Cosmos launch scheduled for 17 April 1997

Eric Rosenberg (erosenberg@orbcomm.net)
Fri, 04 Apr 97 12:47:22 est

Volunteer In Technical Assitance and Final Analysis (both are former 
employers) are scheduled to launch their VITASAT-1R/FAISAT-2v satellite 
on a Cosmos launcher from Plesetsk on Thursday, April 17th. The 
satellite was scheduled to arrive in Omsk today to begin final 
integration (attachment of solar panels and antennas) prior to launch.

The satellite is a secondary payload to a military navigational 
satellite. In fact, they are physically attached to the top of the 
primary payload and deployed on command from it. 

I'd be interested to know if anyone has a launch profile for this 
vehicle...final position is scheduled for 83 degrees inclination at 
a height of 1000 km.  This is the same orbit as Astrid and FAIsat-1 went 
on in early 1995. 

For those interested in listening to VITASAT-1R/FAISAT-2v, the downlinks 
are 400.62 MHz (primary) and 400.55 MHz (secondary). If I remember 
correctly, it will be sending data at 4800 bps GMSK.

Eric
Washington, DC  
wd3q@amsat.org