SAPPHIRE

SAPPHIRE (Stanford AudioPhonic PHotographic IR Experiment, also called Navy-OSCAR 45) was a satellite built by the Stanford University students in Palo Alto, California.^[1]

Athena 1 rocket launching SAPPHIRE from Kodiak Island, AK.

SAPPHIRE

SAPPHIRE satellite
Mission type	Communications
Operator	USNA / University of Santa Clara
COSPAR ID	2001-043D[1]
SATCAT no.	26932
Mission duration	2 years and 6 months
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Stanford University
Launch mass	16 kg (35 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	30 September 2001, 02:40 UTC
Rocket	Athena 1 LM-001
Launch site	Kodiak LP-1
Contractor	Lockheed Martin
End of mission
Disposal	Decommissioned
Last contact	2005
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Eccentricity	0.0[1]
Altitude	794 km (493 mi)[1]
Inclination	67°[1]
Period	101 minutes[1]
Epoch	30 Sep 2001[1]
OSCAR ← OSCAR 44 OSCAR 46 →

For other uses, see Sapphire (disambiguation).

The satellite was launched on September 30, 2001 together with Starshine 3, PICOSat and PCSat on an Athena 1 rocket at the Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska, United States.

Its purpose was the training of students, the operation of an infrared sensor, a digital camera, a speech synthesizer and from 2002 the operation of an APRS digipeater.^[2] He also served to train midshipmen of the US Naval Academy in the field of satellite control.

The satellite's mission ended in early 2005.

Frequencies

• Uplink: 145.945 MHz
• Downlink: 437.1 MHz
• Mode: 1200 bit/s AFSK
• Call sign: KE6QMD^[3]

See also

• Spaceflight portal

• OSCAR

External links

• Stanford’s First Amateur Satellite. PDF