SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS009
ARLS009 ARTSAT2: DESPATCH Satellite is Now FO-81

ZCZC AS09  
QST de W1AW  
Space Bulletin 009  ARLS009
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington, CT  December 18, 2014
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS009
ARLS009 ARTSAT2: DESPATCH Satellite is Now FO-81

AMSAT-NA has designated the ARTSAT2: DESPATCH (DEep SPace Amateur
Troubadour's CHallenge) satellite as Fuji OSCAR 81 or FO-81. OSCAR
Number Administrator Bill Tynan, W3XO, said the Japanese deep-space
satellite "appears to have met all of the requirements for an OSCAR
number, including IARU coordination." Tynan said he applied the
"Fuji" designation "in recognition of the long history of
contributions the Japanese have made to Amateur Radio satellites."

Launched on December 3, FO-81 is the second spacecraft in the ARTSAT
series. It went into space with the Hayabusa-2 asteroid probe. A
primary mission of DESPATCH is to collect signals from the
spacecraft from around the world and to reconstruct the original
data transmitted from the spacecraft. "Reception of such weak
signals to reconstruct data from the spacecraft will require the
expertise of exceptionally skilled ham operators," the satellite's
developers have said in seeking the cooperation radio amateurs
around the world.

Further information on FO-81 can be found on the web at,
http://despatch.artsat.jp/en/Main_Page .
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