. AMSAT-NA has said that its new ECHO satellite, planned for launch next March 31, will take over the role of the now-defunct AO-27 and UO-14 low-Earth-orbiting satellites."

Comments

junk

[martin]

oh good more space junk to avoid when I win the X-Prize :-)

Re:72,000 charging cycles?

[n1ywb]

You don't, it craps out after 71999.

UO-huh?

[Palshife]

The UO-14 satellite has been declared officially dead.

Since I never heard it declared alive, I'll assume we're all not about to die.

I mean, at least I've heard of FreeBSD...

Re:WTF is UO-14?

[pmz]

I assume I'm not the only one who didn't instantly know what UO-14 did.

You are the only one. All the rest of us have been using it to watch your life from the day you were born. We were shocked when it went out and thought you were dead, but you can't imagine our relief upon seeing your post!

Re:*Taps plays softly on a bugle*

[babbage]

I really need to get some 1.2 and 2.4 ghz equipment.

...that, and a life...

:-) :-) :-)

14

[skinfitz]

"The UO-14 satellite has been declared officially dead. The Mission Control Centre at the Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) Center for Satellite Engineering Research reports that the venerable and popular bird "has reached the end of its mission after nearly 14 years in orbit."

I guess we know what the "14" was for then. Perhaps they should have used a bigger number...