Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship SATellite
Launch data:
| Designation
|
23711
/ 95059B
|
|
Launch
date
| 04
Nov 1995
|
| Launch site | Va, SLC-2W |
| Launch vehicle |
Delta-7920-10 (#229) |
| Mission | Scientific |
| Earth orbit: |
|
Perigee/Apogee
|
934/1494
km
|
|
Inclination
|
100.6°
|
|
Period
|
109
min
|
|
Mass
at launch
|
55 kg
|
Surfsat is bolted to Delta's second stage. It has its own solar cells and is not electricaly dependent of Delta.
Surfsat will be used as a test vehicle for NASA, supporting deep space communications research and training of tracking station personnel at NASA's Deep Space Network. The Deep Space Network transponders will operate in Ka-band at 32 GHz (atmospheric studies). The VLBI transponders (X- and Ku-band) will enable testing of ground equipment for VSOP (Japan) and Radioastron (Russian project).
Designed by Caltech undergraduates with the help of JPL.
Ref: #7, #15 - update: 24.10.04