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Defunct British Low Earth Orbit Satellite From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UoSAT-3, also known as UO-14 and OSCAR-14, is a British satellite in Low Earth Orbit. It was built by a spin-off company of the University of Surrey, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and launched in January 1990 from French Guiana.[1] The satellite functioned as one of a series of OSCAR satellite in orbit around the Earth, as well as observing Earth and performing scientific experiments.[2]
Mission type | OSCAR |
---|---|
Operator | University of Surrey |
COSPAR ID | 1990-005B[1] |
SATCAT no. | 20437 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Manufacturer | SSTL |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 22 January 1990, 01:35:27 UTC |
Rocket | Ariane 40[2] |
Launch site | Kourou ELA-2 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Sun-synchronous |
Perigee altitude | 776 km (482 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 792 km (492 mi) |
Inclination | 98.7491 degrees |
Period | 100.5 minutes |
Epoch | 15 April 2019, 21:11 UTC[3] |
UoSAT-3 was launched on the same rocket as its sister satellite, UoSAT-4.[2]
UoSAT-3 exceeded its expected operational life by 3 years and ceased active service in 1999.[4] However, amateur radio enthusiasts managed to track the satellite for a certain amount of time afterwards via the satellite's FM voice transponder.[4]
The satellite, which is now non-operational, forms a part of the growing amounts of space debris orbiting around the Earth. The payload will decay in the Earth's atmosphere some time in the future.
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