UoSAT-3, also known as UO-14 and OSCAR-14, is a British satellite in

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 ...

. It was built by a spin-off company of the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...

Surrey Satellite Technology Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space. The company began ...

(SSTL) and launched in January 1990 from

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

. The satellite functioned as one of a series of

OSCAR Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

satellite in orbit around the Earth, as well as observing Earth and performing scientific experiments. UoSAT-3 was launched on the same rocket as its sister satellite, UoSAT-4.

Current Status

UoSAT-3 exceeded its expected operational life by 3 years and ceased active service in 1999. However, amateur radio enthusiasts managed to track the satellite for a certain amount of time afterwards via the satellite's FM voice transponder. The satellite, which is now non-operational, forms a part of the growing amounts of

space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) are defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecr ...

orbiting around the Earth. The payload will decay in the Earth's atmosphere some time in the future.

References

University of Surrey Satellites orbiting Earth Amateur radio satellites Satellites of the United Kingdom Spacecraft launched in 1990 {{UK-spacecraft-stub