[jamsat-news:3856] [ANS] ANS-025 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT Responds to Planned Decommissioning of IO-117 (GreenCube)

[Paul Stoetzer via ANS]

*AMSAT *News Service Special Bulletin*ANS-025*
*January 25, 2024*

In this edition:

   - AMSAT Responds to Planned Decommissioning of IO-117 (GreenCube)

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------------------------------
AMSAT Responds to Planned Decommissioning of IO-117 (GreenCube)
We were saddened to learn this morning that S5Lab plans to decommission
IO-117 (GreenCube) and execute a passivation operation on February 5, 2024.
AMSAT stands ready to leverage our decades of experience and work with
S5Lab, AMSAT Italia, other AMSAT organizations, and the amateur satellite
community at large to overcome any obstacles, regulatory or otherwise, to
keeping IO-117 in service for as long as possible. This afternoon, AMSAT
President Robert Bankston, KE4AL, sent the following letter to S5Lab
expressing our desire to provide any support we can to keep the satellite
in operation.

January 25, 2024

Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory (S5Lab)
Sapienza University of Rome
Via Email

To The GreenCube Team:

Over the past 13+ months, amateur satellite operators around the world have
enjoyed the use of the digipeater on GreenCube (IO-117). As amateur radio’s
first satellite in a medium earth orbit (MEO), it has opened worldwide
long-distance contacts via amateur radio satellite that had not been
possible since the loss of AMSAT-OSCAR 40 in 2004. As this letter is being
written, a DXpedition to Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean has made
contact with several hundred amateur operators around the world – the first
activation of this rare location on amateur satellite in over 30 years.
AMSAT and the amateur satellite community greatly appreciate your team
making this wonderful resource available.

Not only has this satellite been a great resource to the amateur community,
but the amateur community has also assisted GreenCube’s mission by
uploading millions of frames of data received – including much data from
when the satellite is not within the primary ground station’s footprint.

Launches above low earth orbit are rarely available for amateur satellite
missions. Since the first amateur radio satellite launched in 1962, fewer
than ten have gone to orbits beyond LEO and only QO-100 (available to only
part of the world) and IO-117 remain in service.

Due to the unique orbit and capabilities, we request that S5Lab postpone
the scheduled passivation operation and keep the satellite’s digipeater in
service. Amateur satellites have a long tradition of extended lifetimes.
Amateur radio operators still utilize AMSAT-OSCAR 7 – launched nearly fifty
years ago in 1974 – for communications on a daily basis. Many other amateur
radio satellites have been actively used for ten to twenty years. AMSAT
stands ready to leverage our 55 years of experience in managing amateur
radio satellites and work with S5Lab, AMSAT Italia, other AMSAT
organizations, and the amateur satellite community at large to overcome any
obstacles, regulatory or otherwise, to keeping GreenCube in service for as
long as possible.

Sincerely,

Robert Bankston, KE4AL
President
Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT)
A PDF copy of this letter can be found at
https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Letter-from-AMSAT-to-S5Lab-25-Jan-2024.pdf

*[ANS thanks AMSAT President Robert Bankston, KE4AL, for the above
information]*
------------------------------

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*73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!*

*This week's ANS Editor,*

*Paul Stoetzer, N8HM*
*n8hm [at] amsat.org <http://amsat.org>*

*ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H
Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002*

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