Australis-OSCAR 5 (a.k.a. AO-5) is an

amateur radio satellite An amateur radio satellite is an artificial satellite built and used by amateur radio operators. It forms part of the Amateur-satellite service. These satellites use amateur radio frequency allocations to facilitate communication between amate ...

that was launched into

Low Earth Orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

on 23 January 1970 by a Thor Delta launcher from

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145), USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in K ...

Lompoc, California Lompoc ( ; Chumash: ''Lum Poc'') is a city in Santa Barbara County, California. Located on the Central Coast, Lompoc has a population of 43,834 as of July 2021. Lompoc has been inhabited for thousands of years by the Chumash people, who called ...

. AO-5 was launched piggyback with

TIROS-M TIROS-M, also known as ITOS-1 was a weather satellite operated by the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA). It was part of a series of satellites called ITOS, or improved TIROS. TIROS-M was launched on a Delta rocket on January 23 ...

(ITOS-1)

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asynchronously), or ge ...

Spacecraft

Built by students at The

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Battery powered, Australis-OSCAR 5 transmitted

telemetry Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...

on both 2 meter (144.050 MHz at 50 mW) and 10 meter (29.450 MHz at 250 mW) bands that operated for 23 and 46 days respectively. Passive magnetic

attitude Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value * Metaphysics of presence * Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a pro ...

stabilization was performed by carrying two bar

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

s to align with the Earth's

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

in order to provide a favorable antenna

footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. They ...

. The University of Melbourne compiled tracking reports from hundreds of stations in 27 countries.

Firsts

* First amateur satellite to be remotely controlled. * First amateur satellite launch coordinated by new

AMSAT AMSAT is a name for amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide, but in particular the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) with headquarters at Washington, D.C. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then opera ...

organization. * Switch to Arabic numbering for this and future OSCAR satellites, from earlier Roman numeral usage (I, II, III, IV) by Project Oscar.

Notes

* David Bellair and Stephen Howard, "Australis Oscar - Its Design, Construction and Operation," QST, July 1969, pp 58–61 * David Bellair and Stephen Howard, "Obtaining Data from Australis-Oscar 5," QST, August 1969, pp 70, 72, 82 * Jan King, "Proposed Experiments with Australis-Oscar 5," QST, December 1969, pp 54–55 * "Strays", QST, March 1970, p. 86 (a bibliography on AO-5) * William Dunkerley Jr., "Australis Oscar 5: The Launch Story," QST, April 1970, p. 61 * Ray Soifer, "Australis-Oscar 5 Ionospheric Propagation Results", QST, October 1970, pp 54–57 * Jan King, "Australis-Oscar 5 Spacecraft Performance", QST, December 1970, pp 64–69

References

{{OSCAR satellites Satellites of Australia 1970 in Australia Amateur radio satellites Spacecraft launched in 1970