SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS001<br />ARLS001 Useful life of UO-22 satellite appears over<br /><br />ZCZC AS01 <br />QST de W1AW <br />Space Bulletin 001 ARLS001<br />From ARRL Headquarters <br />Newington, CT January 19, 2005<br />To all radio amateurs<br /><br />SB SPACE ARL ARLS001<br />ARLS001 Useful life of UO-22 satellite appears over<br /><br />According to AMSAT-UK, the UO-22 satellite is not in good shape and<br />its useful life may be over. The Surrey Satellite Technology Limited<br />(SSTL) Ground Station control center has tried several times in<br />recent weeks to reactivate the satellite, AMSAT-UK reports. The<br />satellite did come back to life briefly following one attempt, but<br />other tries have failed completely.<br /><br />The SSTL ground control station may make further attempts to<br />reactivate UO-22, ''but it seems unlikely that they will be<br />completely successful.'' The cause of the satellite's failure is not<br />known for certain, but SSTL believes it may be related either to the<br />spacecraft's batteries or to the fact that the satellite is very hot<br />due to orbital precession, which has generally put the spacecraft in<br />full sunlight. The elevated temperature has been causing problems<br />with the receivers as well as with the batteries.<br /><br />Launched on July 17, 1991, UO-22 has served for many years as the<br />9600 baud store-and-forward satellite for the Amateur Radio packet<br />radio worldwide SatGate service, which linked packet radio networks<br />in many countries. AMSAT-NA reports UO-22 as ''non-operational.''<br /><br />For further information on UO-22 contact Jim Heck, G3WGM, via email<br />at, g3wgm@amsat.org.<br />NNNN<br />/EX