STENSAT (Picosat 6)

Launch data: Designation 26091 / 00004J Launch date 27 Jan 2000 - 03:03 UT Launch site Va, SLC-8 Launch vehicle Minotaur (#1) Mission Technology Earth orbit on Feb 14, 2000: Perigee / Apogee  751 x 804 km Eccentricity  0.004 Inclination  100.22 deg Period  100.40 min

Specifications

Mission details:

• OPAL′s (Orbiting Picosat Automatic Launcher) primary mission is to test the feasibility of launching 6 picosatellites from a mothership satellite (Stensat, MENS, Artemis). The 0.5 kg Stensat, built by an AMSAT-NA group, carries an amateur radio transponder. The DARPA/Aerospace Corp. MEMS (Micro Electro-mechanical Systems) picosatellites (2 of them), carry an intersatellite communications experiment and are connected by a 30-m tether. Santa Clara University's Artemis payload consists of 3 picosatellites (Jak (200 g), Thelma (500 g) and Louise (500 g)) that carry a VLF wave experiment.
  
• OPAL uses a mechanical launching system to eject three hockey-puck sized picosats.
• The JAK and STENSAT picosats were ejected from OPAL on Feb 11 at 05:10 UT.
  
• Downlink: 436.625 MHz, Uplink: 145.84 MHz, "J" FM voice repeater