RAFT 1 (Navy-OSCAR 60)

Spacecraft n°:

US spacecraft n°:

Launch data:

Description:

• Radar Fence Transponder (also called Navy-OSCAR 60 or RAFT 1) was an amateur radio satellite that was developed and built for training purposes at the United States Naval Academy. The 3 kg (6.6 lb) heavy RAFT had a cubic structure of 12.7 cm (5.0 in) edge length and therefore did not meet the Cubesat standard. Solar cells on all six sides of the satellite were used to supply energy. It had neither position control nor drive systems.
• RAFT contained a receiver at 216.98 MHz for calibration experiments of the U.S. Navy Space Surveillance Radar. For amateur radio connections there was an AX.25 digipeater on 145.825 MHz with built-in speech synthesizer on board.
• Two fixed antennas equipped with springs were used for communication and also as a separation system for the almost identical sister satellite MARScom. Furthermore, a 122 cm (48 in) long wire antenna made of 0.5 mm (0.020 in) nitinol wire for the 10 m amateur radio band was unwound on shortwave during the disconnection process, with which the satellite received signals in the PSK31 operating mode.

Mission details:

• RAdar Fence Transponder, cubesat released from cargo bay of Shuttle Discovery STS-116 on 2006 Dec 20.12.